Clarity of Intention

Clarity of Intention The first tenet of Evolutionary Enlightenment is called Clarity of Intention. This tenet points directly to the essential nature of the evolutionary impulse itself: the wholehearted, passionate intention to exist, to develop, to become, to evolve. That impulse, as we have discovered, is the same uninhibited YES that burst forth as the big bang, that compels the body to procreate and the mind to innovate. When that impulse expresses itself at the highest levels of consciousness, it is experienced as the inspiration that pulls us toward spiritual liberation and enlightenment. It is the mysterious drive to become more conscious. To have Clarity of Intention means to align oneself with the clear and single-pointed purpose of that impulse itself. And the way that alignment occurs, in a human heart and mind, is that the intention to evolve becomes more important to us than anything else in this world. The evolutionary impulse has no other motive than our own individual and collective higher development—perpetual, ecstatic, and uninhibited. It is the vibration of the energy and intelligence that initiated the creative process awakening to itself in you and in me, and its only purpose is to create the future. In that impulse, fear, doubt, hesitation, and obstacles do not exist. How could they? Our interest in spiritual evolution doesn't come from the ego. It comes from that mysterious part of yourself and myself that is only interested in becoming more conscious. If you close your eyes and focus upon your own experience of the spiritual impulse as it is moving in you, you will notice that its nature is always overwhelmingly positive. All it ever wants to do is move forward. Ecstatically, it wants to go all the way, holding nothing back, right now. When you experience that desire to go all the way, you taste a joy and a fearless confidence that doesn't come from the ego. And you know that this alone has the power to take you to the yonder shore. * * * Like each of the five tenets, Clarity of Intention is both the path and the goal. It is already the nature of your Authentic Self, but it is also a position you can choose to take that will get you to the very same place. When engaged with wholeheartedly, this tenet will cultivate within you a liberating confidence in your ability to succeed. On the path of Evolutionary Enlightenment, Clarity of Intention is empowering, because no matter where you may be at this particular point in your spiritual development, it places the ultimate outcome of the quest directly in your own hands. That outcome always rests on the simple question: What do I really want—what is more important to me than anything else? You may think that you want to evolve, that you want to become spiritually liberated or enlightened. But how much do you want it? Is your desire for spiritual evolution more important to you than anything else in this world? Or is it just one of many options among which you pick and choose, according to how you feel on any given day? Have you ever thought deeply about what really matters most to you? Until you have become clear about your highest intention, it's difficult for any real or consistent development to occur. Many of us have had spiritual experiences in which we momentarily glimpse an indescribable glory—a greater purpose and a higher potential for human life. But too often we are not spiritually mature enough to value those moments of revelation—to value them so highly that we are ready to pay the price to evolve, here and now. This is understandable—after all, there is very little in our shared cultural background that would prepare us to do so. Because many of us have been deeply conditioned by a worldview characterized by extreme individualism and secular materialism, we have no shared context for honoring and respecting a higher dimension of life that is infinitely greater than the personal sphere. We tend to be culturally unprepared to respond to our own deepest insights, and therefore, even after glimpsing the glory of our spiritual potential, we don't necessarily know how to make the noble effort to transform ourselves for the highest reasons. If you find that after engaging in some form of spiritual practice and even having deep spiritual insights, you still do not change in any significant way, this is probably why. If you are serious in your desire to evolve, this intention has to become more important to you than anything else in the world. You must learn to value, honor, and respect the highest spiritual potential you have glimpsed in yourself above and beyond all else. Everything comes down to this. Whether or not your spiritual aspiration bears the fruit of radical transformation is entirely dependent upon how much it matters to you. I cannot overstate this. It is the cornerstone of Evolutionary Enlightenment. Your own Clarity of Intention is everything. * * * What is most important to me? This seems like a simple question, but its implications are profound. There is no more direct way to shine a light on your own spiritual predicament right now than to sincerely ask yourself: What is most important to me? Consider this matter very seriously: Based on your own life experience and your own insight into the nature and meaning and purpose of existence, what do you conclude has the greatest value? Once you have answered this question, then you should ask yourself: Is the life I am living a clear reflection of that which I have concluded is most important? Dare to be ruthlessly honest. After all, whatever answer you have come to should be the guiding principle of your entire existence. Why? Because you and you alone have decided it has greater value than anything