Judicial Perspectives on the Research

AuthorPeter Jamadar/Elron Elahie/Richard Jamadar
Pages5-9
5
Sentencing deserves and demands placing specific focus, attention, effort and
care on the process and outcomes of sentencing, immediate and long term, and
as well for the parties and the wider society. Intentional attention to sentencing
is vital.3
Building on the insights of psychologist Roberto Assagioli, intentionality includes the
harnessing of volition (the will of an individual) and gives direction to its focus and
application.4 Intentionality, for us, is a conscious, clear, and focused purpose. It is thus
teleological, having a known and desired endpoint. And it utilizes the power of attention
to achieve these ends. In this research, intentionality was harnessed by participants by
setting the intent at the beginning of each practice session, to practice awarenessing as
required. Intentions can function as affirmations that animate and actualize volition and
desire. In this sense they can add ‘power’ to purpose.
In using the term awarnessing we create a verb form for the adjective ‘aware’ and the
noun ‘awareness’. It describes an active engagement of the faculty of perception that
notices and participates dynamically and intrinsically, in a non-judgmental and non-
labelling manner, with the object(s) of perception in the present moment. It can include
an empathetic shifting of perception back and forth between subject and object that may
lead to a felt-sense of gestalt. The attention co-opted in intentionality, flows into and
through this dynamic process and activity of awarenessing, thus aligning intent with
awareness in integrity.
The end result of Intentional Awarenessing, which is a continuously emerging and
deepening process, is a more profound sense of knowing (which may include
understanding) someone, something, a situation, or subject as it exists in the present
moment, based on information received primarily through perceiving and experiencing.
As will be shown in this discourse, the data suggests strongly that the cultivation of
Intentional Awarenessing can facilitate the more effective discharge of judicial functions
in the courtroom.
JUDICIAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE RESEARCH
3 [2022] CCJ 4 (AJ) GY, [76]
4 Roberto Assagioli, The Act of Will (Wildwood House 1973); Roberto Assagioli, Psychosynthesis (Penguin 1977);
Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength (Penguin Books 2012)

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