Mat 5:34 - But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:
35 - Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
36 - Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
37 - But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
To swear is to take an oath, which in fact is a kind of promise. When you do an oath, what are you doing? For instance, you say you swear that you won't do something, or you swear that you will do something. What happens? Let us consider both cases.
In the case that you swear you won't do something, you have used the words 'do something' so the thing you swear you won't do has left your mouth already. You may argue that there is no other way to say you won't do it, then to call the very thing you won't do by its name. That is true, but what it does is that you have confirmed in your mind the connection between you and that action and put it into words. In other words, you have come a step closer to actually doing it! Also, you have put up a certain resistance in the way you will act, but there are always situations where you might have to do the thing that you swear you wouldn't because there is a greater cause. For example, you swear you won't steal. But suppose you could steal the weapon of somebody and report it to the police, then you would not steal that weapon to have it for yourself, but in order to save people from harm. Nevertheless, you stole the weapon and you broke your oath. What does that do? When you break your own oath you send a subconscious message to yourself that you can't be trusted and this undermines your strength unless you consciously surrender to the higher truth and you know how to undo your oath. But if this is what normally happens when you take an oath, it is clear that there is no point in taking an oath in the first place.
Now, in the case you swear you will do something, again, what you are saying is an impossibility, because you are talking about the future. Since you needed to say the oath to force reality to favor you in order for you to be able to fulfill your oath, you are in effect saying that you deserve an opportunity to act according to your oath. However, given the current situation, you have already admitted to your mind that you have no power over the situation, and that is why you resorted to taking the oath. Again, you are undermining yourself and instead you are empowering reality to postpone that opportunity, because in your reality this opportunity is not yet present, so it will remain distant for you, because you took an oath. Again, if this is what normally happens when you take an oath, it is clear that there is no point in taking an oath in the first place.
In both cases, your oath is of little value. One could argue that it is the intention that counts, and that is right, when you realize that the intention is in fact the only thing that counts. If that is the case, that you intend to change, then there is a whole different dynamic. You can say 'Yes, I intend to reach that goal.' - this is a positive formulation. If you feel that intent, you can decide in the present and in any future how to align your actions towards your intent, bringing your goal closer to you. The difference with an oath is that with an intent you are free to choose the actions that align with your intent, while with an oath you seem to want to force a thing and you create an unconscious resistance that might block you to reach that goal. An intent is more flexible; you can always change your intent and explain that in terms of having found a higher truth, including your previous intent.
It follows that you can not intend to not do something. To intend to not do something is like opening a door towards a myriad of alternatives that you could do, but there is no focus. It is better to intend the things that you can do. In that way, you can use intent to change your behavior. For example, instead of intending not to smoke, you can intend to do certain exercises or attend a sports club to change your physiology. Or instead of intending not to eat too much, you can intend to eat healthier and formulate what that means to you. And so on. When your intents are positive in this way, you increase the energy you spend on things that you want with less time to spend on the things you want to change.
Formulating positive intentions for yourself makes it easier for you to reach a goal. Negatively formulated intentions do not help you. Positive intentions are the things you can really commit yourself to, that is, they help you spend your energy towards a continuous increase of that which you intend. In this way you will always succeed in the things you intend. That is called commitment.
It follows that when you are asked to comply to anything, you can answer yes or no in alignment with your commitment. This has two benefits. First, before answering you remind yourself of your commitments. And second, your answer is always in line with your commitments. Both of these facts give momentum to your commitments and give you the opportunity to become honest with yourself.
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