Article – Primacy of Intention

Those who practice yoga may be familiar with the idea of sankalp – literally meaning a solemn vow, or a resolution. Because it comes from a deeper yogic space beneath the conscious mind, this becomes an affirmation which silently guides our mind, body and spirit in the direction sought. As the neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor says, “Our minds are highly sophisticated ‘seek and ye shall find’ instruments. We are designed to focus inward to find whatever we are looking for.”

Modern physics has discovered that our minds might exert more influence over the world around us than we used to think. The physicist John Wheeler argued for a view that he came to call the ‘participatory universe’: observers participate in creating the reality they measure. Thus a physicist’s decision to measure a particle’s position rather than its momentum changes the objective properties of the real world. 

Religious teachers throughout the ages have urged us to pay attention to our intentions — what we would like them to be, and how to go about changing them. As fallible creatures, we all make mistakes. Sometimes we end up causing harm even though our intentions are good. But if we act out of love, the intention supersedes the action and the deed is in consonance with the cosmic order. 

Exerting conscious control over our intentions takes practice and time. “It is clear within all traditions, Eastern or Western, that initially our thoughts are not under our direction,” writes the physicist Arthur Zajonc. “Early on and throughout our practice it is, therefore, essential to school our thinking to come more and more under our control.” The neuroplasticity of the brain enables us to change our intentions – and therefore behavior. It is difficult initially but can be achieved with purposeful intent. 

There are basic similarities and some differences in the way all religions view intention. In Judaism and Islam, kavana and niyyah are the respective terms for intention. Both are of fundamental importance to these traditions because it is through focused intention toward God that all other spiritual practices like prayer and fasting become religiously meritorious, which is true in Baha’i as well. Similarly, intention in Indian traditions like Hinduism, promotes good karma; intention is the first step in any series of actions, and since actions create chains of cause and effect, one’s intentions can have powerful and long-lasting ramifications.