(From an unpublished book)

The Four Vows
Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them.
Desires are inexhaustible, I vow to put an end to them.
The Dharmas are boundless, I vow to master them.
The Buddha Way is unsurpassable, I vow to attain it.

The Four Noble Truths
1. Life is suffering.
2. The cause of suffering is desire.
3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.
4. The path to the end of suffering is the eightfold noble path.

The Eightfold Noble Path
Right View, Right Intention (WISDOM), Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood (ETHICAL CONDUCT), Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration (MENTAL DEVELOPMENT)

The Four Vows, The Four Noble Truths, The Eighfold Noble Path are connected and intertwined, and each of us in every home and town and Buddhist community in the world is at all times acting on and influenced by each other. Whether it is literally valid or whether we can comprehend its exact dynamics “The Butterfly Effect”—the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil will cause a tornado in Texas—is an apt description of a Buddhist understanding of how the world works, what karma is, and why mindful, personal practice is so important. The smallest greedy action, the careless word spoken in anger and the unexamined thought can and have caused more suffering in the world than a tornado in Texas. And a kind thought or action can alleviate just as much suffering. How we understand, practice, examine and conduct our lives according to the four vows, the four truths and the eightfold noble path matters—to ourselves, to our families and friends, to the community and to the world. We sit because that is the heart of the Buddhist path and intention lights up that path.
Everything is connected, any work we do in one part affects the others and we can begin anywhere. The second step of the eightfold path, right intention, is a good place to enter and take stock of our practice because intention is a volitional act. Intention is the mental energy that controls action. We may not always be able to see things as they are, which is the definition of right view (and both the beginning and end of the path), but we can always, with some effort, patience and self-awareness, examine our true intentions.
Intention in Buddhism is the commitment to consciously work on ethical and mental self-improvement by examining one’s own intentions and private relationship with and progress along the path. I know a person who hasn’t started but wants to learn about Buddhist meditation in order to deal with personal anxiety. Buddha vowed to sit under the Bodhi tree until he got it right, until he experienced enlightenment and had, so to speak, right view. The intentions of the two might seem to be worlds (kalpas) apart, but they are not; both are manifestations of the intention to reduce suffering in the world.
The three types of right intention are 1.) To resist desire; 2.) To resist anger and aversion; and 3.) To resist thinking or acting cruelly, violently or aggressively; to develop compassion.
Intention is the most powerful and important of all mental activity. The intention to live according to the four vows, the four noble truths and the eightfold path is based on seeing and understanding ourselves and the world as they are. It is not based on a projection of how we would like things to be. True intention is the pursuit of clarity. The well meaning (sometimes) intention of pursuing how we would like things to be is the work of ego sustaining our illusions. Right intention begins with asking: Why do you desire something? Why do you need to acquire something you don’t have? Why do you hope for anything to be different than it already is?
The answers we each find are steps along the path and cut away illusion along the way, step by step.