Thich Nhat Hanh teaches four practices for right intention that can offer us clarity as we close out our month of practice.

1. Ask yourself, “Are you sure?”  Hanh suggests that we place this question somewhere we can see it regularly. It reminds us that false perception is at the heart of so much misunderstanding. When we get in the habit of asking ourselves to check our perceptions, we are far more likely to move toward wisdom.
2. Ask yourself, “What am I doing?” This second question is about mindfulness and purpose. We often do things without even thinking about it. We regularly react before we ever consciously decided what to do. Making our actions conscious, and noticing when they’re not, will help us see where our intentions take us.
3. Recognize your habit energies. By habit energies, Hanh means those habits that have become so engrained and instinctive to us that they carry their own life force with them. Once something becomes a habit energy, it’s not just about a one-time event. It’s a pattern of always responding a certain way, as if on auto-pilot. Workaholism is a habit energy. Negativity is a habit energy. So is avoidance, or defensiveness, or self-doubt. If we want to cultivate right intention, we have to gain awareness of our own habit energies. And when we find ones that don’t serve us, we get serious about breaking the pattern and replacing it with something better.
4. Cultivate bodhicitta. This last one is the most difficult to summarize. Basically, bodhicitta is the state of awakening mind. It’s a very personal, experiential thing. You don’t cultivate bodhicitta by thinking about it or reading about it. It happens when you find yourself in a moment of enlightenment. When you have these moments of clarity, you know what causes suffering. Bodhicitta is a quality of openness of heart where you want to experience less suffering, and see others experience less suffering, too. The reason this is important for right intention is because you really won’t be able to seek compassion, loving-kindness, goodwill, or harmlessness toward others if you don’t have this internal openness of heart. I love how Ken McLeod says bodhicitta is the commitment that “we are going to use whatever life throws at us to wake up.” (And FYI, that links to a deeper dive article into bodhicitta for those of you who are interested.)

In cultivating right intention, we begin with an open heart. And we end with keeping our heart open. When our heart is open, we can move away from fear, from reaction, from anger and defensiveness. When we are open, compassion and goodwill can flourish.

This post is part of my series on the Eightfold Path. You can read all my posts on Right Intention here.