The Road to Nirvana Is Paved with Skillful Intentions
Good intentions are often misunderstood and misjudged, leading to a reputation that isn’t always deserved. People may mistakenly think their intentions are good when they are actually misguided, or they may be unaware of the consequences of their actions.
Additionally, the results of a bad intention in the past can overshadow the positive effects of a good intention in the present, causing people to become disillusioned with the potential of good intentions.
This can lead to cynicism or an unwillingness to put in the effort needed to ensure good intentions are properly executed.
The Buddha taught that our intentions are the primary factor in shaping our lives and can be honed like any other skill.
If we practice mindfulness, persistence, and discernment in developing our intentions, we can reach a state of true happiness without regrets or negative consequences.
To do this, however, requires a high level of self-awareness. This is because our disappointment with good intentions often comes from delusion in how we formulate, perceive, and attend to them.
Greed, aversion, and delusion are the three main causes of unskillful mental habits, which can easily take root in an untrained heart and cloud our intentions.
To ensure our intentions are truly skillful, we must identify and remove these unskillful roots.
