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..:: Intention ::..
By
Alan Schneider
This essay will
investigate the central role of intention in human consciousness
and behavior. This most pervasive phenomenon often floats at, or
beneath, the surface of conscious recognition either in the fully
unconscious region of the Psyche, or barely perceptible at the threshold
of awareness. Why is this? Because we so very frequently do not wish
to know or admit what motivates us in living our lives, and this out of
sham and remorse – the real quality of intention is often far from
laudable, noble, and graceful.
Intention is the wished for
or expected outcome connected with a course of action or behavior,
customarily on the Physical Plane, but this quality can also be manifest
on the Astral, Mental, and even higher Planes. Because intention is
closely linked to our self esteem and ego issues (and represents a
disparagement threat for that reason), we have a vested interest in
portraying our motives for belief and behavior in the loftiest terms,
idealizing them as much as is possible for the benefit of our own, and
other’s, perception. The true state of affairs is, however, generally
much less salutatory than we would prefer to admit, occurring as it does
in the context of the fallacious concerns of the social fiction of the
ego and its interpretations that we so regularly take for realities.
A good case in point for the
introductory remarks here is the synopsis of the well-known Freudian
defense mechanisms. These are all designed of, by, and for the
ego to protect it from the self-recognition of the real intentions
behind its perceptions, motivations, and subsequent behaviors. A
comprehensive listing of these psychological devices would fill volumes,
but a couple of examples given here will suffice to demonstrate my
point. First, let us consider the defense mechanism known as
projection. In this socially enacted process, the protagonist
recognizes – and usually criticizes – certain overtly negative qualities
in another that, in fact, are personally present within him or her as
well. In extreme cases, the external subjects of the projection may
literally not exhibit the identified quality at all, yet the compulsion
of the protagonist will cause insistence that it is there, and this is
customarily accompanied by vehement denial that it is present in the
protagonist’s behavior or mental processes. The identification of
fault in others is often an effective way to conceal it in ourselves, by
focusing the attention and scrutiny of the social group away from
us personally. But, the primary benefit of this mechanism is the
protection of the fragile ego from the inherent disparagement of the
recognition of its own flaws.
Another good example is the
defense mechanism of sublimation. This is a somewhat less
personally toxic psychological strategy than is projection, because it
tends, with notable exceptions, to be significantly less potentially
dangerous personally and socially. In the realm of physical processes,
a substance is said to sublime when it passes directly from the
solid phase of manifestation into the gaseous phase without
passing through the customarily seen liquid phase in the interval. In
Freudian psychodynamics, the implication here is that some type of overt
behavior or perception is really a rarified (“gaseous”) expression of
another, more basal (“solid”) phenomenon, with no evident intermediate
(“liquid”) state demonstrated. The classical example here is that of
religious expression being the rarified and idealized expression of
sexual motives without any apparently sexual content being present.
The give away in this case is the quality of religious ecstasy so often
seen in the devout fundamentalist, who cannot accept any form of literal
sexual orientation – the ecstasy itself is the sublimed result of the
natural sexual interest which is denied an appropriately structured
outlet – the liquid orgasm. It is of note here that the
practice of Tantra will use the sexual energy of orgasm to produce
the higher stage of spiritual ecstasy through various techniques,
without denying the original sexual content in the process.
The third (and, for the
purposes of this essay, last) example I will use is that of
rationalization. In this case, when the ego is subjected to what
is really a significant disappointment, a series of “rational” reasons
why it this supposedly not of great importance is retroactively
constructed by the ego to relieve the disparagement involved. “Oh, I
really didn’t want that promotion that much anyway”, or “He/she
obviously had poor taste in rejecting me for a social/intimate partner”,
or “I simply couldn’t prepare for the test because it conflicted with my
social priorities” are all examples of the use of rationalization to one
extent or another.
From the spiritual
perspective, the only valid intention for any internal or
external action is the performance of Dharma – sacred duty and
entitlement – because this enhances the process of Self Realization and
brings us closer to God. When Dharma is served by our thoughts, words,
and deeds, the specific nature of those three manifestations is
secondary. Because the ego is positioned within the Psyche at the
most extreme distance from the Self, its concerns are necessarily in
conflict with the motive of Self Realization on almost every occasion,
and are fallen therefore. This is why the aforementioned
defense mechanisms are so harmful – they attempt to protect what should
be acknowledged as not only fallen, but literally non-existent as a
social fiction – one that prevents the perception of the Self
as the most real and positive condition in the Psyche. And the
Freudian defense mechanisms are not the only destructive aspects of
intention gone awry, they are simply the best known ones. If we do not
learn to frankly admit to our motives for perception, belief, and action
as the first phase of spiritual growth and development, we will be
subconsciously controlled by them with potentially disastrous
results – all of the most lamentable events of human history are the
direct result of our failure to recognize our flaws and work to release
them through Self Realization.
