Are you playing with toys, fire or the true power of intention?

I've received more than a few questions on the intention front and there's a few critical elements I'd like to at least briefly touch on for those interested in the "power of intention." First of all I'd like to say this: Intention is NOT - I repeat not - the same thing as a wish. Wishful thinking isn't a whole lot different from the fantasy filled thinking you did when you were a child. Now there's nothing wrong with this approach to relating to the world, yourself and your dreams. It's just not very effective if your age isn't still in the single digits. Wishes generally stem from your "surface level thinking," meaning wishes are often created by impulsive desires and or fantasies that are created by your conditioned history. Most often wishful thinking parading around as "intention" is focused on outcomes, getting this, or getting rid of that. Again there's nothing wrong with this; however, the assumption that if you wish for something it will come true largely doesn't work. Try an experiment, see if it does. I think you'll find that it doesn't work so well. Now for most adults - developmentally disabled may be an exception here - wishing your life to change parading around as the "power of intention" is a regressive movement. Again, this is OK; however, it isn't all that effective in terms of making grounded change in your life. So for those who're interested in the true power of intention, and perhaps a more effective way to spark and catalyze change, let's move onto the good stuff and foster healthy wishful thinking in our young children and not ourselves, peers and other individuals who's age does indeed involve two digits. At a deep level, intention is an important structure or process that lies at the very core of who we consider ourselves to be. Now I'm talking about at a deep level, so your more surface-level social construction of a sense of self isn't what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a level of authenticity that delves beyond your more "social" identity we first start to create in adolescence and consolidate in early adulthood. Let's go beyond this "you." Now this structure involves a choice, a decision if you will. For those of you thinking well, we all make decisions and thus we all are connected to our "intentionality" you're partly right. Even the wishful thinking is stemming from your intention to bring about some change - or so it seems. Yes it appears to be this way, it certainly looks and feels as though our more "surface" selves have an intentionality of their own. But here's the key question in my mind. Are you really making a choice, a decision for yourself - your authentic sense of self? OR is your decision, wish and "intention" stemming from your conditioned history? It boils down to this, do you create your intention or does the intention that's handed to you by your conditioned history create you? I'll put it another way because this is one hell of an important question, Does your conditioned history own you or do you own it? The vast majority of people are largely owned by their conditioned history, and thus when they work with the "power of intention" they find themselves desiring, fantasizing and wishing just what their history ordered. Unlocking the power of intention requires that you take ownership of your capacity to choose, to make a decision for yourself - one that belongs solely to your most authentic self - not the selves that rest in dependence to your conditioning. In order to do that you simply MUST have cultivated a stability of mind, a clarity to see beyond the surface waves of your conventional selves and a strength to courageously act from the spring within you that is the fountain of your most authentic purpose in life. So grab your cushions, and work on your stability of mind. Pick up your weights and burn the torching light of radical clarity that sees more of this and every moment. Roll out the yoga mat and cultivate the strength of your effortless single pointed focus as your body-mind manifests as the perfect expression of the asana. Without these the basic prerequisites, you will simply not unlock the true power of intention. And if you're not unlocking this core seed of intention, chances are you're probably reinforcing and strengthening your attachment to playing out the puppet show of your conventional selves, their conditioned fantasies and surface level desires. And while the popular understanding of intention points to the world being at your feet and your conventional sense of self getting whatever it wants I urge everyone to consider this: If indeed you do power your way to have the world at your feet, is it you who own and have mastered the world or is it the conventional world that owns and has mastered you? Consider this carefully because if you do employ more sophisticated ways to engage the world - disciplined action, visualization, mantras, affirmations, goal setting, etc. - and these tools are in service to the more conventional you - you're playing with a fire that fuels more and more suffering for both yourself and others.