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Guided Meditation: Intentions for a Peaceful Heart

Good morning everyone. Now that I'm unmuted, I'm welcoming you into this moment with the opening words of the Dhammapada^[1]: "All experience is preceded by mind, made by mind, led by mind. Speak or act with a corrupted mind, and suffering follows like the wheel of a cart behind the hoof of the ox. All experience is preceded by mind, led by mind, made by mind. Speak or act with a peaceful mind and happiness follows like a never-departing shadow."

With this in mind, let's begin our meditation this morning, aware of where we are and how we are, with the intention of a peaceful heart, a peaceful mind. With that intention, we begin.

Settle in. Find yourself a place that allows you to just be here. Keeping in mind, my intention is toward peace. My intention is toward a peaceful mind. Whatever else is happening, here I am.

Take a deep breath and let it out. Allowing your body to know, "Here I am. Right here in this room." Whatever is happening outside this room is not for me. Not for now.

I allow my head to rest. Be loose. Be loose on the neck. Let the shoulders settle. Let the arms settle. The hands become still. Breathing in and out.

I feel my torso settle. My legs settle. My feet, just here, down to the toes. All of my senses are here.

Here is not a place; here is with our awareness and our intention to just be aware. Whatever you choose for your object—breath, touch, sound—settle.

Recall the thinking mind to be here. Gently remind the heart-mind of the intention of stillness and peace. And with each breath, we recall: just here.

We can't demand that the heart-mind be still, be peaceful. We can only hold our hands in a soft, welcoming way, with a gentle intention to be kind. Whatever arises is what is happening now. And the heart-mind reacts with the gentle, "I see you, and I'm here." The body breathing.

Gently, gently we offer: May I be peaceful. May I be at ease with each breath. Peace, ease, and offering.

May each breath be met with a gentle heart, an intention for kindness and peace, whatever may arise. Be aware of the intention to kindness. Receive each breath. Release each breath. Not by control, but with openness. Whatever arises, may it be met with peace, a peaceful heart.

All experience is preceded by mind, led by mind, made by mind. Speak or act with a peaceful mind, and happiness follows like a never-departing shadow.

I am heir to my own kamma^[2]. My suffering, or lack of suffering, depends on my own intentions and actions, not what others may wish. Despite what I may wish, things are as they are. May I see things just as they are. May I meet the arising and passing away of all things with equanimity and balance. May I receive my life with a peaceful heart so that I choose wisely.

Dharmette: The Truth of Suffering (2 of 5 ) Intentions and Kamma

So, once again, good morning. I'm Maria Straatmann. We're talking this week about suffering and the end of suffering. Yesterday we spoke about the truth of suffering and its relationship to reactivity, or our response to an experience. While I referred mostly to suffering, it's true that delight can cause suffering if the reaction is to hold on to it or develop a craving for it.

Today we're going to talk about intention and kamma in fifteen minutes. We're not going to say a lot, but let's see what we can do.

Kamma is a Pali^[3] word that means action. The Sanskrit word is karma. I sometimes am not consistent, so just know that it's the same word, just in a different language.

Kamma means action, and it is really about action and its results. It is the world of cause and effect. Now, our intentions don't cause what happened. Our intentions don't cause our experience, just as kamma doesn't cause our experience. But the intention that we have, the motivation that we have, is really crucial to how we receive our experience, what our reaction is, and what our response is.

When we act, we have the motivations that we're very well aware of, and we have all those motivations that are sort of unconscious, that we're not really thinking very much about. So, I might go shopping because I need food. Okay, I need to get things for the refrigerator; I'm going shopping. But the unconscious motivations might be hiding things like, "I can't be here anymore; I think I'll go to the grocery store." Or, "Well, this is just so you know that I'm the one who always has to go to the grocery store." Or somehow, I want to show that I'm responsible, and I want you to see me as the responsible person going to the grocery store.