else! More often than not, thoughtful, spiritually sensitive individuals will admit that their deepest experience of Spirit or God has been more profound, meaningful, and liberating than any other experience in their life. But when they begin to honestly reflect on the principles that are guiding the life they are choosing to live, day to day, they often recognize, in light of those moments of spiritual insight, that there is quite a gap. If this rings true for you, you may need to admit, as many people do, that you don't want to evolve spiritually more than anything else. You may long to have those experiences again, to taste the exhilaration of higher states of consciousness. But when any one of us attempts to bridge the gap between those deepest insights and the reality of the way we have chosen to live our own lives, our spiritual predicament is revealed. What we will often find is that we are deeply divided. In this way, the serious contemplation of the question, What is most important to me?, will catalyze a profound confrontation with the actuality of your relationship to life and the different motivations and drives that are operating beneath the surface of your awareness. This contemplation reveals with a piercing clarity the fact that there is one part of you, the Authentic Self, that aspires to evolve, that longs for higher meaning and purpose, for a life of spiritual freedom. But there is also another part, the individual and collective ego, that tends to resist such higher potentials, and holds steadfastly to the way things have been. Once again, in this teaching, "ego" is a shorthand for all the ways in which we are consciously and unconsciously identified with and attached to relative dimensions of self that inhibit our higher spiritual development. Focusing your attention on your own fundamental intention will allow you to see, maybe for the first time, the dramatic difference between your Authentic Self's unbridled passion for spiritual evolution, and your ego's conditioned hesitation or refusal to let go of the way things have been. It may bring to the surface deep and powerful forces in your own psyche that usually remain hidden. Most importantly, it makes it possible for you to begin to consciously take responsibility for the best part of who you are. It enables you to choose to value that passion for spiritual evolution above and beyond the endless fears, doubts, desires, demands, beliefs, and expectations of your individual and cultural ego. * * * Clarity of Intention is simple, but its implications are radical, and profound beyond measure. When you know you want to evolve more than anything else, you don't have to depend on the experience of higher states of consciousness; you don't have to wait for God to save you; you don't have to hope for grace to descend. If you remain true to that which matters most, nothing will be able to stop you. The path ahead becomes clear without anyone else needing to show you: you simply put your highest intention first and let everything else come second. In a truly courageous soul, grappling with this tenet over time will forge a strength and spiritual independence that in and of itself is liberation. Clarity of Intention is the foundation of the enlightened life and the key to the evolution of consciousness, because it places your transformation entirely in your own hands. It's a deliberate, freely chosen position. You make choices that take you in the direction that you, in your highest moments, have decided to go in, even if, at times, it may not feel comfortable. In fact, how you feel becomes almost irrelevant, because now you have a commitment—a self-created obligation to a higher purpose. If you are bold enough to aspire to be a vehicle for the evolutionary impulse in this world, commitment must be your foundation. Without that solid ground of unshakable intention, how can you be a stable and trustworthy vessel for the wild and untamed force of nature that is your own Authentic Self? I don't believe it's possible to live a passionate and engaged spiritual life and contribute significantly to the evolution of consciousness and culture without this kind of profound commitment. In the unenlightened heart and mind, our allegiance lies most often with the fears and desires of the personal ego and the culturally conditioned self. That is why we are often fickle, easily swayed by the ever-changing emotional currents of our personal world and the secular values of our shared culture. Even if we have, on occasion, discovered something higher, enormous effort and patience is usually required to shift that fundamental allegiance. But if you are deadly serious, and you are committed to standing by your own intention to evolve, you will begin to generate an entirely different momentum within yourself. The momentum of your own commitment will enable you to cultivate an emotional connection to a perspective that your ego cannot see or feel or relate to in any way, and that our shared culture does not recognize. And when that emotional connection grows strong, through remaining true to your commitment, you begin to win some degree of authentic spiritual autonomy and independence. You discover soul strength—the spiritually inspired conviction to take responsibility for your own destiny and ultimately, for the destiny of the evolutionary process itself. * * * The fundamental commitment that this tenet calls us to is a moral, philosophical, and spiritual position in relationship to life that each and every one of us has to come to for ourselves. No one can do this for you. What I'm pointing to here is nothing less than the door to your own liberation. Clarity of Intention is truly the foundation of a spiritual life