Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening

by Joseph Goldstein

The body doesn’t move by itself; it moves because of a volition in the mind. We can see this every time we change posture or reach for something or turn as we’re moving about. These are movements that are not happening on their own. There is some energetic factor in the mind that wills the action. We can notice this in various ways. We might get a forewarning of intention in the mind through being aware of a thought to do something. The thought, itself, is not the intention, but it can alert us that an intentional action may follow. As we observe this process carefully, we sometimes feel a certain gathering of energy in the mind — the impulse or command moment — that results in the hand reaching or the body turning. Sometimes we might not feel anything so tangible; rather we simply know, in the moment before acting, that we’re about to move—I call this the “about-to moment.” All of these processes connect us with the factor of volition. We can also notice that volitions keep arising throughout the action, not only in the initiation of the action. Intention is analogous to an electric current that keeps an appliance running or a light bulb shining. If the current stops, then the appliance also stops or the light goes out. In the same way, even within one step, there needs to be a continuous flow of intentions to keep the foot moving through the air. If the intention stops, the foot will stop moving. We can have a direct experience of the impersonal nature of intention at th...