Written by Mathew Naismith
“There is nothing more soothing than being in the moment of
love and beauty void of any intentions what so ever “.
I shot consecutive photographs of a lovely sky as the sun
was abating, not knowing what was actually in the photographs; I shot these
photos just before Christmas and I never knew one of these shots had a heart silhouetted
in the sky while taking these shots.
The funny thing is I took consecutive shots and only one of
the photos had this heart silhouetted in the sky, this was quite strange for
this kind of cloud pattern because this kind of high level cloud doesn’t move
all that quickly. There were no intentions by me to take a shot with a heart silhouetted
in the sky, I saw a lovely sky with the sun abating quite low in the horizon and
I shot consecutive photos ignorant to the heart in the sky.
The one thing to be aware of with intentions is it’s always
in reference to the future; it’s only conducive to aims or plans, it has
nothing to do with just being within the present moment.
What we western people seem to do is try to use more than
one spiritual concept at the same time that, at times, can be counterproductive.
Can anyone be within the present moment
(now) and also be of intentions? Trying to live by these two concepts at the
same time is indeed counterproductive; they can actually cancel each other out depending
on what kind of intention we are using.
Because active intentions is more about forcing a plan or
goal rather than going with the flow, active intentions can be highly counterproductive
to being just within the moment, this isn’t the same with passive intentions.
Active intentions are also more likely to be in retaliation to a situation in
life like being more positive than negative; this is good except we are still being
judgemental of what we have judged as having less value.
Passive intentions is more about allowing a plan to come
together rather than forcing it, passive intentions allow us to mould such plans
within our present moment (lives) without creating too much trauma. Passive
intentions are also not about a retaliative reaction to something we have
judged as unbecoming for some reason, this is why, if we need to have intentions,
passive intentions works more with the present moment rather than against it.
If you are going to live by the concept of living in the
now, it’s advisable not to have too many intentions.
What is also counterproductive in the west is judgment, it
is a good idea to lesson our judgments and especially being judgemental, this
again is determined by what kind of intentions we are living by. A lot of people actually judge judgment as
being negative therefor unbecoming in some way; this is brought about by active
intentions I believe. We are not supposed
to be judgmental but we judge being in judgement quite severally.
You don’t get this reaction with passive intention, passive
intentions is about accepting judgement for what it is, just a different path
to follow without judging this path too harshly as just plain negative.
Particularly in the west we need to be aware of the counter
productiveness of what certain concept are going to have with each other, yes
we have a huge array of spiritual concepts to follow but I think we need to beware
of mixing and matching these concepts together, it is in my mind adding a fair
amount of confusion into our lives rather than taking this confusion away.
Self-empowerment is always conducive to future plans but
while we are being so self-empowered, we are not living within the present moment
and within this stillness of the moment. Self-empowerment takes a lot of active intentions
to bring about, this stops us from experiencing the very moment we are in and experiencing
what living in the present moment can give.
Yes it might feel we are in the present moment while being
actively intentional but that is not the case, you can’t live for the future
with intentions and be of the present moment at the same time, just something to
ponder!!
There is nothing like living in the present moment, this is
one path, there is also nothing like living with active intentions, this is
another path, each path has it’s merits and is only a path for us to follow or
not, they are not bad or good, negative or positive, they are only paths we can
either follow or not. It’s advisable not
to try to follow two paths at the same time that can be quite counterproductive
to each other, follow one path or the other for they are only paths, there is
nothing to judge but of course being in judgement is but another path not to be
judged.
