How to Actually Make Intention-Manifestation Work for You
With all the buzz about Intention-Manifestation right now, many of us are trying to make its principles an active part of our lives. For many of us, however, it is becoming just another frustration. While our friends are manifesting their greatest desires, we’re still stuck visualizing ourselves with millions of dollars and then sitting down, dejected, to discover that our checking account is overdrawn . . . again.
What is the key to applying Intention-Manifestation to our lives? How can we recognize what is blocking us? And does this have anything to do with non-dualism?
Applying Intention-Manifestation
If you’ve experimented with Intention-Manifestation, you know that the basic premise is that your thoughts and emotions will affect how your life ‘manifests’ for you. At first, we might think it’s only a matter of wishing for the things we want. But soon we get the sneaking suspicion that many of our thoughts and emotions are working against our desires. For instance, I might desperately want a brand new house in the Caribbean, but even though I visualize it every night, I’m also worried about it whenever I visualize it. I’m a little afraid of Mexican laws, and don’t think I could ever afford something like that, and I’m afraid that my friends would only hang out with me because of my house on the ocean . . .
In other words, when we direct energies toward our goal, the energies are muddied by nagging fears, uncertainties, and self-doubt. What we need is a clear and vivid intention that is in harmony with the goals we’re trying to achieve.
The end result is that I-M can become a game of trying to control our thoughts and emotions. For some people, this can create a fear of negative thoughts and emotions, and because that fear is itself a negative emotion, we set up a downward spiral of fear-based thinking.
If we’ve paid careful attention, we’ve seen that I-M gets us into the same problem that all dualistic-based models get us into. It gets us into the problem of trying to negotiate the relationship between myself and the rest of the world. I-M may give me some great tools for negotiating, but when I fail to use those tools correctly, I’m going to have even more reason to think of myself as being ‘messed up’ and incapable of living life in a positive manner.
You could think of this as the Law of Inverse Proportions as it relates to self-development. The better the spiritual or emotional tools I’m given to live life positively, the more I can feel bad about myself when I mess things up. After all, if the tool is that good, then what does that say about me if I can’t even use it effectively?
What Is Blocking Us?
The problem with trying to control our thoughts is that most of us find it pretty difficult. The mind can often seem like a wild pony, running off in every direction without much concern for the greater good.
Even if we remove all the mysticism from I-M, it still makes sense that if I’m applying 100% of my mental, emotional, and physical energies to a project, I’ll probably succeed. I-M can seem pretty common-sense if viewed in this way. For instance, if I want to make a million dollars, and I start committing focused intention to that goal every day, I’m naturally going to start getting some ideas for how to make that happen. New ways to achieve my million-dollar goal will naturally manifest, since everything from my conversations to my life decisions will all be pointing me in that direction. My focused confidence will affect everyone around me, and my chances of achieving my goal will increase.
However, if I’m giving out wishy-washy intentions and my confidence is weak, you can imagine the results.
Our block, then, isn’t that the universe won’t manifest for us. Our block is that we’re not in control of our thinking. And the more we try to control our thinking, the more we run head-first into the Law of Inverse Proportions and end up convincing ourselves, more and more, that we are at the mercy of our moods, emotions, fears, and stray thoughts.
How Does I-M Work with Non-Dualism?
The beauty of I-M is that it asks us to be aware of our thoughts and emotions. If we can give up trying to control our thoughts and emotions, and just learn to watch them, something magical will happen.
Have you ever had a song stuck in your head? It can be an exasperating experience, and sometimes it can seem like there is a cd player in our head, repeating the song over and over. No matter how hard we try to turn it off, it just keeps coming back.
The reason for this is that we’re not in touch with the way our minds work. In essence, we’re defeating our own efforts. Every time we try not to think of the song, we’re effectively thinking of the song. So our effort to prevent a mental behavior is often the very energy that is creating that mental behavior. These efforts can be very subtle, but the more time you spend in awareness of your mind-states, the more evident they will become.
What’s the answer? There is a way to stop thinking of a song. Instantly. And that is simply to look at it, directly. When you notice that a song is playing in your head, stop, and pay all your attention to the song. The song evaporates. This is a curious thing about the human mind, but if you try it, you’ll find that it’s true. It works with frustration, anger, stress, or any of our various mind-states. If you turn your full attention to the actual feeling (as opposed to the various fears, thoughts, and mental meanderings you usually equate with the feeling), the feeling will evaporate.
Take stress. If we’re feeling stressed, the stress will evaporate instantly if we simply look, directly, at the feeling of stress itself. In the case of stress, you’ll find that the feeling is very small and not very powerful – it often has a weak physical sensation, and not much else we can pin down.
However, we might insist that the feeling of stress is very powerful, permeating our entire bodies and minds. But this isn’t the stress itself. This is the wild pony-ride created by the stress. Our usual method is to deal with the pony ride (ie. try to figure out how to deal with all our life problems that are ‘giving’ us stress). But the real solution is to get off the pony.
In the same way, a feeling of anger can feel overwhelming, but if we pay attention to the root of the feeling itself, anger is just a tightness in our chest, and that’s all.
