For many people, the new year brings up the idea of an intention or goal for the year. Setting an intention for the new year can be very wholesome. Personally, we go to an intention setting ceremony at Against the Stream in order to formally set our intentions.
Recently, I was speaking with Buddhist teacher and The LoveMore Movement‘s co-founder Joseph Rogers about intention. He shared the Ambalatthika-rahulovada Sutta1 with me, commonly known as the Rāhula Sutta. In this sutta, the Buddha is speaking with his son, Rāhula. It begins with the Buddha telling Rāhula about honesty, and the importance of not deliberately telling a lie. The sutta reads:
Then the Blessed One, having left a little bit of water in the water dipper, said to Ven. Rahula, “Rahula, do you see this little bit of left-over water remaining in the water dipper?”
“Yes, sir.”
“That’s how little of a contemplative there is in anyone who feels no shame at telling a deliberate lie.”
The Buddha then directs Rāhula to ask himself three questions. First, before acting, speaking, or thinking, he should ask himself if it will cause harm to himself or others. If so, he should not perform that bodily, verbal, or mental action. Second, while performing a bodily, verbal, or mental action he should ask himself if it will cause harm to himself or others. If so, Rāhula should stop doing it. Finally, after performing a bodily, verbal, or mental action, he should ask himself if it caused harm to himself or others. If it did cause harm, he should confess it to a teacher or companion and exercise restraint in the future. The Buddha suggests that we should act with repeated reflection in this way.
This sutta is closely associated with the intention to not cause harm. In the Magga-vibhanga Sutta2, the Buddha speaks of Right Intention, stating that Right Intention involves the intention of renunciation, the intention of goodwill, and the intention of harmlessness.
Before acting, we can ask ourselves if our actions are going to cause harm to ourselves or others. This was recommended to me recently, and I have found it very helpful. Simply by reflecting on the harmfulness of my future, present, and past actions, I have been able to actively put into practice Right Intention.
Moving forward into a new year, I thought this practice may be greatly beneficial. Setting an intention at the beginning of the year is quite common, and I think it’s important to understand what Right Intention is and how we may practice it in our daily lives. Perhaps you can set the intention to let go, to work for the happiness of yourself and others, and to not cause any harm. Maybe you can use the three questions to check in with the harm you may be causing.
Information on the New Year’s Eve Intention Setting Ceremony may be found at http://www.againstthestream.org/new-years-eve-2/.
1http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.061.than.html
2http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn45/sn45.008.than.html
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