Path of Action

I might spend 40 hours at work on any given week. During the extended Lamrim retreat I considered how I can use this time to bring benefit to other sentient beings. Working in IT enables me to bring benefit to many people in some small, mundane way quite easily.

As with practising the 6 Perfections, bringing benefit to others is achieved only by having the proper intention. Without the intention then it really is just fiddling around with computers. With the proper intention then the activity transcends frustration with computers and becomes something far more significant on the spiritual path. With the right intention then the activity is a cause for enlightenment. If performed while considering the emptiness of the computer, the code, the client, and myself, then the activity becomes almost a perfection – the perfection of benefiting people with computers.

The only thing is that I don’t think I’ve had the proper intention for some time.

By having the intention of performing an action for the benefit of all cognizant beings, having the intention of it be a cause for enlightenment, then any activity becomes a cause for enlightenment. Offering a cup of coffee to the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the 10 directions and 3 times, with the intention of it bringing benefit to all cognizant beings and a cause for enlightenment, the cup of coffee becomes those things. In this way the intention changes the cup of coffee from being a means for taking caffeine through the digestive system and into the bloodstream, and becomes a cause for enlightenment.

It’s logical and obvious, really. An complete action consists of: having the intention, performing the action, an celebrating once the action is complete. If you have the intention to give some money to help somebody, donate the money, and rejoice in having helped somebody through generosity, then that’s a complete action. The intention is the driving factor and determines the action performed, how it’s performed and the sort of celebration performed at the end. This is not to be confused with magic or idle wishing – wanting something to be so and wishing for it to be so. It’s more about aligning intention, action and celebration, in a way that it is aligned with enlightenment. Unfortunately, enlightenment doesn’t happen on it’s own, without causes and conditions. It takes lifetimes of concerted consideration and effort.

The trick is to consider proper intention, before setting about some activity. This is a reminder to myself: if I do this, then every cup of coffee that I drink brings benefit to myself and others and in this small way I make the most of this life.