All of these sort of unconscious motivations are really important for us to see, to grasp, to understand, because the motivation behind whatever we do determines the karmic fruit. We can do kind things for the wrong reasons, and things that appear to be unkind for the right reasons. Or there are unintended consequences of our good intentions. It's our responsibility to become conscious of those intentions. It requires a lot of introspection, requires a lot of mindfulness.

The Buddha said, "When this is, that is. From the arising of this comes the arising of that. When this isn't, that isn't. From the cessation of this comes the cessation of that." When we allow ill will to arise in our hearts, ill will is here. Ill will is there, and from ill will, only ill will comes.

In his book Small Boat, Great Mountain, Ajahn Amaro^[4] says wherever there is something that is intended, something that is acted upon, or something that lies dormant, then that becomes the basis for consciousness to land. And where consciousness lands, that then is cause for confusion, attachment, becoming, rebirth. Every action we take leaves a trace in the mind.

If I am generous to you, there's a kind of hum left in my mind that says, "Ah, giving, giving." And there's a kind of opening to giving. And every time I'm short with you or remark in an unkind way, that trace is left in my mind, too. And what is repeated and repeated and repeated causes a rut to develop.

When unskillful intentions arise and we're not aware of them, we unmindfully act on them, creating the conditions for future suffering. So yesterday I told the story about the bad mood I was in, the gloomy mood I was in, and how I was determined not to speak because all of the ill will that was generated in that black cloud could have only produced a bad outcome. And seeing clearly that it was not consistent with my intention, nor was it being caused by the person that was next to me, allowed myself to develop a protectiveness toward the other person. I'm going to protect this person by being with this cloud silently.

Intention doesn't ensure outcome. I may have the intention of kindness, and it may be here and blooming completely brightly, and I'll stub my toe, and all of a sudden it's gone. Just gone. Unless we develop the habit of kindness, the habit of peacefulness, the habit of reactivity will replace it. The habit of "not my fault, somebody's fault." That reactivity is so quick.

And the important thing to remember is that kamma is not about outcome. It's really about the intention. The intention that we have. It's what we're offering our action with. It's that energy of pointing and leaning and intending, initiating before we even act—it determines the energy of that act.

An intention for harm will likely generate harm. Certainly for the person with the intention, because it creates in our hearts that snarky, tense, sharp feeling that hurts. And the natural thing when something hurts is to want to fix it. And we find ourselves wanting something different. We all have the human drive for safety, food, shelter, love, taking care of ourselves in some way. This means different things to different people, but we develop a series of wants and needs for our own comfort and safety. And somewhere between liking something and wanting something is generated that energy for craving, for being caught in it.

So maybe this color reminds me of something happening that wasn't so good. Or all dogs are scary because some dog once bit me. You know, my neighbor has a tiny dog. It's a Havanese^[5]. It's a really friendly little dog. And I remember reaching down to pet this friendly little dog, and it leapt up and bit me in the leg. I thought, "What? What?" And I know exactly why it happened: because of the location of me and the owner going through the elevator door in the closed space. And nevertheless, it was a shock to me that I was bit by this dog. And every time I see that dog, I'm just a little careful. Tiny little dog! [Laughter]

The conditions may never arise again. Actually they won't, because I'll be very careful around that dog in the elevator. And yet there is this frisson^[6] of "be careful around this. Be careful around this." We have to be aware of that when it comes up. I can laugh at it. I notice every time I see that dog that I'm being particularly careful, and I notice that carefulness and I laugh. We can be careful around anything, but only if we condition ourselves to be that way. Only if we have the kindness to ourselves and others to keep in mind.

Kamma really can act in two different ways. One is over a period of time. So if I'm unkind to someone when I first meet them and come across as a really unfriendly person, ongoing, they're going to think of me as an unfriendly person, and our relationship will always be a little strained unless I could do something to fix that, of course. But this is how things arise. This is how long-term sadnesses and poor relationships develop: by something maybe quite innocent in the beginning. So anything that is initiated with a feeling of ill will can carry out immediately or long-term.

And the short-term quality of mind in the moment of action is the other form of kamma, and that has to do with how am I feeling as a result of doing this. Is there peace in my heart, or is it a corrupted heart that is feeling irritable and snarky and self-condemning? Ill will toward myself—that will happen if I say, "Why did I say that to that person?" We've all done that. "Oh, why did I say that?" And we feel immediately, when this arises, it gives rise to that.

When we experience a state of mind of love, it naturally comes with a feeling of openness. When we see someone that we love and care about, there's a softening of the heart that happens. It's immediate. And when there are instances of greed or hatred, in addition to what other future things happen, we can feel right here the painful energies that arise with those.

The other thing that we notice when we're paying very close attention to what's going on with my mind in this moment is that we may have certain emotions that we label as good or bad. You know, so that if I'm receiving approval, I say this is good, and when I'm receiving rejection, I say this is bad. When I incorporate those ideas into the way I'm thinking, then I'm going to want approval more and call it good, and I may become attached to approval or how people see me or what they think of me.

Our direct awareness of karmic law working in every moment can be a really strong motivator to developing healthy mind states. But only if we see it. And we can create ease for ourselves by seeing it. Just seeing it. You don't have to be other than you are. You don't have to be different than you are. You just have to see, "Oh, this is what's driving that. Huh. I want approval. This is not a bad thing, but am I changing what I'm doing? Am I being true to what needs to happen in order to get approval?" That I should be aware of. Maybe not so skillful.

So, while intention can affect near and short-term events, it doesn't actually determine what happens. In this way of thinking about cause and effect, it isn't, "Just because I'm kind to you, all goodness is going to happen." Or, "Just because I want to trim a bush because I want it to look better doesn't mean that it will forever be trimmed, or that anybody else will agree with me, or that even I won't develop resentment about it." There are all kinds of possible outcomes. I can't determine what happens. I can only set it with my intention. I set it on a track, and I create that situation for myself.

So there's a lovely quote from Norman Fischer^[7], who is a former abbot of Zen Center. He says, "The situation you're in is not your fault, but it is absolutely your responsibility to take care of it going forward." We cannot control what's happening now, but we have an enormous responsibility for what's going to happen. And he says, "When they ask, 'What do you mean it's not my fault if I did actions in the past that led me to this place? How can you say it's not my fault?' I respond, 'The person who did those things in the past is no longer here. However, the person in this present moment has a huge responsibility to take volitional action from this moment forward.'"

Ajahn Amaro says in the Theravada^[8] they point to the gap between feeling "I like this" and craving "I need this." That place is a place for breaking suffering. The choice gap. It's a place for breaking suffering between "I like this" and "I have to have this."

May you find peace in your heart by offering peace from your heart. Let me give you this. This is a poem by Wisława Szymorska^[9], and I will put that in the chat because it's hard to say. It's called "Could Have."

It could have happened. It had to happen. It happened earlier. Later. Nearer. Farther off. It happened, but not to you.

You were saved because you were the first. You were saved because you were the last. Alone. With others. On the right. The left. Because it was raining. Because of the shade. Because the day was sunny.

You were in luck. There was a forest. You were in luck. There were no trees. You were in luck. A rake, a hook, a beam, a brake, A jamb, a turn, a quarter-inch, an instant.

You were in luck. Just then, a straw went floating by. As a result, because, although, despite. What would have happened if a hand, a foot, Within an inch, a hairsbreadth from an unfortunate coincidence.

So you're still here? Still dizzy from another dodge, close shave, reprieve? One hole in the net and you slipped through? I couldn't be more shocked or speechless. Listen how your heart pounds inside me.

All of the things that we imagine, all of the things that could have happened, nothing is predetermined. There's always an exception. Even when your heart is pounding in your chest, may your heart always know peace. Thank you.