Andrea Fella: Intention, Motivation and Purpose

(Insight Meditation South Bay - Silicon Valley) This talk was given as a part of the series "Where Rubber Meets the Road: A Series on Mindful Living." When we start to meditate, we notice how much our body and mind influence each other. In the teachings of the Buddha, he highlighted a quality of mind at which this point of connection between body and mind happens. It's a factor in the mind he called "intention" or "volition." Intention or volition is a mental urge that impels us to act. Every action that we do of body, of speech, of mind, has this impulse that precedes it. With practice, it is possible to see this urge or impulse. With an intention to act comes motivation -- the reason why we are going to do something or say something. The Buddha said that this is an interesting place to pay attention to, because when we are not aware of our motivations, our habits of mind (such as greed, aversion and delusion) are choosing our motivations for us, and often those habits are not so helpful. So at this moment of choice when we have this intention to act, the motivation that accompanies that intention is what will either lead us down the path towards more struggle in our lives, or lead us down the path towards more happiness in our lives.