What Is Your Intention, Really?
Dr. Wayne Dyer, internationally renowned author and speaker, has written a lot on the Power of Intention. He is affectionately called the “father of motivation” by his fans.
In his words, “The law of attraction is this: You don’t attract what you want. You attract what you are. Most people’s mistake in trying to apply the law of attraction is they want things; they demand things. But God doesn’t work that way. It’s all about allowing.”
Dyer refers to the Tao Te Ching, written by Lao Tzu. “He says in there, 2,500 years ago, if you live from these virtues, then all that you could ever need or want could be provided for you.”
In this book, it mentions that those who want to know the truth of the universe should practice the four cardinal virtues. The first is reverence for all of life. This manifests as unconditional love and respect for oneself and all other beings. The second is natural sincerity. This manifests as honesty, simplicity and faithfulness. The third is gentleness, which manifests as kindness, consideration for others and sensitivity to spiritual truth. The fourth is supportiveness. This manifests as service to others without expectation of reward.
“All great spiritual masters are teaching kindness,” says Dyer. “They’re teaching love. They’re not teaching wanting. They’re not teaching greed.” So the notion of seeking what you want, or think you need, is not what the Power of Intention is all about. He continues, “The ego’s mantra is ‘What’s in it for me? How can I get more? I want a BMW in my driveway next Thursday.’ All of that is what most spiritual teachers call the false self—the ego.”
According to Dyer, the process of allowing, just being and embracing this heightened level of consciousness, goes back not to attracting what you want, but attracting what you are.
“You have to just be,” Dyer says. “You have to let go. You have to allow. You have to be free and make this your consciousness. Basically, what you would see is a frequency (of energy) that manifests itself through the process of giving, of allowing, of offering and of serving. It asks nothing back.”
Dyer illustrates the concept of giving without expectations by quoting the great poet Hafiz: “Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth ‘you owe me.’ Just think of what a love like that can do. It lights up the whole world.”
According to this line of thought, what we have and what we accomplish are more about who we are and how we show up, than about what we want.
So think back to the goals you set at the start of the 100-Day Challenge. If Dyer is right about the Power of Intention, than where you are in your progress is the result of the choices and decisions you have made, conscious or unconscious.
Making a difference together one step at a time.
The Home Team
