The Power of Wise Intention

Wise Intention is the bedrock of both elegant communication and grounded living.

This topic is addressed in two of my books, Half Asleep in the Buddha Hall and The. Best. Relationship. Ever.









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I want to give a shout out to Lion’s Roar, and to the article How to Practice Wise Intention, written by Sylvia Boorstein.

So, what exactly is wise intention and why would I want some?

To put this in context, in Buddhism The Four Noble Truths, or perhaps more clearly, the 4 Preeminent Realities, are the 4 Descriptors of the way it is.

You can read about this in Half Asleep in the Buddha Hall, but the gist is that we realize, endlessly, the unsatisfactoriness of the life we create, and we try to cling to what we judge is good while resisting what we judge to be bad.

The way out, we learn:

…of this cycle is through cessation (nirodha). If I stop desiring, (through the disciplining and emptying of the mind) and live in the Now (because desire is always about wanting (or avoiding) what I had in the past, or wanting (or avoiding) something in the future), my sense of unsatisfactoriness (suffering) will cease.

The cure proposed by the Buddha, is magga—the Eightfold Path of ‘sound living, one of which is “wise intention.”

On the “western side,” there are a couple of really popular communication models, and they feature 5 elements: perception, feeling, interpretation, intention, and action.

I guess wise intention is important!