Awareness
Awareness is the magic that allows us to see the world as it’s actually manifesting, right Now. If we are constantly aware of our mind-state, we will directly experience every perception, emotion, and activity of our minds. There will be no time or energy for our minds to build up complex labyrinths of connected thoughts and emotions that convince us that our minds are in control of us.
Of course, we can run into the Law of Inverse Proportions here, as well, because we can make awareness into our new tool. Now we can fail to be aware, and create negative feelings because of that!
If you look carefully at this point, you’ll see the true key to breaking free of the Law of Inverse Proportions. The key is that if we make an effort to achieve anything, we set ourselves up for failure. Sometimes we will succeed, and sometimes we will fail. We might think that this is just how life works, but it’s not. It is actually possible to never fail.
To never fail, we simply need Awareness. It sounds passive, but it’s not. Awareness is no effort. But we can’t think of this as the opposite of effort! It’s something else entirely. The opposite of effort (laziness, or passivity), is actually a subtle brand of effort, which requires us to apply energies toward our own particular (in this case, lazy or passive) self-concept. No-effort is everything that happens — including your own actions — when you cease trying to force what comes naturally.
Truly having no effort is the most active thing you can do with your life. By having no effort (and thus allowing your Awareness to be fully present and cognizant of the situation unfolding in your Now), you find yourself fully able to interact with the actual situations you’re experiencing.
Awareness works all on its own. You can’t force yourself to be more aware of the world than you are if you just let Awareness work through you. All you can do is to focus your awareness on a certain object, thus limiting its ability to perceive the whole situation. And usually, the ‘objects’ we’re focusing on are our fears, insecurities, and frustrations – which guarantees that we’re totally unaware of the actual Now.
But even no effort can be made into another goal at which we can fail. Therein lies the toughest thing about Awareness. It is the one thing in the world which actually requires no effort to achieve, and our one block is that we insist on applying effort toward it.
Enhanced Intention-Manifestation
Awareness, then, allows us to experience all the fruits of I-M without the frustration of trying to control our mind-state. Awareness, that paradoxical state of passive activeness, is the ultimate manifestation-force in the universe. Undistracted by the wild pony ride, we are fully able to see and interact with Now – the only moment that ever is.
Explore posts in the same categories: Law of Attraction
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:16 pm
I love this article! You’ve expressed what I’ve been feeling and trying to express to others, but I couldn’t express it truly like you have here.
I have always thought if I want good things to happen to just know good things will happen, no more effort after that point. It’s not even a real concentrated thought on what I want to happen. I just know. It’s hard to explain as I feel it. I don’t set goals, I just know but not consciously know all the time, but let it manifest when it will.
April 24th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Wynter — isn’t it funny how difficult it can be to describe the most basic feelings? I’ll bet that the feeling you’re trying to express is one you feel with perfect clarity — until we try to nail it down with words! =) But reading your description, I could definitely feel what you were talking about — it’s that easy, loose dance with life where our usual, conceptual thinking doesn’t really have a part to play. I know that for myself, one of the most liberating aspects of this experience was discovering that life works just fine (even better) — without the need for constant thinking and planning.
I’d love to hear some of your experiences with this way of living.
July 5th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
I like the site, one of my favorites recently. However, I just get a little irritated with this I-M stuff. Wishing for a pony doesn’t get you a pony. Saving up money, having a place for a pony, going to the stables/stockyard… these things will get you to a pony much more effectively than wishing, or intending.
More importantly, once upon a time the masters would say “Want what you have, not what you have not.”
Despite some remarkable insights elsewhere, this I-M stuff is just another form of desire and materialism: dukkha.
July 6th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Greetings Jonas, and thanks for the great comment. This one has actually inspired an entire article on the relationship between I-M and non-dualism. Hopefully it will make what I’m getting at in the above article a little more clear.
Sweetwater,
Kenton
November 11th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Kenton,
I know this is an older post, but I’m having a little trouble with this one.
To ‘intend’ is to apply effort, but non-dual is ‘no effort.’ Plus, to manifest an intention implies a future expectation keeping us in ‘time.’ Also you state that the opposite of effort is NOT ‘no effort,’ but is “actually a subtle brand of effort” ???
You further define this no effort type of effort as when “you cease trying to force what comes naturally.” Yet if I’m “intending” am I not forcing or even subtly pressing reality (not real) to give me what I desire?
My dualistic mind is struggling with this.
In your previous IM article, you state that IM and nondual are separate models, yet I sense they are intricately connected (somehow). Maybe IM simply serves to prove that we are more then we think we are.
but still, how can we be free to play with other models when non-dual is the only model simply because it is not a ‘model’ at all? It is what we are.
So lets say I get what I ‘intend’, aren’t I conceptualizing additional conflict since with non-dual it doesn’t matter. Yet my desiring ’stuff’ made it matter for me. And lets say that I begin manifesting incredible abundance and prosperity in my life which makes me a believer and pushes me to manifest more and more and… when does it end.
