Intention & Meditation

My Higher Ego disciplines my Lower Ego under the angelic guidance of my Guardian Ego, and I have even had glimpses of liberation: the fully expanded Ego. Besides, I can always pray to my supreme Ego, whom I call God.... Ah Me!

How do I know that my spiritual practice makes me a better person? Is there something in silence that dissolves my negative tendencies and nurtures my positive ones? Or will a bank robber who meditates just become a calmer bank robber?

Surely the key is my intention. Intention is the link between the field of karma and the field of silence. 

As Patanjali points out in his Yoga Sutras, there is a subtle technique called samyama. Samyama means that my awareness can form an intention just before I dissolve into formless samadhi. It is like holding a seed, then dropping it into a dark furrow. Samyama is the link between moral and spiritual practice. This is why the eight limbs of Yoga include the Yamas and Niyamas, the do's and don'ts of ethical action. A spiritual practice disconnected from moral intention is as ignorant as having no spiritual practice at all.

Western religious traditions often over-emphasize moral action, to the exclusion of inner silence. But "Eastern" teachings as they are popularized in the New Age often overlook the moral precepts, embracing meditation alone. This was never originally true in the religions of Asia and India.

A gentle but firm intention before meditation, which can be in the form of a prayer, gives trajectory to formless silence. It is an impulse whose momentum carries over from the relative field to the absolute, like a current within the sea, or a fluctuation of probability within the vacuum.

Intention before meditation is pointing the arrow in a chosen direction before letting it go. First there is pointing, then release. There is no value in pointing the arrow if one doesn't let it go; but is there any value in letting go without pointing the arrow?

The space inside this drawn bow overflows with creative silence. Where do I point the arrow of my love?