lived in earnest. But it's important to be ready for what sincerely contemplating this tenet may reveal. It can trigger an inner storm of existential confusion, fear, and doubt. Asking a black-and-white question, like "What is more important to me than anything else?," will illuminate your deepest motivations with an unusual degree of clarity. When you seriously consider putting your intention to evolve above all else, you are inadvertently shining a light on all the parts of yourself that don't want anything to do with higher evolution or spiritual freedom. You are, in a sense, calling the dragon out of the cave. Ego, as I have said, has many faces. Seriously embracing Clarity of Intention reveals an ancient and insidious one, which I often refer to as the irrational refusal to change. This manifestation of ego can only really be understood once you have made a commitment to something inconceivably positive and infinitely bigger than the fears and desires of your personal self. The ego seldom unveils this face, except in those rare moments when, having stumbled upon that which is unthinkably sacred and meaningful, you feel compelled to respond with all of your being, to declare an unconditional YES to that which you have recognized. Only then will you confront the force of a powerful inertia within, an ever-irrational position that blindly resists, defies, and denies that unbridled positivity. This is when you understand why spiritual masters for millennia have referred to the ego as "the enemy within." That perennial foe is a willful one that abides deep in the human psyche, and always refuses the call from the heart to embrace our highest evolutionary potential. Most of us go through our entire lives and never see this face of the ego for what it is. And that is because we rarely consider for ourselves what is most important or face the challenge of putting that first, above all else. We tend to avoid the kind of absolute and liberating simplicity that this first tenet points to, preferring to exist in a habitual state of division, ambivalence, and complexity. And under cover of that complexity, the personal and cultural ego can thrive and maintain firm control. When we aspire to evolve, to live a truly spiritual life, to become an enlightened person, we dare to open our hearts to the thrilling possibility of something so unthinkably glorious that it's just too positive for most of us to bear. This is simply terrifying to the ego, because it feels the overwhelming pressure to relinquish control. This is when it emerges out of the shadows and its face can be seen. Only when we dare to even consider saying yes to our highest spiritual aspiration will we become aware of why the ego is, and always has been, the greatest obstacle on the path to enlightenment. * * * When embracing Clarity of Intention, consistency is everything. When you first make a heroic commitment to your own evolution, you will experience a surge of liberating confidence, a sense of empowerment, and an often startling conviction in your potential for transformation. But the reason it is so important to cultivate Clarity of Intention is because that conviction probably won't last. When the ego's irrational refusal is triggered, as sooner or later it will be, you may find yourself lost in a psycho-emotional storm, unable to see one inch in front of you. You may wonder, "How could I experience such unshakable confidence in my own potential for transformation, and then so easily fall into a state of confusion and despair?" But that's the very nature of the divided self. The ego doesn't want you to become a liberated human being, and this kind of experience is living proof of that fact. The arising of doubt is the ego's response to your declaration of allegiance to your Authentic Self, to the part of you that wants nothing more than to evolve. The deeper your conviction in your potential to become one with that Authentic Self, the stronger and more violent the ego's recoil will be. Unless you can endure the intensity of this kind of reaction, and stand firm in the face of the temptation to doubt, you are not going to evolve and the higher experiences you have had, no matter how profound, will not amount to lasting transformation. At such challenging moments, it matters very much that you have already come to a decision about what is more important to you than anything else—your own bottom line. That intention becomes your anchor, your buoy in the storm, something you can hold on to no matter how ferociously the ego reacts. If you have already clearly decided what matters most, and made a deep commitment to that above all else, you will find that your own intention is more than enough to hold you steady, even if you temporarily lose touch with all the inspiration and clarity you may have felt before. But if you haven't already resolved this issue, then in those moments of greatest challenge, you will let go of that buoy and find yourself tossed helplessly around on the rocky seas of fear, doubt, and confusion. And you will wake up on the desert island of your own ego, your confidence and faith and commitment weakened, wondering how you could possibly have betrayed your own highest intention. This is why I always say that consistency is everything. Once you have reached that point in your own spiritual development where you have come to a clear resolution to evolve beyond ego, it is essential to avoid self-betrayal. If you betray that aspiration, which is your Authentic Self, you will lose your bearings. And if you betray yourself too many times, you will soon come to a point where you just won't care anymore—slowly but surely you will have lost touch with the passion to actualize your higher