We are getting ready to celebrate a wedding in our Community this weekend, and the new couple requested that I speak about intention, the power of intention and what it means to make one's intention. They have made their intention to marry. Saturday they are going to do it, and we will be there to help them out - or to push them over the edge!

Actually, the concept of "intention" is extremely important in the spiritual sciences and in all spiritual practices. It has been said that the first step along the way of spiritual realization starts with the making of one's intention. One's correct intention sets the course, the rhythm, the tone and the way for one's path. Without intention one cannot walk the path. With pure intention, one completes the path. If one's intention is pure enough, one can complete the path upon only making one's intention.

We cannot really begin to understand intention unless we understand its relative, which is "attention." Likewise, we cannot really begin to understand attention unless we understand its relative, which is "energy." These are really three words for the same force, although each one has a slightly different attribute. Intention, attention and energy. Energy is the most general or broad based. Attention is more specific, and intention is the most specific and the most committed.

First, what is energy?

From the point of spiritual understanding, energy is the wave that emanates from the play between the introversal and extroversal motion of any object that is in material or
psychic form. Material means physical and psychic means mental or emotional.

Let us explain this. If you carefully observe your reality, your physical reality which includes your body and environment or your psychic reality which includes your mind and emotions, you will find there is always a flux taking place between a force that feels like a pushing or expanding outward and a force that feels like a pulling or contracting inward.

Look at the most basic example, the breath. The wave that is released from the play between the motion of the expansion and the contraction, or the extroverted activity and the introverted activity, of the breath produces life energy. How do we know? We know this, because by simply taking a breath we gain energy. As a matter of fact, the breath in the human organism is indispensable for energy. That is why I am always yelling at people to breathe. Breathe! Because. . . no breath, no energy. No energy, no mind. No mind, no focus.

As we go through life's path and process, we become increasingly conditioned in our habits and attitudes. As a result of the increased conditioning of life's impressions our breath becomes constricted. The more constricted our breath becomes, the less amount of energy we have to assimilate and the more we constrict. The more we constrict, the more we go into fear.

My first Guru spent more than 5 ½ years without eating any food or drinking water. After he completed his fast he said, "You see, it's not too hard to go without food. It is quite simple. Anyone can do it!" We may have heard before of these kinds of demonstrations and miracle feats. Those of us who have tried fasting for some extended period of time know that one can draw from the energy within to keep the life process going without much food.

So through our own personal experience, we realize that not too much energy really comes from food. Although it is possible, it is more difficult to go without water. Water, the fluid that keeps our body lubricated and hydrated, provides more energy than solid food. However, most people cannot go but a few moments without a breath. There is something right inside the breath itself, between the contraction and the expansion that is releasing energy into our body and minds. If you do not experience or understand what I am saying, try to stop breathing for a while and see how long you can last. You won't last very long.

At the same time, everything in the body down to the molecular level is in a balance between the extroverted and the introverted tendency. This play keeps the body in a kind of kinetic motion, and that motion produces energy. We might say that any object, whether animate or inanimate, is in a state of parallelism and that it exists in balance when the tendency to push-out is balanced with the desire to pull-in. Then there is integrity to the structure. However, it is literally from the motion between these two forces that energy gets created. Look at the motion of an engine. Look at the waves of the ocean. Look at the motion of the wind. Look at the movement of heat, light and fire. Look at the way the seasons change. All of these examples reflect "waves" from them, and when we are with them, in front of them, we experience the quality of those waves as their particular type of energy.

The more unstable a particle, yet if it still has enough introverted force to "keep itself together," the more erratic the energy it reflects - like radioactive materials. Radioactive materials, which are highly unstable, vibrate in tremendous motion. The radioactive particle is trying to blow apart while its own integrity, gravity or introverted force, is trying to keep it together. It produces (releases) enormous amounts of energy.

Energy from a spiritually scientific standpoint, regardless of where the energy comes from, is that which gets liberated from this motion between the apparent polar opposites of duality - in and out, back and forth, left and right, up and down, and male and female. This is the essence of "Tantra" (Sanskrit: A particular school of Yoga). This is the play of duality. The flux that exists in duality between these two polar positions creates waves, and those waves are energy. This is getting very abstract, so now let us be a bit more specific and personal.