So we place an order with ‘universal consciousness’ (some even say God) and the ‘universe’ provides - but in the non dual the universe is us and we are it. So essentially, we are providing from ourself to ourself? Egads! could we be that powerful. I toy with the idea that we are…
I like your concept of “background assumptions” (or the thought behind the thought behind the thought…) and that’s the dualistic mindset - so many thoughts all opposing one another.
I suppose I’m stuck on how ‘intending’ can be effortless. Maybe you can direct me to another one of your articles that better explains this type of ‘effort’ (although I think I’ve read them all).
November 13th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Greetings Mike!
First, let me say that no-effort is one of the most confusing and oft-questioned aspects of what I write, and I’m in the process of writing an article which I hope will clarify the matter further.
Now, onward:
You’ve read them all! You will probably have noticed, then, a fair amount of contradiction throughout the posts. Why is this here? Because these writings are not describing truth, nor are they describing correct methods. Indeed, theses writings aren’t trying to tell us anything factual at all.
Our dual minds cannot seem to escape the assumption that words must be describing some reality. Thus it can become confusing when we’re talking about ‘intention’ and ‘no-effort’ in the same writings.
When we’re striving toward non-dualism, or attempting to discover ‘what it is’, it is important for us to hear these contrary things. But none of them describe non-dualism! This is very important to remember, or this will all be very confusing (as you point out above). We hear the contrary things to get our minds to ‘unfocus’ enough to see something which is right in front of us all the while. But as dualists, we’ll probably refuse to do this.
We want to ask – What does non-dualism look like? How can I recognize it? For instance, how can it be ‘effortless’ if it is also ‘intention’?
Let me be more confusing and ask – Does non-dualism have time? Of course! Does it have effort? Of course! Does it have multiplicity? Movement? Birth and Death? Cause and Effect? Of course!
Usually it does not benefit us to hear this, because we already are strongly convinced of these things. Hearing these words does not spur us forward toward awakening to our dream. But in a case such as yours, where you have observed much of the dualistic process, but are still ‘captured’ by the nuances of its inner workings, it is perhaps time to hear these things. The same thing could be accomplished if you could intake this sentence—
No words describe awakening.
Any time you are trying to describe non-dualism to yourself in any way, you’re sure to be off the mark. We could say anything about non-dualism and be equally correct and wrong.
So does non-dualism have ‘intention’? Absolutely yes. And absolutely not.
Here is a rather poor analogy: Does the color yellow have happiness? Absolutely yes. And Absolutely not. The key here is that when you’re trying to point someone toward ‘yellow’, some people might find happiness as a good pointer to pick it out of a line-up of colors. Others might have bad memories about yellow, and ‘happiness’ might be detrimental to their discovery of which color is yellow. But the important part is that ‘happiness’ in no way describes yellow itself – it only acts as a pointer to urge a certain type of mind-set in yellow’s direction. (Don’t take this analogy to far, as it is dealing with an object in our minds, and non-dualism is quite different than this.)
When we are in our dual minds, everything you say in your comment is true, and this article serves mostly as an urge for people to explore their current model and replace it with (you guessed it) a new version of the same old dualistic model. The reasoning is that playing model-switch can give people awareness of how they are modeling the world, and thus ‘weaken’ their grasping to the current mind-set.
As we develop more awareness, this article will read differently. In your case, you are seeing the inner workings of the dualistic model enough so that you question the contrast of model vs. non-dualism which is laid out in this writing. How do they interact? Right now, if you are feeling tangled in the workings of the model, it’s time to look even deeper, and to observe the model at its root. Don’t ponder on figuring out whether I know what I’m talking about or not – I’m only a fool tossing words on digital paper and arranging them in crazy patterns with my fingers.
Attend to yourself, to your tangles. If it doesn’t seem that there can be intention and non-dualism in the same existence, go sit in the woods, look around you, and see what you see. Do the trees have intention? The squirrels? Your awareness? Your mind? What is this thing called intention? Look carefully at your definition, and see what must exist in order to have that definition. Then see what must exist in order to have those things. Then watch the whole dualistic model unfold, created by you, right there, as you sit in the woods. See how genius it is, how remarkable, and how marvelously silly.
Backtrack. Ask if you have any evidence whatsoever for the things which must exist in order to support intention. See how much we must imagine in order tosupport even one single idea in this world. And if you’re going to imagine something, ask why you might not simply imagine something completely different! What makes one imagination or belief (if all have no evidence) more ‘correct’ than another?
This is all just seeing what is going on in our minds – a process to which we usually blindly adhere (thus the analogy of dreaming). And when we see it, we might just find ourselves discovering what is going on when we’re not busying ourselves with this dreaming.
Sweetwater,
Kenton
November 13th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
kenton,
I believe that on one level I do ‘understand’ that as you say “no words describe awakening.” But I continue to DEMAND that this NOT be true and that I can come to ‘it’ through the intellect. (Dammit, Kenton, if you could just give me a category of thought to file ‘it’ in!!! ) LOL!
Thanks very much for your comprehensive response (though my intellect is again dissatisfied…sigh…oh well).
I look forward to your future posts as of all the nondual teachers on the web, you are the most descriptive (of course, keeping in mind the non-descriptive nature of the topic).
Mike S