Intentions and Consciousness

Man, this is a really good question.

Intentions are really at the heart of the illusion of consciousness. That is to say, consciousness itself is the defining feature of having intentions. Consciousness is the illusory background fuzz of the intention itself. And it’s important to note, that intentions are not urges nor are they reactions. Intentions are not urges because urges cause thoughts/behaviours/emotions to pull unidirectionally to some end goal. Reactions are not intentions, because reactions are immediate non-planned behaviours/thoughts/emotions to some stimulus.

The biggest problem is that we feel our urges and reactions and believe they’re more than what they are. They push and pull when the truth of the matter is closer to flow or continuous processes. Consciousness — the background fuzz I alluded to earlier — mistakes information from one stream and the other and believes that this fuzz is itself because it seems to be always occurring because it is never inspected closely. The fuzz is simply fuzz, raw potential, the raw clay from which a “self” is sculpted moment-to-moment, out of these urges and reactions. In essence, intentions are really the cognitive-scientist way of talking about Buddha’s path of “the middle way”.

Early on, I experienced intentions as very ephemeral and fleeting things, they’re both mental (urge/reaction) and bodily (tightness/readiness). Neither body nor mind comes first really, they’re constantly feeding into one another. Sometimes mental urges take place first, causing bodily readiness in anticipation. Sometimes bodily tension comes first and the mind begins to react. It’s hard to say which comes first. But early on, for me, intentions seemed to be very effortful. “Ooooh, I’m intending to eat, so much mental work is going into noticing this.” But the effort was in the noticing, not the intention. And once this was recognized, more energy could be spent seeing how it actually works. Then I observed the fuzz, nonstop raw mental potential going up, down, all around, assessing, comparing, contrasting, etc., all these reactive and urging energies. The truth of the matter was that intentions are normal, but are usually skewed one way or the other — either too reactive (aversion) or too covetous (desire). The ignorance of the matter was not seeing that they were simply made each moment without any input at all, without any drive (i.e., no-self). Consciousness is an intentional machine. The fuzz is just the fuzz. When one sees the machinery spinning clearly, the illusion collapses and we’re happier because the natural intentional flow of consciousness never needed more intentions (effort/drive/self-esteem/protection/defence/rationality/emotions etc.,) to keep itself moving other than its own self-recurring pattern (fractal stuff).

Once one starts seeing how intentions are made moment-to-moment, one can start actually influencing them. This is the real magic of the path; habit changing, intentional framing, energy manipulation, magick, (everyone has a unique perspective or way of doing/phrasing it) etc., where the intentional flow can be “arrested” and meta-intentions are essentially planted in the mind. You know how certain meditation teachers say “after stream-entry or the A&P is a great time to make resolutions?” This is why, you’re seeing that mental flow so clearly, it’s just a matter of planting the intention in that fuzz and letting it grow naturally.

Anyways, this is my take on the matter. Hope it helps in some way! :)