There's a particular beauty in discovering how wisdom about intention flows through different traditions, each current distinct yet somehow feeding the same ocean of understanding. Let me share what I've found in these waters.
In the yoga tradition, there's Sankalpa - a word that carries more weight than its simple translation as "intention." When Yogi Amrit Desai speaks of it, saying
"When you set an intention, you align your actions with your inner truth, creating a pathway for personal transformation,"
he's touching something fundamental about human consciousness. His daughter Kamini would later expand this teaching, showing how this alignment isn't merely behavioral but soul-deep, a way of remembering rather than becoming.
Maya Angelou understood this remembering. When she declared,
"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style,"
she wasn't just crafting a memorable phrase. She was speaking to that place in us that knows living fully is our birthright. Her words carry the weight of history yet rise above it, showing how personal intention can transform both the individual and the collective story we're all writing together.
The Yoruba tradition offers another layer of understanding through the profound saying, "Ori la ba bo, a ba f'orisa sile" - "It is the inner head we ought to worship, and let the ORISA be."
Here, 'ORI' speaks to something more than consciousness; it points to that divine spark within us that knows our path before we walk it. This wisdom suggests that our deepest intentions don't come from outside ourselves but rise from that sacred interior space where truth resides.
What moves me about these intersecting traditions is how they each illuminate different facets of the same truth: that intention isn't about forcing change but about aligning with one's authentic nature. Whether through Sankalpa's systematic approach, Mother Angelou's poetic declaration, or the Yoruba understanding of ORI, we're being shown various paths up the same mountain.
This isn't about choosing between traditions or trying to collapse rich spiritual systems into simple equivalences. Rather, it's about recognizing how different cultures have mapped this territory of human transformation, each offering its own precious insights into how we might live more fully, more truthfully.
The power in these teachings lies not in their ancientness but in their aliveness - in how they continue to speak to our modern condition, offering ways to navigate the complexity of being human in this moment. They remind us that setting intentions isn't just a practice for self-improvement but a way of claiming our place in the ongoing story of human consciousness.
In the end, these traditions teach us that true intention rises from a place deeper than desire, speaks with a voice clearer than ambition, and transforms not just the individual but the world they touch.
That's not just philosophy - that's power.
Enjoy this somatic moment :
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