The Arrow of Intention — Where Thought Goes, Energy Follows
Plains traditions teach that a warrior's intention — the clarity and strength of purpose behind every action — determines the outcome far more than technique or force. Intention is the first arrow; the physical arrow merely follows it.
Among the Cheyenne and Lakota, the preparation of a warrior or hunter before any important undertaking was as important as the act itself. The mind must be clear of anger, fear, and self-interest; the intention must be pure — for the good of the community, in right relationship with the animal or enemy being faced, with full presence in the moment. The concept parallels the Zen teaching of mushin (no-mind) and the Taoist teaching of wu wei — the action that arises from pure presence rather than ego calculation. The point of the preparation was to fix intention before action, so that the hunter or warrior entered the moment already composed rather than driven by anger, fear, or ego. The prayer before a hunt, the purification before battle, the ceremony before planting — all are technologies for aligning intention with action.
Before you speak, ask yourself: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
Sports psychologist Jim Loehr documents in The Power of Full Engagement that the ritual preparation practices of elite athletes — which closely parallel Indigenous spiritual preparation protocols — are the most reliable predictor of peak performance under pressure.
Lakota oral tradition
Written about in
- What Native American traditions say about what to say and what to leave unsaid
The test recorded here is three questions asked before speaking: is it true, is it kind, is it necessary. It comes out of a warrior discipline of fixing intention before the arrow leaves, so the act is not driven by anger, fear or ego. Speech is treated as a released arrow — which is to say, unrecallable.