#MonthOfMinistry Day 14
How do we find balance between “surrender” and “intention”? The latter sounds like a focussed act of will, the very opposite of “Give over thine own willing, give over thine own running…” as Isaac Pennington put it.
This morning, Janine was speaking about the Hindu concept of tapas, the spiritual power that can be gained through disciplined practice and self-control. She quoted a famous passage from the Bhagavad Gita:
When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp on a windless place. In the still mind, in the depths of meditation, the Self reveals itself. Beholding the Self by means of the Self, an aspirant knows the joy and peace of complete fulfilment.
So is this capital-S “Self”, that we can reach through a process of disciplined meditation, maybe quite akin to Pennington’s “seed which God sows in the heart”?
Another aspect of intention relates to our action in the world. How do we navigate through life, how do we choose how to use our time and energy well, when we are foundering in a stormy sea of competing demands to address the challenges of cultural collapse, rising fascism, genocidal greed, our very planet burning around us? This is maybe when setting clear intentions is a guide on the way.
The Work That Reconnects offers a practice of setting vows that may help to guide us in our work as part of the Great Turning. Joanna Macy describes how, on the last afternoon of a two-week intensive workshop:
She was out walking and met a young monk from the Buddhist retreat center hosting the event. “Well,” he said, “Now I expect on your last day, you’ll be giving people vows.” Joanna told him that was not something she did. “Pity,” he said, “I find in my own life vows so very helpful, because they channel my energy to do what I really want to do.”
Continuing on her walk, Joanna looked at her hand and thought, “If we’re to have vows, they shouldn’t number more than the fingers of one hand.” Almost immediately the “Five Vows” came to her.
(from chapter 8 of Coming Back to Life by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown)
She notes that in some cultures, the word “vow” can sound too religious or authoritarian, so we might use words like “commitments” or “intentions” instead. Here are the vows if you would like to try using them to focus your intentions for the healing of our world:
Five Vows
- I vow to myself and to each of you to commit myself daily to the healing of our world and the welfare of all beings.
- I vow to myself and to each of you to live on Earth more lightly and less violently in the food, products, and energy I consume.
- I vow to myself and to each of you to draw strength and guidance from the living Earth, the ancestors, the future beings, and our siblings of all species.
- I vow to myself and to each of you to support you in your work for the world, and to ask for help when I need it.
- I vow to myself and to each of you to pursue a daily spiritual practice that clarifies my mind, strengthens my heart, and supports me in observing these vows.