Personal Intentions

[In Chapter 1, we read of a Buddha called Sun-Moon-Light, who had eight sons.] The names of the sons with intention were as follows: Having-Intention, Good-Intention, Infinite-Intention, Treasure-Intention, Increasing-Intention, Doubts-Removing-Intention, Resounding-Intention, and Dharma-Intention. I don’t know about your mother but when I was young and she would scold me she would call me by all my names to which she would frequently, especially if she was really angry, add the name of the dog and all of my brother’s names. I can imagine the mother of these sons calling out Having-Good-Infinite-Treasure-Increasing-Doubts-Removing-Resounding-Dharma-Intention! When you say it like that though you really get a sense of some basic guidelines being given to us in how we might approach our own personal intentions to the Dharma.

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra