Intentions & Sankalpas
When you read about a Baja Malas Mala Making and Art Meditation Workshop you will often find the description: to create a personal mala infused with your intentions & energy in each bead and knot. Ok, but what is an intention and how do I infuse it into my mala?
During a workshop, after I’ve shared about the history and significance of meditation malas, I allow a few moments for my guests to quietly set their intention, or at least start contemplating this idea.
With the New Year approaching, many of us find ourselves contemplating our “resolutions.” However, over the years I have experienced and embraced a shift in the mindset around this idea. One of my favorite teachings about intentions comes from something I read in Yoga Journal which describes how an intention (or sankalpa) is going beyond resolutions.
Rod Stryker, founder of ParaYoga, explains that the chief architect of life is the mind. To create the life we are meant to live, we must draw the mind again and again to our dharma, our deepest intentions, and the qualities of the Divine within.
A sankalpa is a statement that does this for us. Stryker explains that kalpa means vow, or “the rule to be followed above all other rules.” San, he says, refers to a connection with the highest truth. Sankalpa, then, is a vow and commitment we make to support our highest truth. “By definition, a sankalpa should honor the deeper meaning of our life. A sankalpa speaks to the larger arc of our lives, our dharma—our overriding purpose for being here.” The sankalpa becomes a statement you can call upon to remind you of your true nature and guide your choices.
So, setting an intention, or Sankalpa, invites the opportunity to give a greater meaning to your mala whether or not you ever meditate with it. An intention may inspire your meditation mantra or focus. A sankalpa, often translated as a resolve, can be a fresh, alternative approach to what many know of as a New Year’s resolution.
Creating and setting a Sankalpa or intention for mala beads and your japa meditation practice allows us to manifest our hopes, goals, dreams, and desires. Wearing and using your mala is a lovely reminder of your intentions, which can be short statements which affirm something we want to achieve, experience, know or become. It can give our lives purpose and aim as well as guide our everyday choices and actions to keep us connected to our soul’s deepest desires to live a life of great meaning and purpose.
So, how can we discover, or perhaps uncover, our intention for our mala, and for our life. Here’s a few thoughtful prompts that may help you along this journey:
What inspired you to attend a mala making workshop, or to create this sacred piece of jewelry?
When you look at your mala, hold, wear or meditate with it, what is it you want to be reminded of?
Is there an area in yourself, in your relationships, in your life that you need to nurture more?
Is there a challenge you are seeking to overcome in yourself, your life, with others?
Is there a quality of life that you would like to cultivate or experience more of?
Is there a quality within yourself that you would like to develop and mature?
If you are creating your mala as a gift for someone else, what prayers and intentions do you have for them? When they look at and touch this gift, what is it you hope they will be inspired to believe or do?
Reflect on what matters most to you in life. This is your personal prayer and intention. No one needs to know. Don’t feel badly or guilty or have shame. Be honest, true and authentic to yourself. There is no right or wrong.
Remember that your intention isn’t a tangible goal, but rather a clear purpose to lead you through a challenge in life. Once you become successful with simple and small intentions, you will have the confidence and skill to achieve bigger and more powerful ones.
And then….
Detach from the Outcome: Let go of your attachments or desires to obtain a specific result from your intention. Send those prayers deep inside your heart and then out into the world, to the Divine, into the universe. Trust that the universe has got your back.
Now that you are ready to infuse your intentions into each bead and knot, perhaps you’d like to write it down in a journal, or even write a list of 9, 18, 54 or even (if you’re up for the challenge)108 different words or phrases that help articulate or guide you towards your sankalpa. Or just try to remain present and focus as you string on each bead and tie the knot. You will find that mindfulness is organically needed to simply concentrate on the knotting process. This is why I refer to a mala making workshop as an art meditation.
When you wear, look at or meditate with your finished mala, it will serve as a reminder of the goals, prayers and intentions that you set while making your necklace.
and finally…
Enjoy the process; it is always about the journey and not the destination.
Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu
Suzi
Next Public Mala Making Workshop: January 1, 2023 in Todos Santos, BCS, MX
Note to the reader. I’ve tried to attribute the original source of what I have written here; however, over the years, I’ve often written down bits and pieces to support my learning. These words, often from others, have been weaved together with my own, so if you come across something similar elsewhere, please know that it is not my intention to commit any form of plagarism.