O My Servant! Obey Me and
I shall make thee like unto Myself. I say 'Be,' and it is, and thou shalt say
'Be,' and it shall be.
(Baha'u'llah, The Four Valleys: 63)
Intentionality
is the power to advance toward some conscious goal or object. I have said that we can advance either
through the power of reason, or through the power of faith, but when these
powers work together they reinforce each other.
To make a simple, somewhat arbitrary and inaccurate, comparison, we
reason with known things, but we use faith with the unknown. As Saint Paul put it: “Now, faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (The Book of Hebrews 11:1) When we reason,
as in science, art and craftsmanship, we use primarily human power. But when we move into intention by faith we need
divine power.
Intentionality
of any kind is bringing something to an intended state, which is the state of
realization. It is guiding the process
of transforming potentiality into actuality.
It starts with a formal cause, or image finding material form. But the potential to reach the final form or manifest
goal must be there. So material cause is
a given. The steps needed to reach
intention must be possible, so there is efficient cause. Finally, purpose must play its part; i.e. one
must intend for a reason. Thus, there is
also final cause.
For
me, in order for humans to best actualize intentionality, which is a likeness
to the intentionality of the Manifestations, individuals need the Prophets and
Their Words, for these Words are the divine vibrations of consciousness that
organize the creation. All created
things are “intended” from the Creative Word of God, the divine intent. Of the power of His own Revelation to realize
its “intent” Baha’u’llah claims: “All that hath been sent down hath and will
come to pass, word for word, upon earth.” (Epistle
to the Son of the Wolf: 150) We
cannot do as well, of course. Nonetheless,
we intend in the same way. But while “He
doeth as He willeth”, we do the best we can.
Our intention is contingent upon His confirmation. By identifying Revelation as divine intent
that is infused throughout the creation, and knowing that we are made in His
image, after His likeness in all respects, we properly place human creative
power in that middle slot between believing that we are but poor, helpless,
dependent creatures, and believing that intentionality makes us completely
independent and god-like. In the middle
ground, we are powerful yet humble. Human intentionality is like divine power, but
our intentionality only imitates the Divine and should connect to It.
Some
recent philosophers of intentionality recognize the pervasiveness of some universal
organizing Will. Dr. Wayne Dyer, author
of the popular book The Power of
Intention, calls intention “a force that exists in the universe as an
invisible field of energy.” (The Power of
Intention:4) It is a universal field
“because everything in the universe has intention built into it.” (Ibid. 6) A team
of neuroscientists remarks: “After centuries of inquiry, philosophers have come
to suggest that true reality possesses an unmistakable
quality….phenomenologists describe it as intentionality.” (Newberg et al. Why God Won’t Go Away)
Revelation
is the divine intentional power that brings or calls all things into being, a
master field of thought that surrounds all living things and which is composed
of potentialities that human intention can build into material and intellectual
forms. We live and move in this field. How does our thought cooperate with the
divine power?
There
are many approaches, using similar techniques, to do this. But central to every approach is the idea
that intentionality as the process of creating or reconfiguring reality, starts
with a mental image of the reality one intends to achieve. This image creates a prototype that physical potential
can conform to. Think of a computer
analogy: intentionality is being able through the use of directed thought to
write a certain program to actualize some of the potentials of the
universe---much like word processing software carries out pre-programmed
command functions so that words appear on the screen.
True
enough, but just any old thought will not do.
“We know the frequencies of thoughts are neither consistent nor constant;
they exist, cease to exist, and exist again, in a continuous on-and-off
pattern.” (Valerie Hunt, Infinite Mind
:142) The average thought lasts at most
a few seconds before it ceases to exist, or is replaced by a new thought in
that on-going internal chatter we call everyday consciousness. One must hold a thought for it to have
effect. A few seconds is hardly time
enough for an image to be imprinted upon the flux of moving matter, let alone
long enough for that image to be received and the universe decide to respond to
it. Physicist William Tiller says: “It
is terribly important to sustain the thought and the intention if you want to
make a transformation occur…when one wants to focus intent, you want to be a
singleness of mind.” He further states: "a
persistent and consistent intention, maintained with patient but focused power,
usually achieves correlated events in our 4-D frame of experience."
(Tiller, Science and Human Transformation:90)
‘Abdu’l-Baha
concurs: “So long as the thoughts of an individual are scattered he will
achieve no results, but if his thinking be concentrated on a single point
wonderful will be the fruits thereof.
One cannot obtain the full force of the sunlight when it is cast on a
flat mirror, but once the sun shineth upon a concave mirror, or on a lens that
is convex, all its heat will be concentrated on a single point, and that one
point will burn the hottest. Thus is it necessary to focus one’s thinking on a
single point so that it will become an effective force.”(Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha:110)
The
power of the mental image to materialize depends in large measure upon the
vitality of the original image itself and the willingness to hold that image in
mind for a period long enough for it have effect. This may be more difficult than it
sounds. Holding a thought is difficult
itself. But one must also overcome one’s
own internal and the world’s external resistance to change. Thought attracts its physical equivalent,
acting as a kind of gravitational power.
But because of the principal of resonance, intention attracts other
thoughts and feelings that will work to either reinforce or to sabotage one’s
efforts; that is to say, thought will attract energies both positive and
malignant to it. Hence in regards to the
realization of intent, the intentional thought attracts help at the same time
that it attracts obstacles to its own realization. Hence perseverance—what Tiller called “patient
but focused power”—is essential to the realization of intention.
Thus
moderation is necessary. We cannot by
force of will hold a thought, but we can be persistent in returning to it. Too, intentionality is not deadly serious. In fact, regardless of statements such as
“being intent upon something”, and “fixing one’s purpose”, there should also be
the element of “play”: what psychologists call “flow.” If intentionality becomes over-conscious and
over-serious then it becomes WORK.
Intentionality is the creative process, and play is the foundation of creativity.
We often miss this part, because we live in a culture obsessed with
wringing an external result from everything we do. Play is not external or extrinsic. It's not
about the end, but the experience. It is highly imaginative and thus obeys the
imagination’s creative principle, namely, “Let this be.” Healing prayers, it has been suggested, work
best when the prayer simply asks the “universe” to allow a sick person to
heal. The prayer that demands healing is
actually a kind of anxiety attack. To
force the “universe” to obey one’s prayer is childish, not child-like, and is
likely to get some pushback from that universe.
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