INTENT

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INTENT

A friend of mine decided to read my whole blog from the beginning.  She pointed something out to me that I was not aware of.  She said that the first couple of years of writing the blog it was obvious that I was concerned about the number of readers I had and getting feedback from them.  Then that idea seemed to drift away and now I just write without being concerned for feedback.  Well, that’s not entirely true, I do wonder how people see what I write about but I’m also not all that worried about it and I no longer ask for feedback.  My intent now is to express something that wells up inside as best as I can, put it out there and let it go. 

One of my very best friends, a painter, once told me that people often asked him what he thought of as his best piece of art.  His answer always was that he was constantly working on the same painting; it just had lots of canvasses.  Which is as good a description of a life well lived as I can imagine.  His intent was constant.  Through all the ups and downs of normal life his persistent desire was to paint, to create art.  He also told me once that when a painting left his studio it was no longer his.  It belonged to whoever viewed it and their reaction and emotional response was theirs and not his. 

I guess just about everyone has watched Luke Skywalker strain to get the X Fighter out of the swamp; he almost starts to shake with the effort.  And then he gives up.  Yoda then lifts the fighter out of the swamp with no visible effort and looks with disgust at Luke.  What was the difference, besides experience?  Luke knew from the beginning that he couldn’t do it.   From the outset he knew he would fail.  His intent was to fail. 

Pir Vilayat often said that the most important thing to pay attention to in doing spiritual practices was intent.  You might mess up pronunciation of some Arabic or Sanskrit word, you might even get the idea behind the practice somewhat confused but if your intent was pure the practice would have its effect anyway. 

We live in a world where appearance seems to over whelm everything.  Models in magazines are photo shopped before the mag is printed.  Getting the right automobile so your friends are envious is paramount, etc.  So, if your intent is to live a shallow life, worried about appearance and nothing else you will be fine.  If however, your intent is to discover your true inner self and you are constant in your spiritual work then a life of struggle will be yours.  But in the end it will be worth it. 

Deep Regards, Musawwir