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a Moment for Wisdom… |
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DAILY WISDOM:
Thought follows intention.
Action follows intention.” Sharif Abdullah
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Personal Wisdom:
What do you intend? Write down all of your intentions.
What are you averse to? Write those
Look at your two lists. How are they
Do you have the experience of following the intentions of others? Why? How does that
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Societal Wisdom:
What does your society intend? (Hint: Look at how money is spent in your society – politically (war versus education); socially (farmers versus urbanites); culturally (sex, drugs, gambling versus spiritual pursuits). |
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a Moment with Sharif… |
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Greetings;
Unfortunately, many of us are leading unintentional lives. Whether it’s our families, our schools, our bosses or our spouses, most of us live in a cloud of others intentions. Being able to see clearly our own intentions, and act upon them, is fundamental to living a meaningful life. It’s easy to see the kind of life that Vogue, Cosmopolitan or Gentlemen’s Quarterly intends for us. It’s much harder to see what we intend for ourselves. Those magazines (and many, many more) tell us what makes us happy – and who dares contradict them? Many of us are AFRAID of our intentions. At one point in my life, I believed that if people saw my inner thoughts, my secret intentions, they would recoil in horror. Now I understand: if people see my inner being, they will recognize it as their own. The one who was recoiling in horror was me! Now that I accept myself, others accept me, too! (Surprise!) What do I intend? I can sound like a contestant in a beauty contest, saying “I want world peace, an end to poverty, and for everyone to love one another!” Great sentiments. Now… what do I really intend? What do I intend, when I think no one is looking? (One great way to determine what you intend… look at what you’re doing. Right now.) There are no “idle” thoughts, or actions, or energy. Whatever happens in Vegas NEVER The tricky piece: what you fear, detest, despise or loath is treated by the Universe as INTENTIONS! (Yeah, I know… it’s not fair. I don’t make the rules…) So, whenever I find an Two examples: I am averse to eating red meat. I don’t do it, and I don’t encourage others in the practice. However, I have no particular emotions around it – I don’t feel offended (or any other emotion) when I see people eating red meat. And, on occasion, I will eat red meat (like when it’s the only food in a village, or if refusing the meat will insult my host). Second example: Up until a few months ago, I was completely averse to eating beets, AND I had a LOT of emotion around it! I thought beets were disgusting, nauseating, I couldn’t stand to smell them, or watch anyone else eating them. That’s a lot of emotion! And, it made no sense, since I understood them to be nutritious and healthy. Once I meditated on Just today, I had to walk past two other emotion-laden aversions. Every time I do, I become more complete, more authentic, more integrated with my Self. Every time I do, it becomes easier to do so. So, you could say that the Universal Principle here is: YOU GET MORE OF WHAT IS EMOTIONALLY CHARGED FOR YOU. You get what you intend – what you love and what you fear. Here’s wishing you more love (and fewer aversions) in your life!
Peace,
Sharif
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Acknowledgments: All photos by Sharif Abdullah, unless otherwise noted.
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OK, I’m curious… why beets?
I’m also curious!
My grandson is accustomed to food wrapped in plastic and, if it needs warming up, probably microwaved. Fresh organic foods do not taste ‘normal’ to him. For a long time I was stumped by this and then inspiration hit I told him we would be tasting new foods. There are two rules; no saying if he likes it or not and no spitting out. The first time he tasted something new he did spit it out into the sink. I picked it up and put it back into his mouth. If he labels it as good or bad then he needs another bite to help him think of a different way to describe it. So we are both learning new ways of describing food like crunchy, soft, spicy, plain, etc.
This was a very powerful sharing. Will be journaling around it and use it for a discussion during my slowly-building Wednesday “A World That Works” group. And of course, I too am curious about the beets!)