What is "attention"? Attention is the general direction of the flow of energy. Energy is simply ambient. It is everywhere, but we cannot necessarily relate to it as "everywhere." We experience energy as attention when we notice its direction. In noticing its direction, we start to tune into the quality of its wave. For instance, there is a certain "energy" that we receive when we notice each other. We give each other attention by the direction of our energy - in other words, by paying attention. We even gain energy out of the approach / avoidance dance we play with others between the attention that we say we want, and the resistance to the attention that we are actually willing to receive. That play releases a new kind of energy like anxiety and fear, which are also forms or qualities of energy and have a particular direction. This likened to the "yes, come here - no, go away' game acted out by couples in their effort to get attention from their partners.

Attention is energy itself in a given direction. Energy as attention literally feeds whatever it is directed toward. Attention delivers energy. It does not matter whether the attention is negative or positive. For example, a child doesn't care whether it is "acting out" or "acting right." What a child desires is attention, desiring energy to come in its direction. Attention is the given direction of energy.

Let's get even more specific and personal now. "Intention" is focused attention. Now a direction has been established, but simply the direction itself does not create enough dynamism to be maintained in an ongoing and steady momentum. It must be focused. The focusing of attention is intention, i.e., the sun, the magnifying glass and the single beam of light. What happens on the other end of the magnifying glass when it is ultimately focused from ambient energy, given a direction, made into a single beam, given a specific focus and is very concentrated? Fire! You get a result.

All of us have understood in one way or another that as our minds think, so they become. This is why we practice the Dhikr chanting (Arabic: Divine Remembrance). We want to help guide the mind to think in a direction that is growing, healthy, expanding and Divine, rather than have the mind be consumed day in and day out with its neuroses. In essence, we are trying to "brainwash" ourselves of the built-up dirt we have collected in our minds. Along the way we have collected an untold amount of "dirt" from the stress of endless social conditioning that has formed countless impressions on our lives causing us to over identify with our thoughts and experiences. We get lost in the things that we think about, so we're no longer separate from them. They become our identities.

Esoteric science teaches us that mental conditioning forms our reality as we are first off born with certain inclinations. After that, we spend a lifetime either acquiring or having other impressions imposed on us. The quality of a person in terms of their resolute and essential make-up, i.e., their personality, how they get along with others and what contribution they make to the world, is the sum total and composite of all the things that they've ever thought about, been part of or experienced.

That composite is the "wave" emanating from that person, and that's the kind of energy that person puts out. For example, "That guy has good vibes," or "I don't like being around him," or "Every time I'm around her, I just feel high" or "You know what, I can't stand listening to her anymore. It makes me sick." What takes place inside of a person, in a person's mind, is the sum of all thoughts, words, actions and experiences as recorded by the mind. Furthermore, the mind perpetuates itself in what in we would call "attitudes" and "habits" to protect the rhythm that this mind has already associated with and identified.

Therefore, as you think so you become. What you spend your time thinking about (consciously or unconsciously) is what you are. It's not what you eat; it is what you think. The mind is such a good recorder - when I say "mind" I'm not talking about the brain, I'm talking about our consciousness - the mind records our thoughts, words and actions for all time and every experience that we ever had. It is absorbent, and accountants for everything. You can't "fake it out."

I like to give the example of a family friend that was scared to death of dogs. She would always try to "make the decision," before she would come in our house, that this time she would be brave, put on a happy face and not be afraid our big dog. She'd walk into the house all tense, in a totally upright position, smiling and what would the dog do? Attack her! You cannot fake out your mind regarding where you're "really at" and what is really happening inside you. This is why one of the most basic of spiritual practices is to strip away all the pretenses of who we say we are, who we think we are and who we're pretending to be. Truth demands that you show up as you actually are.

There is in Spiritual Reality a union of our mind and heart. The Sufis would say that the mind and the heart are truly one and the same. There's no separation, because the "mind" that we're talking about is not intellect. It is the singularity of our consciousness. The relationship that arises between intention and the mind/heart after we have finally woken-up enough and gotten present enough to decide to participate is the process of making a conscious intention - to focus our attention, and therefore our energy, in a specific and given direction.

In life we knowingly or unknowingly make intentions for a given purpose. What purpose? Of course, a spiritual aspirant would tell you, "A spiritual purpose!" And what is that? The spiritual purpose of life is for the realization of one's purpose. Sounds trite I know, and I've joked about it, but there's nothing else going on here. All of you are constantly acting out all of these identities and activities and vocations and avocations and hobbies and relationships and genders and ages and languages and races and preferences and likes and dislikes, yet underneath all of this activity, really only one thing is going on.

