Living the intentional life is not really a complicated thing. Really, the only thing we need to learn is how to get out of our own way and let the power of our intention carry us along. Intention is such a powerful current that, like a large river, it will take us where we want to go if we let it. However, in our desire to seem diligent and industrious, often build dams in the flow of our intention or decide it’s better to fight the current. We think that working hard makes us look more noble, so most of us make things difficult on ourselves, but we are going to be following the flow of the river one way or another. The force is that strong. Still, there are a few concepts that are helpful to understand when we decided we want to live life intentionally. They aren’t very difficult if you allow yourself to be open to them. One of these concepts was so beautifully described in a tarot spread last weekend that I couldn’t help but use it for an article and video. This isn’t a syllogism or any kind of proof, but a simple description of what seems to be a foundational truth. The short version is that this entire physical universe and all of our experiences in it flow from and within the nonphysical realm of spirit; and from spirit, manifestation moves to consciousness and then physical manifestation.
The universe and every experience we have in it is a manifestation from the void. We can imagine this void as a zero point, because there is no space or time for this eternal and infinite void. It is eternal and infinite. We can call this pre-universe existence God, or Allah, or Brahma, or Buddha, or Divine Mother, or Great Spirit, or anything we want. The name is not important. This is the Oneness from which new ideas are born. It is the spiritual substance from which consciousness was born. This is the omniscience that is before thought, the omnipotence before power and energy, and it is the omnipresence before there is space. It is also where our eternal consciousness originates, and so is the source of not only our individual and collective creations, but it is also the trigger for our personal transformation because our transformation in the physical realm is fueled by our eternal spiritual natures calling us in the direction we want to go. It is also the source from which intention flows, still unformed but powerful. If we can reclaim our certainty in or spiritual nature while we are having this human experience, and open ourselves to the possibilities that exist in that realm of infinite potential which is the Void, we can begin to understand how we manifest the lives we are living.
We might envision consciousness as the first stage of creation because it is in consciousness that we begin to become aware of objects like light and dark. One function of consciousness is mind, and mind is the faculty that directs creation. Our pure mind, the mind that is also eternal and existed before these bodies we inhabit and will exist after these bodies are gone, can comprehend the order and infinite potential that exists in the realm that fluctuates between spirit and form. It is the realm in which particles that are millions of light years apart can communicate instantaneously. Though this field of all potential appears random to the manifested human mind, it is following the laws of creation that naturally began to evolve before time existed. This is also the space of flux between energy and matter. Since our human minds using human logic and reason are inadequate for all of the information that exists and is flowing even within the space of our own bodies, to allow creation, we want to maintain our alignment between our thoughts and our full Selves, or that eternal Mind/Consciousness I mentioned before. Manifestation flows from the realm of pure potential into the physical by direction of consciousness and pure mind. It is our awareness that shapes our individual realities and our combined, collective awareness that shapes the broader experience of our physical universe, a universe that we are constantly co-creating. When we are aligned within ourselves we can realize our personal desires, but that is not all. We can also be the joyful co-creators of the desires of others because all of this physical experience is a co-creation. The flow between the individual and collective mind creates each of our individual universes which are facets of the greater universe and the abundance therein.
The potential for manifesting abundance is around and within us. All we have to do is ask. We develop a desire, and spirit, for want of a better description, jumps onboard. When we are in alignment, we head toward the manifestation of our desire. This is how everything we experience as manifest reality is created, both the things that we want and the things that we think we don’t want. Our limited and unstable human minds, in the process of manifestation, bring areas of challenge and limitation along with our belief in the infinite potential of creation, so it is a good idea to recognize our limiting beliefs. It is our limiting beliefs and fears that shift us away from the flow of our intention which would naturally carry us in the direction of our dreams. This is not to say that while flowing in the direction of our intention we will encounter only experiences that we think are wonderful and amazing. We will encounter negative as well. We want those experiences that we perceive as negative to help us to shape new desires or to clarify the ones we already have. We will also notice that some desires once achieved, sour over time. That is also good because it moves us forward in creation rather than falling prey to inertia and stagnation. However, our fears and limiting beliefs do something unhelpful; they stop us in our tracks or even move us in the opposite direction from where we want to go. The solution is to observe our limiting beliefs and fears and let them dissolve in the light of love and understanding. Resisting them, fighting against them, or trying to destroy them will only give them energy and make them stronger. The only solution I know of is to shine the light of love, joy, and wellbeing on them, and let them melt over time.
One source of our limiting beliefs is, oddly enough, materialism. When I say that materialism is limiting and negative, I do not mean that we should shun the material universe and experience. The reason we are here in bodies is to enjoy this beautiful, interesting, exiting, and potentially joyful world. The material is our raison d’être. The problem is that we become attached to the material and resist moving on from one experience to another. It might help if you could think of it this way. The non-physical exists only in the present moment. There is no past and really no future in spirit. There is only the eternal now. It is only in the physical universe that there is that perceived flow of time. Spirit is living in joy, love, and wellbeing in the present, not the past because it is gone, and not the future because it is only an illusion. Manifestation flows from an imagined future to the present to the past. The moment of physical manifestation is the present, but that manifestation is constantly flowing into the past for a new manifestation to be possible. You can think of it like frames of film through a movie projector. Even if the image seems stable, it is constantly being recreated through projection. In manifested form, we tend to see things we like, and instead of enjoying them as they are and letting them flow naturally into the past, we try to grab hold and try to resist the flow of time. We keep dragging ourselves back into the past with this attachment to the material. The paradox is that if we can release our materialism we can create more easily because we aren’t so focused on what we have perceived and is moving into the rearview mirror, and we can allow more to come into existence in front of and around us. The way to allow this negative brand of materialism to dissolve is to develop a stronger habit of returning to alignment, and to grow in love, joy, wellbeing, and clear awareness.
Our self-love and happiness are our natural states, and it is from this basis that we are the most powerful creators. It is in our full alignment with eternal Self and temporal self that we can frolic through the physical universe and leave it joyfully. In a way, manifestation is a cycle of consciousness and intention that flows into physical and returns to the non-physical. That is the basic concept for manifesting an intentional life.
