responsible for our intentions

Kornfield

In his book “A Path with Heart” Jack Kornfield deals with the concept of Karma. In brief, he notes that it is the intention behind thoughts, speech and actions that gives rise to good or bad consequences. The karmic concern is not so much ‘what is done’ as ‘why is it done’.

Thoughts arise about the nature and source of intention. I can imagine an interacting group of brain modules being the source of ‘agency’ for my intentions.  The modules are fed from two sources (a) sensory inputs (sights, sounds etc) in the present and (b) memories of earlier thoughts and feelings and their causes and consequences. Some of the outputs from the modules will feature in consciousness and some will inhabit the unconscious.

There is ongoing churn amongst the brain modules and this creates many items of thought and feeling as possible outputs. These are prioritised and form patterns which tell a story - and the intention to think, speak or act arises in consciousness. In most cases the conscious part is the tip of an unconscious iceberg.

Human babies and children are ferocious learners (their interacting brain modules are on overdrive). They quickly learn their culturally acceptable patterns of thinking, speaking and doing. The details that define a given person are due partly to nature (hard wired instincts), nurture (programmable learning), and serendipity (good or bad luck(chance)).

BUT – human beings are different from other animals and plants.  We are not only conscious, we can also be conscious of our consciousness –we can be meta-conscious. We can notice what we are noticing and think about what and how we are thinking. We are therefore capable of managing and controlling (a) our intentions and environments, and thus (b) the direction of our evolution as individuals and as citizens of planet earth.

This is an enormously empowering thought – and a bit scary in its implications. We will consider it again after some more thought about karma.

Do predators have karma? Cheetahs are conscious but it is unlikely that they are meta conscious. They have evolved to be as they are. In body and mind they are predators and they play their part in particular ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles. They are highly evolved killing machines. They act as they do without speaking or introspective thinking. They are magnificent robots. The intention behind their actions is not personal, it is hard wired. No intention, no Karma.

Does the cosmos have karma? It is difficult to imagine consciousness before the big bang and for a long time after it. It is doubly difficult to imagine meta-consciousness until reasonably modern people evolved.

Evolution operates without a central planning committee. There is vital churn that generates random variations and natural selection ensures that the fittest survive. But there is impermanence in all created things. Easy come and easy go. Death is necessary to make way for adaptation. Today’s fitness is tomorrow’s extinction.

People can be meta-conscious. The seat of this process is the hugely expanded neo-cortex in the human brain. It sets us apart from other animals. Amongst other things it contains modules that shape and control our use of language.

Human language ability is still evolving. It began about 50,000 to 100,000 years ago when people lived in small groups of hunters and gatherers. Endless hours of fun can be had trying to figure which words might have been the first to evolve. Our humanoid ancestors had lived for millions of years without language. They were then as speechless as the Cheetah. So which came first, the use of words or the expansion of the neo cortex? Probably in parallel.

The details remain hazy but it seems clear that language began as something quite primitive; but it was ‘fit’ in an evolutionary sense and gradually became more sophisticated and broadly functional. 

These days there is a hard wired language module in all human brains. It becomes active during early childhood. Nature ensures that a language will be learned while nurture decides which language it will be. A particular language shapes the human brain to match a cultural worldview. But different languages shape reality in different ways. Depending on your point of view this can result in cognitive entrapment, existential despair or universal liberation. 

The major world religions have their roots in ancient history. These were times of rapid social change. Creative thinkers used language to redefine what it meant to be human. Meta-cognition flourished. There was thinking about thinking. There was an increase in meta-consciousness but this tended to be limited to a few ‘mystical’ and heroic individuals and elites. 

Amongst  ordinary people the selfish, individualising and greedy ‘I’ illusion was evolving. It must have had its uses because it has survived and flourished over the last 3000 years; and it is now the driving force behind global consumer capitalism with its associated environmental ruination and bad karma. 

But the days of purely self-ish people may now be numbered. It is increasingly recognised that individuals are inevitably held to account for the intentions which drive their thought, speech and actions. If happiness is the goal then wholesome intentions are the means of reaching it. Religions, at their best, provide the means to liberate individuals from their self centred and unwholesome intentions. Mindfulness based meditation is a key tool in seeing through the illusion of self. This leads to knowing peaceful compassion and cultivating good karma. 

The last century saw a vigorous exchange of mystical and spiritual viewpoints between eastern and western cultures. This has resulted in 

1. a wider and deeper understanding and appreciation of meta-consciousness in general,
2. a flourishing revival of existential issues and of approaches to dealing with them, and 
3. an encouraging increase in multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder processes when dealing with global policy and plans.

Let us now return to the empowering and scary notion of meta-consciousness, linked to language and to intention. Evolution has no forward plan. The cosmos has no intention.  There is therefore nothing eternal or absolute to fight for or against. We the people have the freedom to think, speak and act intentionally. By taking thought and thought about thought we can rid ourselves of the illusion of self and consciously shape our own evolution and that of the planet. 

The ultimate challenge is to be responsible for our intentions – who among us has what it takes to be part of the vanguard?