That is every single heart is seeking unconditional Love. This longing is the spiritual bond of all purposes, all spiritual activities, all spiritual practices, all spiritual teachings, and it's what all human beings have in common - seeking unconditional Love. You cannot find any motive for anything that you do in your life that is other than that. Try to come up with it. Why do you want to look good? Why do you want to meet somebody? Why do you want to make money? Why do you want to have a good job? Why do you want security? What is it? You want a certain kind of attention, a certain kind of energy that in other terms, in worldly terms, would provide a place for you to be where everything is perfectly okay and safe. Unconditional Love. Human beings are seeking it, endlessly seeking it.

The purpose of life is to realize one's purpose, which would be to fulfill the endless thirst and hunger for unconditional Love. If that is the case and it's an unconditional thirst and hunger for Love, then we will need an unconditional remedy and an infinite amount of it to fill an infinite hole that is infinitely wanting more all the time. This is exactly what we are working out. We could go to a million different sources and come up with a million different descriptions and answers for the reason of life, but it all basically comes down to the same thing. Reconciliation and realization is it in a nutshell.

When one awakens in life, even just a little bit, to the fact that something more is going on than what meets the eye, then one begins to be able to exercise choice. This is actually a very important awakening. We have this incredible thing that God/Allah gave us called "free will." Why is it so incredible? Because free will is the magnifying glass that allows you to focus your attention into the intention or the direction you desire.

An incredible thing, free will. A focusing mechanism. A lens. Where am I going to put my attention? That's my free will. It's such an incredible focusing mechanism that you can even turn the lens back around inward, on your own Self, and Self-reflect. That's a pretty good trick! You can look at your Self and experience, "I exist!" and question, "Who am I? What am I? Where am I? Why am I? How did I get here? Where am I going? How much money do I have in my checking account?" This is an incredible tool.

Can you see free will's relationship to intention? It is how we focus our intention. So, here we go along in our conditioned reality, in our neurotic patterns and conditioning, while the stakes go up, and for whatever reason, one day something occurs to us like, "Wait a minute. You have gotta be kidding me! Is this all there is? This ain't making me happy. I do more and more (and I'm pretty good at it), but I'm not getting any happier. I don't feel any better. Matter of fact, I'm feeling worse. It's like the faster I go, the worse off I am."

At this point things start to happen to shake us up from the reality that we've lived, and what we thought was, and what we think we are experiencing. At moments like these the free will activates in a certain way. We then want to start figuring out what's going on here. Here comes "intention" - using the free will to focus our attention and energy toward our purpose.

Until we actually participate, intentionally participate in the focusing process, our intentions are being made for us by default. It is just like when you turn on a computer. It has an automatic way that it "boots-up," and sets up the screen. It will do it the same way every time until the computer operator goes in and changes how it boots-up. There are enough people that have computers to know exactly what I'm talking about. You have to have the intention to change the way the computer boots-up, otherwise it's just going to keep booting the same way every single time. The way that it boots-up automatically, in computer language, is called the "default."

Until you participate consciously in the spiritual growth of your own life, your life is in default. In other words, the intentions that you're making subconsciously are just the sum total of your neurotic tendencies that put you where you're going to be next. It will seem as if you are the accidental victim of your circumstances. The difference in the quality of one's intention in the case of spiritual awareness is, "I am awake. I'm participating, and I'm going to focus, by making a conscious choice, to move in a certain direction." My intention is the focus of the direction, the attention is the direction that it is going, and the energy comes from, permeates and returns to all around us.

We will end up discovering that it is out of this same "Energy" that we came from, and it will be back into that Energy that we're going to return to - just like the spark underneath the magnifying glass which is of enough magnitude that it creates fire. It is hot enough to create fire as its source was the Sun. Its travel from the sun through the glass was intermediary until it was actually focused, so that it reappears and becomes the same thing from which it came again - fire.

The Holy Qur'an, which is the mystic, celestial conversation between Allah on High (the Supreme Absolute) and the Messenger of Allah, the Prophet Muhammad (may upon Him be Peace), teaches us that in all things thought is the first cause. Nothing would exist unless it was the creation (effect) of some thought. You could figuratively say that Allah "thought up" creation. The Qur'an instructs us that creation comes into manifestation simply because Allah commanded it to " Be!" and it was.