This practice is, of course,
excruciatingly uncomfortable in its initial phases, and tends to
continue to be so thereafter, for that matter, until the need to justify
our actions and existence is supplanted with the comprehension that only
the Self is ultimately real, and we are real only as spiritual
expressions of that Self – as Souls temporarily embodied in
biological vehicles for the consummation of Karma. In Buddhist
and Yogic theory, this process of awakening can take myriad lifetimes to
unfold, with many sufferings born of unenlightened ignorance encountered
in the interval. For the ego to accept its non-existence is tantamount
to death – the most feared human process of all – and this is
nonetheless required to fully experience the Self as the Truth of
Consciousness.
Pure intention is the gateway
to Enlightenment, the Soul, Compassion, and the Self, but, how is this
to be attained? By learning the oh-so-hard way that all of our
personal machinations are exercises in futility that only serve to waste
our precious time during incarnation – particularly when we
appear to be succeeding at them! As far as I know this is the one
spiritual gradient that can only be overcome by trial and error, and for
which no mode of training or instruction is wholly adequate
preparation. The ego is a natural part of our human psychological
apparatus, however errant, and acquiring the understanding at the level
of the Heart – which is beyond all other modes of comprehension
– that it and, therefore we, do not really exist is
the most difficult, challenging lesson of all the Karmas.
It can be asked: if we and
nothing that the ego shows us, exists, then, what does really
exist, and how can it be experienced. What is the Self, and how
is it known or knowable from the human perspective? Once the pure
intention is established within consciousness and the Psyche to Seek
the Truth (as personified by the Self), then we can make progress
spiritually, regardless of how many other competing intentions are
present – these will all eventually fall away as we work with compassion
in the Heart, and learn to utilize the higher Centers beyond to attain
Enlightenment. The first heightened perception that begins to manifest
in consciousness in this process is that of the collective experience
of the Soul – we are all bound together to a great extent at this level
of Being and becoming, although it frequently manifests initially as a
personal expression. This is the root of psychic experience and the
extra-sensory perception that defies logical, scientific explanation.
The observation that only the Self is Real is quite literally true,
with the caveat that we must first attain that level of understanding by
negating all other perceptions as false. The linear
logic of the ego and Physical Plane must at least be set aside for the
interval of investigation so that the many apparent logical
inconsistencies present on the higher Planes of Expression can be worked
with sufficiently to gain an understanding of their higher
logical form.
This might be called
quadratic logic, or multidimensional logic perhaps, or even
cosmic logic. To a certain extent science itself supports such
exotic logics – the mathematical foundation that postulates
eleven-dimensional cosmic string theory, with the first three of length,
width, and depth, being augmented by a hypothetical fourth of temporal
duration, time, and the remaining eight dimensions composing
reality “wound up” and concealed from human perception in that fourth
dimension of time – is an example of such scientific validation. The
math says it must be this way, but we cannot experience it this
way with our primitive brains and physical receptor apparatus. At
present, the only way for a human being to even partially experience the
additional dimensions of reality is to go within and meditate to release
the ego perception and attendant restrictive linear logic of the
physical senses and sensory experience.
When this is successfully
attempted, the additional dimensions are revealed initially as
archetypal symbols present in the Jungian collective unconscious.
Even though we cannot really literally perceive the additional
dimensions – or archetypes, in Jungian psychological terminology
– we can perceive their symbolic resultants. These, in turn,
emerge from the Self at the absolute threshold of experience and
manifestation beyond which we simply cannot know or perceive anything
under any circumstances – the primitive stage of our evolution will
permit us to journey no further. The Self is the Primary Archetypal
Symbol – the Creator, the Brahman, the Logos.
Thus, as we learn to set
aside our personal concerns in favor of the universal concerns of
spirituality, and allow our lives to be guided by Dharma instead of
desire, we can know as much of the Truth as is humanly possible, live
this Truth as we lead by spiritual example, and offer it to each other
along the Path. All of this is enabled by pure intention, and disabled
by denial (another, particularly destructive, Freudian defense
mechanism) and selfish actions. Action by itself is not capable of
creating more Karma for the Soul – this requires coupling with negative,
impure intension as the motivator of that action. Action
resulting from Dharma not only does not create more Karma, it
releases it through positive works and compassion. Dharma is the
Soul’s Path back to God, who birthed it in Love as a separate Vibration
of Consciousness radiating forth from the Self.
- With Love, Alan -
(Copyright 2009, by Alan Schneider)
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