The Power of Intention (念力的力量)

When I was finally back from Dharma Drum Mountain’s 7 Days of Silent Illumination Meditation Retreat (法鼓山默照禪七), everyone asked me how it went. Well… Maybe because I didn’t know how to relax, or I had too much expectation without realizing it, or I caught a cold and lacked of sleep and it was getting incredibly chilly… Anyway, all I knew was that this was the hardest and most exhausting retreat for me, quite opposite from how a lot of other people felt. I didn’t have much to say about my meditation, but I did get to see the power of my intentions and would like to share it with you. And, nope, I hadn’t read those famous books in this field, such as “The Secret“, “The Intention Experiment“, and many books in this field.

和花與果祺法師

Back in February 2008 and at the end of my second 7 Day Meditation Retreat at DDM, I remembered thinking in my head: “I like my first retreat Room 305 more… far from the meditation hall with less traffic and less noise…  Also, it would be nice to have No. 6 bed (the one right next to window), so I would have more room and wouldn’t get too hot from my sleeping bag. And, please, I’m sick of doing dishes! Couldn’t I go clean the women’s bathrooms instead?” Obviously I wasn’t terribly happy with my last experience.

During the two meditations under Teacher Hong Chi-sung (洪啟嵩老師) in the States, I desperately would like a room of non-snoring ladies to get some good night sleep.

Those were just my little wishes. I knew in theory that I shouldn’t be effected by them, since the purpose of meditation was to train my mind not being effected by my environment. But in reality I was only a beginner and would need as much help as I could to have a mediocre meditation experience.

和花與常賡法師

So as I arrived at the registration desk at DDM and picked up my name tag, I was astonished to find out that I indeed got Room 305’s No. 6 bed! Wow! Could this be possible? And somehow 4 people didn’t show up, so our room actually had the lowest occupancy and magically no one snored in our room. (On the very last day, I learned that other rooms wasn’t this quite as ours; one of them was even like what I had experienced in NY. Poor girls…)

About a couple of hours later as the master assigned everyone’s task, I did get to clean THAT women’s bathroom! And because I was the team lead, I could decide what to do and assign tasks. (I did get to use the bathrooms we cleaned a lot during this retreat and pretty happy with what we’d done. )

This was all quite incredible already, but, wait, there was more. On the fifth day, the cold I caught from others during the retreat got worse. My sore throat at the end of each meditation session got so bad that I was unable to focus on the proper method. After a couple of sessions, I started thinking, “Damn, I wished that I had prepared some Eight Immortals Fruit (八仙果) or some throat candies!” I really didn’t expect that I would catch a cold, so I didn’t prepare anything in case that happened.

淑娟, Amanda, 淑玲

After dinner, my bathroom cleaning partner, 楊淑娟, and I got called to the office. We didn’t know that we both got called; we thought that something bad happened at home and got very nervous for the bad news. It turned out that a nun asked us to change a couple of things at our bathroom cleaning and nothing else. What a big relief! On the way back we chat a little about that we wished they could deliver the news less gravely to give us the wrong impression. (Yes, we weren’t supposed to talk during the 7 days, but assigning tasks was one of the few exceptions and now this. )

Then out of nowhere, she asked me, “Is your throat hurting?”

I was surprised and answered, “Yup, but how do you know?”

She handed me half a small package of Eight Immortals Fruit and told me, “Keep it. I got another package of it.”

my roommates ?? and 淑玲

I was speechless! The timing was impeccable! If we didn’t get called to the office, I wouldn’t have gotten it. If my bathroom cleaning partner was someone else, then this wouldn’t happen. And the timing was curious. It was just a series of “coincidences” that made this incident unbelievable.

Not until the last day before hanging out with a few other girls and chatted about my incredible experience, I found that everyone actually had a few of their own as well. (My bathroom cleaning partner actually made a wish to clean bathrooms as well.) So what did this mean? Everyone had the power of intention! But then how come not everyone’s intention got fulfilled?

佩薰

I learned this from Reborn Class I (睿朋心靈基因改造班): From Thinking (心想) to Happening (事成), there were 3 requirements that had to be fulfilled first:

1. One had to clear one’s bad karma/obstacles.
2. One had to focus on what one wanted and could not have a backup plan.
3. One had to work hard towards the goal.

Of course, the goal had to be a positive one. Hopefully this tip helps!