potentials. Never forget, we're only human; none of us have infinite strength or spiritual resources, and we must have the humility to respect that fact. Once you have made a decision to evolve beyond the personal and cultural ego, inspired by the direct experience of your own potential to do so, never doubt that intention. If you have not yet experienced that liberating potential, it makes sense to remain skeptical until it reveals itself within you. Once this has occurred, however, you should not allow yourself to indulge in doubting your own direct experience. For most of us, the liberating state of profound clarity and absolute conviction is not permanent. Such experiences make a deep impact on the soul, inwardly revealing the path to your own evolution and transformation. But that revelation needs to always be protected, so that the path remains open. Clarity of Intention is what enables us to do this. It connects us to a profound source of confidence—a confidence in our own capacity to change and in the transformative power of the evolutionary process. Any spiritual adventurer who goes through this kind of confrontation with his or her own ego, and comes out the other side without having compromised, will know, directly, a fundamental truth of the evolutionarily enlightened perspective: the Authentic Self and the ego are two completely different worlds. You will see for yourself that the perspective the ego creates is never absolutely real in the way you had imagined it to be. In comparison with the spiritually empowered inspiration of the Authentic Self, the ego's petty fears, desires, and concerns are relative and ultimately insubstantial. This is easy to say, but is a hard lesson to learn. When you find yourself under attack, those fears, desires, and concerns won't seem insubstantial or unimportant. They will appear very real indeed. The dramatic difference between the limited, relative world of the ego and the infinite, absolute nature of the Authentic Self will remain apparent only through the ongoing spiritual practice of contemplating Clarity of Intention. Fueled by the power of your own intention, you can prepare, so that when you find yourself in the midst of what the great realizers call "the dark night of the soul," you will remain cognizant of what matters most and you will doubtlessly hold fast to that and that alone. * * * When living the spiritual life is seen in an evolutionary context, your ability to be true to your own intention is far more than a personal matter. Over time, as your practice and perspective mature, you begin to recognize that there are much greater, impersonal consequences to your victory or failure. On the one hand, if you succeed in standing firm in your intention, the interior of the cosmos gains the opportunity to evolve through you. On the other hand, if you fail, if you back down, the creative process itself loses a precious opportunity to evolve. The evolutionary impulse, or God-principle, loses a vehicle through which to consciously create the future. From the radically impersonal point of view of the evolution of consciousness, your ultimate value lies in your potential to awaken to the evolutionary impulse as your own Authentic Self, and to consciously take responsibility for the process that it initiated. Only when you identify with the Authentic Self and embrace the process, will higher as-yet-unmanifest potentials become manifest through you with real power to effect change in this world. That's what the process wants. That's why we are each so desperately needed. God, as the creative impulse, or Eros, is interested in you for your higher potentials, for what you are capable of; God isn't interested in you as a personal self. You are a potential bearer of the future, and therefore the impulse that is driving the evolutionary process is only interested in you according to how much of that potential you are able to fulfill. This is the highest context from which to engage with contemplating the first tenet, because it carries with it a sense of overwhelming urgency to come to a resolution about what matters most, here and now and forever. After all, how much time does any one of us need to get over the ego's fears, doubts, and hesitations, and step forward? From a merely personal perspective it will always seem like we have all the time in the world to struggle with our ambivalence and selfishness, to choose to live up to our highest potential or not. But from an impersonal, evolutionary perspective we never have more time, because the situation is always urgent. When it comes to those destiny-defining moments in life, if we allow ourselves to put something else above our own intention to evolve, the real loser is God, not us. As you think about your own spiritual interests in this light, as you contemplate your intention to become an enlightened human being, remember: the energy and intelligence that initiated the creative process is more interested in you than you are in it. The universe is trying to evolve, and it can only evolve through you. We are the vehicles through which the manifest God can take the next step. In the end, your spiritual interest is not about you. It never was. It's God's interest in Him, Her, or Itself. Those of us who have been culturally conditioned to see the world primarily through a personal lens find that difficult to appreciate, but from a higher cosmocentric perspective, that's simply the way it is. When you become deeply interested in spiritual evolution, the universe becomes even more interested in you. And when you put the intention to evolve above and beyond all else, it's the greatest gift you can give to God—a partner in the evolutionary process emerges in the form of you.