THE RIGHT INTENTION By Venerable Bhkkhu Bodhi

THE RIGHT INTENTION
By Venerable Bhkkhu Bodhi

“Therein, bhikkhus, right view comes first. And how does right view come first?

One understands wrong intention as wrong intention and right intention as right intention: this is one’s right view.

“And what, bhikkhus, is wrong intention?

The intention of sensual desire, the intention of ill will, and the intention of cruelty: this is wrong intention.

“And what, bhikkhus, is right intention?

Right intention, I say, is twofold:
1. there is right intention that is affected by taints, partaking of merit, ripening in the acquisitions, and
2.  there is right intention that is noble, taintless, supramundane, a factor of the path.

“And what, bhikkhus, is right intention that is affected by taints, partaking of merit, ripening in the acquisitions?

The intention of renunciation, the intention of non-ill will, and the intention of non-cruelty: this is right intention that is affected by taints…ripening in the acquisitions.

“And what, bhikkhus, is right intention that is noble, taintless, supramundane, a factor of the path?

The thinking, thought, intention, mental absorption, mental fixity, directing of mind, verbal formation in one whose mind is noble, whose mind is taintless, who possesses the noble path and is developing the noble path
: this is right intention that is noble…a factor of the path.

“One makes an effort to abandon wrong intention and to enter upon right intention: this is one’s right effort.

Mindfully one abandons wrong intention, mindfully one enters upon and abides in right intention: this is one’s right mindfulness.

Thus these three states run and circle around right intention, that is, right view, right effort, and right mindfulness.

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