Intentional Living with Noah Levine
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Intentional Living
June 14, 2021 In order to actually make some progress, experience freedom, we have to be incredibly intentional -
Intentional living
Intentional training of the mind
Intentional
It's the second factor of the eightfold path
Right | wise intention is not going to happen by itself.
It’s not going to happen by reading the books.
It's not going to happen by listening to the Dharma talks.
It's not going to happen from just trying to download the Dharma intellectually.
It takes our life's energy. Our intentional training of the mind. Our intentional renunciation.
When you enter this kind of path there's a whole bunch of s*** you have to add.
There was for me anyway. I had to add meditation - I didn't meditate and I wanted to end my suffering, so I added that to my life.
I'm going to add service. I used to be, “I. Me. Mine.” all of the time.
So, I'm going to add helping others, be generous, be of service, that's something I'm going to add to my life.
I'm gonna add some study.
We add into our lives all these things that we didn't use to do.
And then, I need to subtract:
I better stop smoking crack now.
I better stop stealing.
I better stop lying.
I better stop cheating.
I better intentionally change my relationship to my self-centered mind.
I gotta slow down and have some healthy skepticism about what my mind is telling me to do 'cause my mind was telling me to lie, cheat, steal and get loaded.
My mind was telling me these things, and so now I have to intentionally reflect on things, like, “oh is this true? Is this a trustworthy thought? Is this what's really going on here?” because I hope that you know that your mind is not trustworthy.
Nobody’s mind is trustworthy. The human mind, untrained, is unintentionally creating suffering, clinging to pleasure, craving, taking everything personally.
The Buddha referred to people who didn't meditate as, ‘untrained worldlings’…they go around annoying each other with their views and opinions.
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