Looking out our picture window this morning over breakfast, I had this sense that were I to focus my mental powers, I could cause something to move or change in the scene I was observing. I wanted to put forth my hand and “bend” nature to my will – superhero-style.
Something inside me feels the need to believe that I can control nature as I consciously intend. It’s my way of fulfilling my need for safety. I manage safety with control. Control represents my first line of defense against that which I fear most – the unknown.
In my universe, I am accountable to law. Due to the matrix nature of nature, when I DO something, that doing always results in consequences. Like ripples in a pond, when I think a thought, the universe reacts to it with multi-dimensional “ripples” – so many that it becomes impossible to determine precisely which thoughts were responsible for which results. It’s a matrix, after all.
How Can I Possibly Be Accountable for ALL those Results?
I want to control my environment without accounting for unintended consequences of that control. To do that, I convince myself that I’m only accountable for that first ripple – the one I’m aware of – the one I felt I had control over.
I bagged my trophy – never mind that it was the last of its species… and that maybe many others will be negatively affected by the loss of my trophy to their environment… 🙁
Because even the smallest action ripples through space-time like falling dominoes – a chain-reaction in three (or more) dimensions – there are consequences for my efforts to control my life – a precious few of which appear to me to be a direct result of MY actions – I got what I wanted. Yet, I am completely unaware of nearly infinitely more reactions to my actions.
Why am I unaware of most of the results of my actions? Because I’m living my life in the first two degrees of illumination! At these levels of understanding and awareness, my brain would explode from all that data! Instead, I choose to FOCUS on that which seems to me to be most important – getting what I want now – while developing and sustaining defenses like ignorance and denial in order to stay “safe” from all that information.
It’s a perfect setup for unintended consequences.
Law Saves Us All
Law saves us from ourselves. The laws that govern actions in the universe cannot be broken – only obeyed. That saves it from my superhero activity. Can you imagine what might happen were I to “break” or “bend” a universal law to satisfy my desires? The entire universe would disintegrate into complete chaos of uncoupled causes and effects. SOON, EVERYTHING would be “unintended.”
Due to the law of cause and effect, my intentions to control my life have predictable consequences. As long as my conscious mind is asleep, I’ll be aware of the tiniest subset of those consequences – those my limited, sleeping mind can comprehend. The vast, overwhelming majority of consequences will be outside my awareness – and so seem “unintended.”
Are Unintended Consequences Really Unintended?
I intend to stand up from my chair and move my body to the kitchen for another cup of coffee. Suddenly, I realize that my body has, indeed, risen out of the chair, walked through the house, poured another cup of java, and returned to the chair it was sitting in minutes before. It SEEMS that I’ve fulfilled my intention – apparently all under my control.
While I was away from my chair, though, something happened that I didn’t intend – I missed a Skype call. I intended to answer that call when it came – yet, one intention seemed to interfere with the other and I missed the call – an apparent unintended consequence of my coffee refill intention.
And yet…
I knew the call was coming and INTENDED to answer it. I could have remained in my chair that few minutes rather than refill my cup. I could have, should have, maybe would have… fulfilled that intention!
Intention is thought – an activity that ripples the pond, radiating ethereal vibrations into the immensity that is the 3D matrix I know as the universe. Intentions COMPETE with all other intentions in a sea of intentions, most of which I am completely unaware. THIS is the world of the first degree of illumination – competition.
When I begin to awaken out of competition, I may then begin to realize that, perhaps, “unintended consequences” are more accurately described as “consequences of which I’m unaware.” The more awake I become, the more awareness I gain of the matrix nature of nature – including intentions. I begin to release my NEED to control consequences by releasing my NEED for intentions.
How does one achieve anything, then, if one releases their need for intentions. How do I refill my coffee cup if I don’t intend to do that?
As long as my intentions compete with other intentions (appearing as “unintended” consequences), I’m existing in the dimension of first degree of illumination. Unintended consequences act as a sort of “sign” to alert me to my unawakened state – alerting me that I am still asleep.
I can’t tell you what life is like beyond intention – that is another adventure.
