About intention setting and the secret of the heart

Intention, the magical buzzword in new age circles. Intention is usually set either for manifestation purposes (to get something, like a new house) or for healing purposes (for someone to get better). There is an endless list of books, seminars and teachings out there about manifestation and healing such as The Secret, Law of Attraction, etc…. Most people don’t really succeed with any of these and wonder where the problem is.

I recently discovered the core issue what prevents any of this from working properly.

Most people keep lists for what they want to manifest or they create visual manifestation boards, treasure maps or mental lists or pictures what they want. Similarly, when doing healing work the intention is usually held as an image in the mind or said as an intention/purpose statement or even as a prayer.

What I have now learned is that the Great Creator or the Universe does not respond to your lists or prayers that are executed mentally “as a shopping list” regardless of the method being used (visual / non-visual). This does not mean that you cannot manifest what you really want or need, but it does mean that most of the manifestation teachings miss something very critical.

Many of us who have set an intention for an additional boost in income or for healing have not gotten the results they want and typically situation does not change much, if at all. As Richard Bartlett says in his seminars: “Your results may vary”. The reason why this happens is very simple. If you set the intention at the level of the mind – in the context of dualism nothing usually happens. It does not matter if its verbal or non-verbal intention as long as it is set within the context of dualism you typically attract the opposite or nothing happens.

Let's say you don’t have money and you set an intention for more money. You wait for a few weeks and nothing happens. This is usually because the intention you set was unconsciously still about lack of money as there might be an unconscious erroneous belief about separation, poverty consciousness and even perhaps a belief that one has to suffer rather than enjoy life. Even if you keep repeating the mantra “I am wealthy and I deserve to be abundant” or you do constantly a prayer for being abundant – you might still resonate with non-abundant frequency if you have not moved away from dualism. No matter how hard you try.

What happens here is that our consciousness really is connected with the Great Creator, God and this Universal Higher Consciousness knows everything that you need and everything that we don’t have. The great secret is that we set our intention just simply by being in the moment what we are. Our higher self has the “list” of our real needs in very fine detail at any point in time. There is never any need to set an intention as God or our higher self knows them already without you having to think about it.

If you think about nature. The wildflowers, trees and plants just grow in nature. They do not need to set an intention to grow. The planets rotate around the sun, the moon follows a certain cycle. All of this just happens all the time. However, the moon cannot become the sun or sunflower cannot become a butterfly!

So the list of what your soul needs maybe a very different list to what your ego wants. The universe does not listen to your ego, but it does deliver your soul needs at all times. As sunflower delivers sunflower seeds according to the cosmic cycle, you also deliver the plan your soul has at any moment according to the cosmic cycle.

This does not mean that you have to suffer or live in lack. Quite the opposite. Suffering and lack are achieved through staying in resonance with dualism. This means that by wanting you do not necessarily get what you want. This means that by stopping to want what you want and leaving it to the Universe to actually do its job makes much more sense.

How do you do that then?

It does help if you meditate (read my blog entry about meditation) so that you can become more clear, more empty in your mind. You see your conscious mind is just a tool to remain in the experience of life (Wheel of Life), your “higher self” and God, Christ or Higher Consciousness can only come through your system if you silence your mind.

It is like the Zen Master Ryutan said to one of his students:

You are like this cup; you are full of ideas. You come and ask for teaching, but your cup is full; I can’t put anything in. Before I can teach you, you’ll have to empty your cup.

So there are really two parts of you. The external, more ego-driven part that navigates in life to impress others. The second is the true you, the authentic you. This is the internal you, that really is not interested in any external requirements but just becoming more aligned with the spiritual path.

Once we connect with our Higher Consciousness we do become aware of the things that really make us happy. A conscious mind is often focusing on things based on fear and limitations (the level of “flesh” – the dualism). As such our ego consciousness typically delivers more problems rather than solutions and our Higher Consciousness delivers real solutions, but only if we tune into it.

If we read the Hindu scriptures we find this helpful teaching from Katha Upanishad that talks about the secret cave of the heart:

In the secret cave of the heart, two are seated by life’s fountain. The separate ego drinks of the sweet and bitter stuff, liking the sweet, disliking the bitter, while the supreme Self drinks sweet and bitter neither liking this nor disliking that. The ego gropes in darkness, while the Self Lives in the light. So declare the illumined sages and the householders who worship the sacred fire in the name of the Lord.

So the best way to set an intention is to realise that at the level of Ego we are always stuck with dualism and operating from Ego consciousness will result always in unpredictable life. However, our Higher Consciousness always knows what is the best for us and once we disconnect from the Wheel of Life (rise into the Higher / God Consciousness) we truly manifest our soul's needs. This is the real meaning in taking Dominion, and we are allowed to do that, once we realise that we take dominion only by surrendering to the Great Creator (or if it is easier to say: to the Higher Consciousness).

You achieve that through silence, meditation and devotion. Devoting your life to the higher calling. It is a lot about letting go of the things that you thought you want but you really don’t.

The trick here is to let the Higher Consciousness to do the work and not being stuck in dualism (Ego Consciousness) – which I also call the Wheel of Life or Karma.