The Game of Life
The Seed, The Field and the Farmer
Practical Buddhist Wisdom for the Technology Age
Foundations of Buddhism: Intention and Emptiness
What is the definition of intention? 2
Regular vs Spiritual Intention 4
What is Intention? The seed, the field and the farmer 6
Part 1: Intention is like a field, supporting everything to grow. 7
Part 2: Intention are the unlimited seeds to develop and grow. 9
Part 3: Intention is the farmer who makes the choice. 11
Question: Is observing an intention? 11
Intention
Introduction to Intention
What is the definition of intention?
Any power that exists is an intention
Without intention there is no life.
So intention almost equal to life.
But that line is a little unclear compared with the word consciousness.
Intention is consciousness. Consciousness is unlimited intention.
So intention itself is just a word, not precise, it can be related to many things.
Consciousness is life.
If something has no consciousness, no awareness power there is no life just like a rock.
So life is not what you are aware of, life is your awareness power – the power to be aware of your body and surroundings.
The most common mistake is we take what we experience as life. But that is just the information you receive so you don’t call the information, life. The power to receive that information is life.
This mistake is very common in almost every life because we are trapped in the information we receive. That is where the blindness comes from. You don’t even know your true power, your true life anymore and then you become a blind slave of that information and because information come from many, many creations of many other consciousness and those causes also can be blind. So if you receive creations from other blind consciousness, and you let them guide you then your life is also going to be blind!
And we do not want that!
We want to be awakened, we want information from awakened consciousness, complete truth, wise, joyful.
Consciousness is unlimited intention.
Consciousness is life.
To awaken means to understand life and not get lost by all this blind information. Because information is all the creation power from every life. And that power able to create can be blind, can be awakened.
Regular vs Spiritual Intention
Regular intention we call blind habit intention. The path to the final is to create spiritual intention so we will understand these two deeper.
They are both part of your true force. You can create both. We always start with blind one. Like when you start painting – the first drawing best in the world? Or more likely very bad and get better, learn more and more. Wherever you start is never perfect.
If you want to draw a perfect circle it starts with one point and doesn’t look like a perfect circle until you complete it. Then maybe you try one million times to draw it and it doesn’t look like a circle. It is not perfect.
Then you go into spiritual zone, ask yourself “How am I going to make this circle appear?”
You realise if at any present point you don’t make it correct, you don’t concentrate to make it perfect, then perfect circle cannot appear. So it is not try to hurry to make perfect circle appear. It is make sure in this painting of this circle, each point, this curve, this direction and in the present how you use that power, and guiding the direction have to be perfect.
Daoism call that Dao. They teach us already the spiritual intention is Dao. It means, your goal and your present have to all be perfect. It is only when present is perfect, can the perfect goal can appear. And so every present is important. Every present in your life is meaningful and is important. So don’t just concentrate in your blind future. Make a great goal but if you are right away crazy about it, it is blind already! And you will never make the circle appear.
Every point you will realise you need wisdom and that is Spiritual Intention Zone. Spiritual intention zone need every present connected to wisdom.
That power is also in us. And how to make that power appear? Is through actually observing all your 84,000 blindness intention in every second.
You can only develop wisdom through observing your blindness. That is why we say it is okay to have 84,000 blindness habit. That is where the nutrients, the muddy dirt, the power to make your lotus appear. No problem at all, your lotus will come out beautiful and pure. That power is in you too.
Every second, calm down and connect to wisdom. Use wisdom to deeply observe and calculate, to be aware and to act/react, then one heart two gates. Your heart doesn’t have to go into blind habit zone, into greed, hate, stupidity loop. The opposite, you can live in every present, no time stress, in a wise zone, in a kindness, generous, joyful heart zone.
Whatever you connect is whatever you are going to become.
When I do Taiji, I don’t just think about the ideas only I have to feel the power, feel the foot through your puma stomach curve up and become centre and flow into the hands, I have to feel that and think there is a little twisting Tai Chi sign through my sprint point whurrrrrr into my centre and then go to my hands, I feel that and then I move. I don’t feel that I don’t move.
And that make every move count for me, every move is so easy it’s Taiji, because I create it. Not just do it wrong, then feel what I do wrong and then correct it – that is too late. And then always try to correct never going to become Taiji. Just directly create it in a philosophy zone. That means you have to live in the present to feel the philosophy. Then you will receive it.
So intention is unlimited power in you. It is the force of life but there is a blind zone as a teacher. There is a wisdom zone as a development.
Blind zone if you do not observe and purify it and learn from it, its a blind zone which will create greed, hate, stupidity, create suffering. But if you learn from it you will develop unlimited wisdom.
And then it becomes unlimited Dharma Joy.
Dharma means system that means you through observing it create a wise system.
More system, more joy.
So you want unlimited joy? Then you have to create unlimited incredible, wise, kind intention systems and once those systems are built, finally all the muddy dirt become lotus your life will become just like a lotus, pure and beautiful.
So you have non stop power to create
5:46mn
What is Intention? The seed, the field and the farmer
Summary
Intention has 3 parts.
Intention is like a field, supporting everything to grow.
Intention is like the seeds, unlimited potential able to grow and develop in any direction
Intention is the farmer, choose what to grow.
