My true life sits in the present moment perfectly balanced between the heart and the intellect with a complete realization of their simultaneous existence.
My intellect is the peephole on the door to the unknown, and my true life is looking through it on both sides. Everything that I know now was once unknown, and it will one day return to that great mystery.
My intellect must have some sort of affirmation to continue in the direction of the unknown, otherwise it will attempt to change course. This affirmation is guided by attention and intention. By examining the words themselves I realize the quality of their truth and where this intellectual affirmation can be found. At-tention tells me to look at something. While in-tention tells me to look within. Attention is focused on what is known and seen, while intention on what is unknown and felt. A true affirmation--one that brings the heart and intellect into balance--can only be found by a combination of genuine intention and focused attention.
To realize the heart in this lifetime—to make it a living reality—I have to place my intention into what is unknown. Focused attention is of the intellect, and this can be a useful tool to pacify it so that it subsides enough and allows my heart to be realized. To keenly focus on one thing is a great way to realize the heart, because instead of falsely claiming truth of everything, my intellect only claims truth of one thing and it explores it with greater depth. In this meditative focused state, my throbbing pulsating heart of the unknown is realized in that which surrounds and is also contained within my object of attention. In this way, I train the intellect to mostly subside, which can possibly allow my true heart to enter. Because of this unknown presence of heart and the known benefits it yields, we are programmed to believe that focused attention towards one or two objects (such as a spouse, or career) will create true peace and fulfillment. While this is true to some extent, it is rare to provide lasting peace because it has the potential of causing unending pain if the object is ever lost or changed--which intellectually speaking, it will certainly be lost at some point. Secondly, if this focused attention is absent of affirmations of the heart, it will be difficult to maintain and fully realize in every aspect of life because of the intellect's greater purpose of explaining everything that is not known. By itself, my intellect cannot stay focused on one thing forever because it will eventually claim it as known and then move on to the next. It cannot sit still for a lifetime. It must keep going. So to focus it on the heart, the unknown depth of life itself, requires a genuine intention to not waiver and some sort of true affirmation to continue on that path.
If I place genuine intention into any action, the result is secondary, inconsequential, and unknown from the beginning. Intention is not of the intellect, it is completely of the heart. It cannot be gauged, documented, or even seen. It is my loving faith. This genuine intention is the realization of the unknown by its own existence within my humanity. It is intentional action that makes us fully human.
How do I know my intention? I do not.
I can only feel my intention in ways that are not of the intellect. My intention cannot fully be described in words, thoughts, or actions--it can only be realized in the heart and seen afterwards as affirmations which are known.
But if my heart is unknown, how do I know that my intention is genuine? I realize this by the true affirmation that genuine intention is reality.
Everything is intentional. This means all of life is guided by intentional action. So to align my life with reality, I must align my intention with that of life. I must fully believe in the un-known to have genuine intention. To place my faith in the mysterious wonder that life is full of unknown qualities to be explored to infinity by the intellect, is the most genuine intention I can offer. My genuine intention is a conscious choice to place my focused attention on the heart with total abandonment of what came before or what I think the result should be. To be lived in the present moment by my intention is the realization of my true heart. It is the realization of God.
This is deeper than just “trying my best”, moral laws, or being passively kind and gentle towards the life I see. It is beyond any word that can be placed on it. It is reaching through to the very depth of the fact that I even have a life to begin with. To have a life at all is the genuine intention. It is not an intellectual intention, because, literally speaking, my intellect formed many years after my life began. In the center of my senses, in the core of my being, something is saying yes to me being here--something that I am not in control of. My heart is saying yes. My physical heart was beating long before I could open my eyes, breathe, speak, or think. Even now, I can close my eyes, slow my breath, choose my thoughts, plug my ears and so on...but the heart has no choice. To stop the heart is death--and to stop the true heart of life is impossible. My true heart is saying yes to the entire universe and is carrying it out through infinite intentional action. The choice I am intellectually faced with is a continuous question of acceptance or denial. The true answer to this question--in practical daily life--can only come from my intention.
To illustrate this further I consider a piano a good metaphor. The genuine intention of a piano is music. Music is not limited to the piano, and nor is it an end result of the piano. Music came before the piano as a genuine intention to be played and will eternally exist--even if the keys are never touched. Even if all pianos are obliterated--never to be made again--the genuine intention remains; a piano is made for music. Any song that comes from a piano is simply an affirmation of the original intention.
Said differently, the genuine intention of a human is Life. Life is not limited to the human, and nor is it an end result of the human. Life came before the human as a genuine intention to be lived and will eternally exist--even if the Life is never truly lived. Even if the human race is obliterated and never reborn, the genuine intention remains; a human is made for Life. Any true Life that comes from the human is simply an affirmation of the original intention.
This does not mean my life is planned. A plan only comes after the intention. My plans are temporary intellectual steps to achieve an expected result, only after the genuine intention is realized by my heart. I can only plan to learn the piano after the intention of music has brought the piano into existence. Plans are useful tools, but the genuine intention is what makes the plan possible and will remain even if or when the plans fall through.
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