Everything in life is experienced by the spiritual practitioner as being comprised of Divine Consciousness -Mind. Reality, as well, is the product of "Someone's Mind." Maybe not a someone that looks, acts and functions in the same way as humans, but nonetheless within everything is imbued a particular essence which demonstrates an intention in creation that is full of intelligence, understanding and architecture - in other words, thought! And likewise in the human being, thought is the first cause of any action, whether you know that you're thinking that thought or not. "Someone" is minding the store inside of you. It's a good thing too, because without it, most people would even forget to breathe while walking down the street. The "store minder" is thought, consciousness. It is the first cause whether you are conscious of it or not.
    
Therefore, the making of a conscious spiritual intention is the first action in aligning ourselves with the Supreme Thought, to make ourselves present to the level of awareness of the First Cause. In any matter, when I make my intention, the making of the attention is the most important step even if I can't necessarily realize yet the fullness of my intention. It is the aligning or focusing of myself consciously, in thought, with energy and attention, in the direction of fulfilling my purpose. Thus, if there is no intention in spiritual work, there's no spiritual work. Spiritual work just doesn't happen because, "Well, everyone's going to get there anyway." It's WORK! That is why in Sanskrit it's called "sadhana" (continual spiritual effort), and doing that work requires an intention and an effort.

Yes, everybody will eventually "get there" anyway. We will either participate in the Work and we'll grow consciously through the various levels of glory, or Nature herself by default will come dragging us by the hair, and we'll kick and scream all the way to our death. By making one's conscious intention in spiritual work, it implies that we are actually a participant in the life process. We've had a greater realization. That realization is experienced in a divine scent, a sublime taste, a glimmer of light, a celestial sound or in a felt presence of our own true purpose. I say that, "Real and true spiritual intention is the offering of oneself to one's purpose."

When the Sufis commence their prayer, those mystics will step forward to their prayer mat and start first by offering their intentions to pray. The intention is actually regarded to be a part of the prayer process itself. The translation of that intention means ultimately, although not verbatim, "I align myself to Allah (God/Allah). I use my intention to align myself, in personal purpose, to the Divine Purpose that has been established for all things in their place of order, position, state and station. And I do this for none other, and for no other reason than for the sake of the Divine and the Divine alone, God/Allah."

If people could truly realize this statement (the above), they would understand that the starting point (which is the intention) and the end point (which is realization) are really one in the same. It is for the sake of the Divine and the Divine's sake alone, and no other reason. Singular.

The reason why intention is so powerful in our daily lives is because, by the degree of the level of awareness of the one making the intention, it literally brings one into proximity of the goal itself. Like I said when we first started, "If you could make your intention pure enough and strong enough, you would already realize the object of your intention." I explained that since the mind becomes what it thinks about, the mind is the porous mechanism seeking to become the object. This is the process.

What are we seeking? Unconditional Love. Hindus would say that we're seeking unlimited "pleasure." Lord Krishna describes Himself as the "reservoir of infinite pleasure," the Supreme Object of our seeking, in the Bhagavad Gita, as Krishna explains that our seeking never stops. What do psychologists think that we're seeking? The relief of our suffering. However you want to get at it, we're all seeking the same thing.

Intention is the focusing mechanism of all of our attention and energy to bring ourselves into union with the object of our desire. In order to come into union with the object of our desire, we have to efface those things that stand between us and our true desire. Those obstacles are distractions and false identities. Making one's intention includes not only the direction that we move toward, but it also includes the letting go of what "we are not."

In getting married, you will find that out by being married you will be engaged in a constant process of surrendering your individual position for the union of the greater whole. The tension between wanting to let go and not wanting to let go will produce a lot of energy for you. If you channel it in the right way, it will produce really good Love making as well.

So without even having to worry about complicated teachings, complex spiritual practices, secret esoteric sciences, secret mantras or any of that stuff, we should start first with pure intention -sincerity. The other night in New York I was giving a talk, and I was asked by someone, "How can we be more pure in our intentions, to be dedicated on our spiritual path?" The first thing I said was simply, "Sincerity" - meaning intention. The sincere focus of all of your energy and attention in the direction of a singular spiritual purpose is so powerful. And that is sincerity.