Part 1: Intention is like a field, supporting everything to grow.
The basic intention is this unlimited intention.
Intention is a hidden supporting power with unlimited possibilities there which is equal to the word consciousness.
Like a garden/field can grow many things. That garden has intention, the intention to support everything to grow, but at that stage the garden itself has no good o bad, but can support all the good or bad. And that supporting power is one kind of intention. It is so deep you are not aware of it. There is something to support you to do everything, try everything, be curious about everything.
It support you in a very no-I way. No good, no bad, no judgment. It gives you the possibility, the potential force. When we say consciousness has unlimited potential that is this power, the garden can grow anything. Unlimited support power for your life.
Consciousness has another name – True Heart or Blind Heart. When it is awakened we call it True Heart. When it is blind we call it Blind Heart. Both are the same heart. Like hand opened, or hand closed, still just one hand.
Awakened heart means you can do both – blind and awakened. Blind Heart limited in blind heart. You are aware of what does it mean blind, but you are not trapped in it. If you are not aware of what does it mean blindness, you can’t help people out of that trap. That’s why Bodhisattva compassion heart, before they become Bodhisattva they just have willing to be Bodhisattva by open compassion want to help others. At that moment again to observe and be aware what is their blindness – kind of like what I (Sifu) am doing now. Have to learn again to be aware of all kinds of blindness. Because I have already realised my own blindness, and free from it, free from it and back to essence, back to empty. Out of body. But that power is only reach first type of wisdom see through life is illusion, aware the essence is pure and is empty and then you are free from all of these blindness but there is no compassion towards other life, I’m free yay! Life doesn’t go that way, eventually you will come back into reincarnation. Because that is another type of ego which is powerful. Can see everything is a trap, a trick and all temporary. Can be free from that but not the ego yet. And if you cannot free from ego then ego can bring you back into many, many tricks. Loneliness will haunt you. Lonely is not a good thing. Sharing is first purpose of life. Of course you want freedom for yourself and you want independent, but you have to learn as foundation and then share all the good things. And that is called perfect life.
And we have been learning towards that direction for many years.
Part 2: Intention are the unlimited seeds to develop and grow.
All of the detail of these intention are the intention seeds
Intention seeds each one can connect to the other one. Each intention limited in its own way, but can join together to all the others.
Like apple seed is limited to grow an apple tree. But once it grows up, create many trees, many apples, many seeds, then it become unlimited possibility of apple trees.
Each intention seed has a chance to connect to unlimited.
But unlimited in this part of the intention is not supporting, it is developing. Individual developing to connect to unlimited.
Every second, there is 84,000 of those intention seeds, running like a waterfall.
The one we use is called “United Character” to make all these seeds have a centre and that united one can be blind as a habit at that moment we call that Blind Karma.
That united one can also become a wisdom character. When that happens we call that Will because it is from your heart, you are willing to. And it is not short-term wish, it is long-term and using Eternal Wisdom – I Will do it!
You know by your heart, by your mind, you know with all your awareness all the wisdom is totally correct.
So we don’t want all of these seeds to grow in a blind way, they will develop even more, like a snowball. Little blindness karma, later become bad karma, later become Hell Karma – crazy.
The opposite. Awakened Will, beginning just a little power, just like, “Oh my mind understands why I choose that, wise choice, I want life in that direction.” Later you practice and practie it becomes stronger, and then you make the skill appear by your heart, not your mind, then it becomes your ability, then the will or the seed become eternal. But not only eternal to help yourself but also eternal to help others, double wisdom.
And that is perfect Bodhisattva system.
And with that perfect Bodhisattva system you will reach the final goal, become perfect awakened Buddha.
We together for a long time basically come from these two powers. One is we want to be awakened want to learn wisdom. The second is we want to develop a good heart, a sharing heart, compassion heart, equal heart. To help every life, to help each other. Of course that is not easy! To be greedy and ego is easy because the whole world is doing that.
So in the end the easy one, will make very difficult, suffering life. And the difficult one to build, eventually become a joyful life.
“So life is tricky, easy is not easy, because you are going to have a suffering life.
And difficult is not difficult, because you are going to develop a detailed and complete purify system with wisdom and compassion to make life become easy and joyful.”
Tricky is not tricky, because for wise awakened people tricky is just complicated.
Life remain complicated but not tricky anymore.
Consciousness not awakened, see life as simple, but life never simple.
Part 3: Intention is the farmer who makes the choice.
Farmer Intention.
We have a supporting power as our basic to help us to grow everything.
We have unlimited all kinds of seeds as possibilities to develop in a direction.
But to grow in any direction we have a choice.
And who makes the choice? The farmer.
You could be a good farmer, or a bad farmer. Bad farmer have many types. Like to pull the plants out of the ground to make them grow faster… then they all die. Ambitious farmer.
So farmer is what kind of intention – the power to choose and guiding the direction intention. Farmer is the leader and protector and developer.
So to become awakened is about wise choice becoming a professional farmer.
Those are the 3 types of intention.
Question: Is observing an intention?
Things you want to observe, there is an intention there.
Things you do not observe, means you do not put attention, to that intention.
When you pay attention to something that is the intention.
So observing is through intention.
Observing power to have wise choice belong to farmer as well.
