“When an intention comes up to do or say or think something, you want to know what that intention is. It’s a teaching that the Buddha teaches his son Rahula, to look at his actions and look especially at his intentions before he does or says or thinks anything. Now I’ve heard a lot of people say, “Gee, that’s an awful lot of attention to something like that,” and they have so many other things they have to pay attention to. Well, it turns out that the other things you’re paying attention to are the results many times of your own past actions. It’s much better to start at the very beginning to make sure that the new intentions coming out are well-formed.” ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu “Straightened Intentions”, 3min mp3 audio,