Once again, the time of year has come for traditional New Year’s resolutions. These are often about self-improvement – losing weight, exercising more, and being more patient. As we well know, these good intentions require clear resolve lest they fall by the wayside.
For those of us on the path, the new year is also a time to contemplate the path factor of intention. How do we want to use our lives to contribute to the flourishing of all beings and to the world that we inhabit together? If we want to deeply understand the causes of happiness and the causes of misery, we need to stop and sit (or whatever posture is best for the body) on a regular basis.
We can do as Buddha did: he sat by the base of a tree until he saw his way out of the clouds of delusion. We don’t have to find a tree to sit under (it’s chilly and there may not be a convenient tree nearby) but we can find our way daily to our meditation cushion.
For some of us, it’s easy to sustain a daily sitting practice. For others, it is more challenging. Although most of us have a sincere aspiration, it isn’t always easy to stop what we’re involved in and to simply sit still.
It is helpful to remind ourselves again and again that sitting nourishes our larger intention which brought us to the cushion in the first place, just as it did the Buddha. We know that this intention is nested inside our larger intention to live in accordance with our deepest purpose.
Finding our way to our cushions can be a meandering path, with many distractions on the way. But if we keep in mind this larger intention, we are less likely to get waylaid by things that momentarily appear to be more compelling. Even as we experience the push and pull of distractions, this larger intention can be our guide. If the Buddha had paused to check his e-mail and place a call or two on his way to the Bodhi tree, he may never have made it there at all on the night when it really mattered – the night of his awakening.
We chose this path to begin with because we learned from the Buddha that it is in service of our deepest aspirations. The new year is a wonderful time to renew our intention to sit daily to nourish those aspirations. Let’s begin again together.
P.S. The ongoing support of a sangha can powerfully strengthen intention and resolve. I invite you to join me for Dharma in Daily Life (DDL), every weekday morning from 8:45-9:00 am on Zoom.