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Intention as part of wisdom
Jeffrey
Veteran
in Philosophy
I think it is interesting that intention is part of wisdom in the eightfold path.
Morality - Right action, Right Speech, Right Livelyhood
Concentration - right meditation, right effort, right mindfulness
Wisdom - right intention, right view
Isn't that interesting? I think you can change the course of your ship with intention. In meditation you intend to follow the breath and you embody that intention. A 12 stepper reinvents their intention to be avoiding alcohol.
3
Comments
Indeed.
Intention is vow taking or refuge in the formal sense. I intend to be a Buddhist as soon as we agree on the cushion covers . . .
http://www.jgambini.com/hundredth_name.html
What's interesting is that Right Intention (samma sankappo), is also called "Right Resolve". Which is two totally different things I think, but I guess these are just translations.
Yes it is @Jeffrey, Intention rests amongst the vital aspects of buddhism and is only revealed when good intention is realised; above all it is one of the most beautiful and edifying aspects of The Wisdom that does not reveal itself, as it only does so with Right Intention.
Let's use the analogy that in a self-conscious ship, it's steering wheel is the motivation, and the rudder that steers the ship is it's intention. Where is this ship going - nowhere but here...
Intention is All, as they say.
if you follow the path and 'do' everything right, but your Intention is off-kilter, then you may as well stay where you are, kickin' stones....
good intention=skilful thought which brings good results
bad intention= unskilful thought which brings bad results
Right intention=Right thought which is in Noble Eightfold path
I would (and have) said that wisdom has to be a part of intention.
yes I think they inter relate like that, vinlyn
the old saying that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" might better, IMHO, he phrased that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions and cemented with a lack of wisdom"
I never understood that phrase. Is it the same as 'leave well enough alone'?
Means people can "good intention" their way into really bad circumstances. Mostly in having so-called good intentions with a lack of wisdom and skillful means. Just because someone says they had good intentions, doesn't necessarily mean their intentions had good results, and oftentimes, the people who say "I had good intentions..." the most make the same mistakes over and over again, using their good intentions to continue creating bad situations.
I think it's more akin to "No Good Deed goes Unpunished".....
Or, we may originally intend to carry out a good intention - but then fail, can't be asked, or have the wrong motivation, and the deed backfires....
Even more interesting, is that in many translations, "Right Thought" is preferred.
A book by The Buddhist Society uses "Right Thought," as "seeing the world as it is" or thinking in the right way.
An old translation uses Right Thought, for example in this quote from the Vibhanga Sutta (Vinayapitaka):
"Right thought consists of thought in which there is neither confusion nor distraction, neither anger nor hate, neither desire nor lust."
Bikkhu Bodhi prefers, again "Right Intention" in his translation of the Saccavibhanga Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya):
"And what, friends, is right intention? Intention of renunciation, intention of non-ill will, and intention of non-cruelty-this is called right intention."
Ajahn Sumedho prefers Right Aspiration (as in Right Attitude or Intention). Aspiration to know the ultimate reality beyond the conditioning of the fixed ideas about the world our ego has created down the years.
To bite the snake's tail, an aspiration to "seeing the world as it is."
This is from MN117, describing how the relevant path factors work together:
"One makes an effort for the abandoning of wrong intention & for entering right intention: This is one's right effort.
One is mindful to abandon wrong intention & to enter & remain in right intention: This is one's right mindfulness.
Thus these three qualities — right view, right effort, & right mindfulness — run & circle around right intention."