by bosco

bosco (Ben) was a Minnesota-based practitioner and one of the steadiest voices on alt.religion.shamanism in 2006–2007. His posts combined dry humor, genuine spiritual experience, and an unusual willingness to describe the small and daily alongside the profound.

In this April 2007 post, bosco reflects on focus and intent — terms he once dismissed as vague shorthand in martial arts books, now understood as something rare and double-edged. His argument is quietly radical: that most people's loose relationship with their own focus and intent is not a deficiency but a mercy. Developed focus in the hands of ordinary human anger and carelessness would, he writes, be catastrophic. The protection is mutual: those with sharp focus are dangerous; those without it are protected from themselves.

The post ends with a characteristic bosco image — the pocket knives of his childhood, given to him with deliberately dull blades.

I have been pondering and reading way too much lately about focus and intent. While the concepts seem simple, they are gifts that many wish for, but only a few achieve or receive as the case may be. Everyone wants to be able to move the mountain, cure the sickness, or change the world. Long ago, I used to think focus and intent were silly ideas, sort of like ESP back in the seventies. Why shouldn't everyone have these abilities, what was the big deal, why can't we do these things?

Now days, though there is no point in stating why or what changed, I understand with perfect clarity why these are gifts that most people wish for in one manner or another, but only a few really find. I can see now why most people would be a danger to themselves and those they love if their focus and intent were any more developed than the very loose relationship they now have with their focus and intent. Back in the day, I read briefly about focus and intent as it would be mentioned curtly in some books, mostly in martial arts material. Never to be clarified or really even identified, I used to think, well I have focus and I have intent, what is the big deal? Now that I understand more about the concept, I now know that I knew what the words meant and little more. I know now that is a good thing, both for myself back then and the people right now, who are exactly like I was. We would be a great danger to ourselves and others. I have no doubt that many of us would not even be here as we would have been destroyed by some unthinking loose cannon going down the hallway.

As I am out in public and listen to those around me speak to each other I am sometimes shocked at what I hear. I see parents being viciously cruel to their own children in their language and actions, and not even realize what they are doing. Spouses in arguments spewing sentences just short of, "I wish you were dead." I hear all manner of ugliness and negativity flying around whenever humans speak. In those moments, what we say, is not what we are thinking, we rarely verbalize our true thoughts, but the message is there, toned down and hidden in the delivery. It certainly is a good thing most humans have no real focus or intent, if we did, we would not be here. On the down side, the things we try to do in a positive manner for each other are just as diluted, so I guess it is a wash all the way around. On the more mundane side of things, I also now know why every pocket knife I was given as a child had dull sometimes broken off blades. If those knives were new and sharp, I would not be typing with my fingers.

Colophon

Posted to alt.religion.shamanism on 11 April 2007 by bosco (Ben), a Minnesota-based practitioner who posted regularly to the group from 2006 onward. His voice — dry, observational, grounded in daily life with spirit helpers — became one of the group's steadiest in its later years. This post is one of his more openly philosophical reflections, and one of the few that addresses the question of spiritual power without romanticizing it.

Original Message-ID: 2007041120194016807-boscopelone@yahoocom

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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