The Power of Intention
One of the most amazing scientific discoveries in recent years
is something that spiritually adept people have known for
thousands of years. Your experience of life responds to your
intention.
In the past, you may have heard the word "intention" used to
express a regret. If someone says, "My intention was to be at
work on time," we understand that he arrived late. It's almost
as if the word intention, in this context, brings about the
opposite of what we want.
One of Leo Tolstoy's characters, Ivan Ilych, was a sick man who
realized that being upset only made his symptoms worse. Tolstoy
says of Ivan that, "...he said that he needed peace, and he
watched for everything that might disturb it." Naturally, he got
what he watched for. This great literature shows us our human
tendency to focus our attention on what we don't want.
But if we want to have a wonderful experience of life, it's
crucial that we overcome this tendency. One of the revelations
of modern physics (not to mention ancient spirituality) is that
our observation shapes the very thing that we observe. When we
live from fear, then we let fear shape our lives by what it
observes. On the other hand, if we set a loving intention for
ourselves, then we make it our practice to watch for all that
loves.
When students of quantum mechanics and spiritual seekers speak
of intention, we mean something much more definite than "what we
think we want." In this realm, intention refers to a decision,
which the universe then carries out. Intention is so powerful
that we do not have to force anything. We're not trying to
"make" something happen. We set an intention and trust God or
the Universe to do its job.
One of the most touching examples of the power of intention
comes from a couple that served as foster parents. For a time,
they provided a home to a boy named Stephen, who was, by all
accounts, a compulsive liar. There were lots of reasons, given
his background, for this trait to show up in Stephen's behavior,
mixed in with a child's wonderful imagination and desire to
please. Many people wasted time and energy trying to get Stephen
to admit when he wasn't telling the truth, and they
unconsciously enjoyed their martyrdom when he didn't.
Stephen's foster parents went a completely different route.
Their intention was not to play martyr, but to see Stephen
become honest, and so they treated him as if he was an honest
person. I want to make it clear that these people were not
deluded, and they were not na