Activating Intention

The Secret Message 12/13/07


Activating intention is the key to unlocking the life of unlimited abundance. I remember when this first happened to me. I had just turned 21. My energy and inspiration were operating non-stop. This experience of energy was so new and exhilarating that for three months I hardly slept. I would doze off at 2 am and get up again at 3 am to play my sax.

My abilities as a musician skyrocketed over night. I discovered an inner life filled with ecstasy. I went back to school at the University of Cincinnati where I had dropped out a year before to join a band. For the first time I began writing poetry and short stories. I took an interest in the life of strangers and senior citizens. I remember listening to jazz on my stereo, playing my saxophone, and reading books all at the same time, such was my desire to learn and improve. This episode was the first time I had wholeheartedly said yes to life. What the shamans call intent became a reality within me. I didn't have any words for it at the time except bliss.

That was my introduction to my source of being. This creative force of energy that pervades the universe is within each one of us. In most people it exists as a latency. The key to turning on intent, or activating it so that it can be a creative force in your life, is to align yourself with it.

Like attracts like.

If intent is infinite then it behooves us to identify with our infinite self. And one way of doing that is through the use of imagination and metaphor.

For instance, if you have the habit, like most people do, of taking yourself as separate from the rest of existence, then you could use the metaphor of an ocean to represent infinity. And you, as the separate self that you identify with, can be represented as a drop in that ocean, separate from all the other drops.

But drops in the ocean are really nothing but ocean. Your dropness of separation is only a brief state of affairs, like a splash of a wave. For a moment it might seem like you are a finite separate drop, but when you are reunited with your oceanic state of existence, you know that you always were nothing but ocean.

This experience of ignorance as a drop does serve a purpose, however. For without ignorance, knowledge is not possible. You cannot have knowledge of light if you never had the experience of darkness. The fish that is taken out of the ocean, and then thrown back, gains a deep knowledge and appreciation of the ocean because of the experience of separation.
Use the metaphor of the drop and the ocean to deepen your connection with your source. I use it everyday and it makes a world of difference.

Identification with a drop instead of with the ocean comes from being identified with the ego-mind, with its nucleus of "I, me, and mine." This obviously enhances the sense of separateness. Contrast this to the athlete who gets into the zone. There is no thought of self, only effortless mastery.

I remember when Pete Sampras burst into the professional world of tennis by destroying Andre Aggasi at the US Open in 1990 for the championship. He had been given no chance to win, but after the first set, there was no doubt. Sampras was in the zone. And that is how he explained it in the post match interview.

The key to being in harmony with intent is to get away from ego and bring awareness into what you are doing. This is the way to develop an intuition that you can trust. And the more you trust it the more you can feel confident about your decisions. The poet Hafiz wrote, "If you want the presence of God, don't make yourself absent." That is good advice if you want to keep Intent activated in your life.

When you have confidence, it opens doors for you. Or rather, it gives you the strength to open doors that before you would not have attempted to open. This allows your true self to shine-your source of being-that infinite self. We have all had these experiences. But what is needed is to make them permanent.

This is the domain of genius, of inspiration, or enthusiasm. This is the playing ground of mystics and poets. This is where you might run into a Rumi or Hafiz or Emerson. It is in this playing field that you realize that the present moment is all there is. It's unlimited. This is where creativity and life unfold.

This is the realm of faster vibration and higher energies. It is creativity at the highest level. We can experience this when we get beyond our limited minds and tune into the infinite. Do you know the only way to travel at the speed of light? Einstein said it couldn't be done. But there is one way: Become light. We more we identify with consciousness and oneness, the more we become light.

Physicist David Bohm made a great contribution toward understanding oneness when he explained that there is an implicate order, where everything that is not yet manifested resides in a latent and unmanifested form. What you want to create already exists.
That is where inspiration comes from. That is where the music came from that Mozart recorded on paper as if he were taking dictation. Consciousness, in unmanifested form, is waiting for an opportunity of expression. If you want to be the next Mozart, you only have to be receptive to this.

Consciousness, as infinite intelligence, knows everything. It doesn't displace anything. You will always manifest into the world what you are most suited to manifest into the world. It's not a question of desire. It's a question of who you are. If you find intent, you will find your purpose.
Mother Theresa became the perfect Mother Theresa. What she manifested in the world was as natural to her as it is for a duck to swim in water. Her expression of life was what her consciousness was attuned to. Donald Trump is the perfect Donald Trump. What he expresses and manifests in the world is as natural to him as bathing a leper was to Mother Theresa.
Life will unfold itself in you. Follow your heart-for it is connected to intent. That is the way beyond the mind-the way to freedom and creativity, of activating intention.

To me, the idea of alignment with the power of intention boils down to acceptance. It's like the spirit of Albert Einstein showing up, willing to help one student write an essay paper on relativity.

Who would he choose to help?

Would he choose the student that just wants a passing grade and a good nights sleep, or the one who is willing to stay up all night trying to make a contribution to science that could change the world?

Do you want to just get by or do you want to give your whole heart and soul to a pursuit to make a difference in the world?

Intent is in all of us, but it is sleeping.

It wakes up when it has good reason to. Dare to be great and intent will be there waiting to help.
We only have to allow it to manifest in us. That's why we're here. It's easy once you get to that place of allowing, of acceptance, of surrender. But getting there can be the hard part.
The ego doesn't want to give up control. Just look at how few people there are that are true to themselves? How many people do in life what others expect of them rather than listening to that voice within?

How many people walk up to the plate like Babe Ruth did, point to the right field bleachers, and then deliver a home run into those bleachers? The ones that do are those who listen to that voice within and trust it implicitly. Intent doesn't err.

Being true to yourself is the key to activating intention. It's as if you have an infinitely powerful partner that will work with you only if you agree to live life wholeheartedly. And that sounds like a good partner to have.

~Gregory Allen Butler~