Refining Our Intentions
Jim Burklo 1-7-07
Two years ago this weekend, I joined with the rest of us here at our church for Goals Poster Sunday. With a bunch of others, I sat in Thomson Hall downstairs and with scizzors, glue, and old magazines I made a poster illustrating my goals for the year. That time, I made a colorful poster that illustrated my intention of finishing a novel I was writing. I put it up above my desk in my church office and looked at it every day. Almost a year later, just within days of the next Goals Poster Sunday, my novel was completed. I am sure the poster had a big effect on reaching that goal.
Of course, writing it was the easy part! I have yet to find a publisher who will put it into print. Anybody know a good literary agent??
Last year, I made a very different poster. My goal was to ask my wife a lot more questions. I have had a bad habit of assuming I know what she wants. So I made another colorful poster with the word ASK at the top. I put it up in my office and looked at it every day last year. I am not going to assume that I reached my goal. You will have to ask Roberta if I reached it or not. But I can say that I definitely asked more questions of her than ever. I’m sure I have a long way to go!
So I have come to believe pretty strongly in the effectiveness of this longstanding tradition at Sausalito Presbyterian. The glue, scizzors, magazines, and poster paper are waiting for you downstairs after worship. Have fun, and be careful what goals you choose to illustrate! It’s a powerful discipline.
A few months ago, Roberta’s daughter lent us her copy of the DVD of a film called The Secret. It’s a series of clips of skits and short talks by new-age speakers illustrating the power of positive visualization. The gist of the film is that if you visualize what you want, and evoke from yourself the feelings of already having what you want even before you get it, then you will attract what you want and it will come to you.
I had two contradictory feelings about the movie. One was that it was a nicely-done dramatization of what is, at one level, perennial wisdom. It’s no secret that our attitudes matter a lot and that the way we think really does have a powerful effect on the world. We need to be careful about what we intend, because often our intentions become realities. Our negative thoughts do increase the likelihood of negative outcomes. Our positive thoughts do increase the likelihood of positive outcomes. The movie was good at inspiring viewers to reflect on their thoughts and become active and intentional about the way they think and visualize.
On the other hand, the film was revolting to me in its emphasis on getting fancy material possessions through the power of positive thinking. It displayed a glaring lack of social consciousness and conscience. At the same time, my reaction to the film’s glorification of using mind-power to get big mansions and fancy cars got me to thinking about the extent to which the financial challenges in my life have been the result of negative thinking about money. I tend to think that grubbing for material possessions is beneath me, so sure enough, I have had a certain amount of trouble making ends meet over the years.
The movie suggested that everything can work out perfectly in a world where people get clear about what they intend. It argued that since people want different things, everybody can get exactly what they want without any conflict. The film suggested that my positive thinking won’t get in the way of your positive thinking. But that’s just not true. The power of positive thinking by billions of fungi spores destabilizing a dying tree is powerful enough to make that tree fall on a house in a windstorm and counteract whatever positive thinking the owner had about the house being kept safe from damage. The power of positive thinking by a corporate executive who is aiming to buy another company so he can shut down the competition is in direct conflict with the positive thinking of the executive of the company targeted for takeover. This sort of conflict of positive visualization by people or things with contradictory intentions – it happens all the time.
These everyday facts debunk the excessive claims of the movie, but they only emphasizes the real perennial wisdom, the eternal verity that willpower is indeed powerful. Positive thinking is forceful at every level of existence, from human consciousness down to that of subatomic particles. The clash of wills can result in cataclysms of cosmic proportions. Or it can result in synergies that are phenomenally creative and beautiful. So we need to consider carefully what we want, not just by ourselves, but with others. We need to align our desires and intentions so they will increase harmony and justice in the world, and then activate our imaginations to visualize these healthy intentions, in order to increase the likelihood of them coming into being. Positive thinking and the principle of attraction can result in terrible conflicts and failures. So we need to activate our consciences when we activate our imaginations. We need to work together as a human family to make sacrifices and adjustments so that as many of us as possible can reach as many of our goals as possible. Positive thinking and visualization and attraction aren’t just tasks for us as individuals seeking our own selfish aims. They are spiritual tools for us to employ as communities and societies through self-transcending compassion.
The movie The Secret was a lot of fun in the way it portrayed the activation of the imagination in the service of making our intentions into reality. One scene was particularly entertaining as the narrator described how a person who wishes he had a fancy car could let his imagination run wild, sitting in his living room imagining that already owned the car, holding out his hands as if gripping the wheel, pretending to feel the speed and the wind whipping by as he drove it, full of joy. Indeed, such visualization really does enhance the likelihood of that person to one day own that car, because his strong desire will guide his actions and choices and sort out his priorities so that he will get closer to that goal.
But why not let the imagination run a lot farther? Once you take hold of the wheel of your mind, and activate your ability to visualize what doesn’t exist yet but might exist in the future, why not go the distance? Visualize not just the speed and the smooth handling and the power of the car, but also visualize its impacts on the environment. Visualize the social impact of the car – of any car – on the world around you. And then visualize ways that those impacts can be changed for the better. Visualize a fast car that runs on hydrogen. Visualize driving a hot car that is made of recycled and recylable materials. Visualize all of this with joy, with enthusiasm for shifting gears on a sports car in air that is clear, driving past water that is clean, past communities that once were poor but will become comfortable and safe.
Visualize your dream house, sure. But why stop there? Visualize it not by itself, but in a community where other people get to have their dream homes, too. Visualize healthy, happy tradeoffs where suburban sprawl is replaced by denser but more attractive, safe, and convivial urban communities.
Why visualize only what’s good for you, when you could let your imagination run even wilder and freer by visualizing the common good? Why limit your imagination only to what serves your own interests, when you could enjoy the fun of imagining a better world for everybody? The potential of our minds is staggering. Why would we suppose that our minds are limited to imagining only what’s good for ourselves, when our brains are plenty powerful enough to visualize the positive transformation of the whole human race?
Which brings us to today – Goals Poster Sunday. We do it not in the isolation of our own homes – we do it in community, opening ourselves to the influence and the inclusion of others and their needs as we refine our intentions.