The Goals of the Mind and the Intentions of the Heart

It is the work of the heart to birth intention, rather than that of the mind.

Phillip Moffitt, a Buddhist meditation teacher, offers this article on fine-tuning our understanding of intention and differentiating intention from goal-setting. With goals, Moffitt says “the future is always the focus: Are you going to reach the goal? Will you be happy when you do? What next?” Intention, by contrast, “is a path or practice that if focused on how you are ‘being’ in the present moment.” A goal says “I want to grow a tree.” Intention tends the soil.

Moffitt is clear that intentions are generated not by the mind, but in the heart (see the intention meditation in the 12/29 post). “Goals help you make your place in the world and be an effective person. But being grounded in intention is what provides integrity and unity in your life.”

Setting an intention is not a one-time event, but a process, a practice. We set our intention and live it. We use our practices (yoga postures, pranayama, meditation, journaling, etc) to move inward into that reflective space to again cultivate those intentions and then we move it back out into the world. We walk it off our mats and into our lives. And then we begin again. It’s this didactic process of working back and forth between the mat and our lives that allows us to stay engaged in life in a way that is grounded in our deepest truths.

Good luck!

Xoxoxom

Amy