To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

P K, modified 6 Years ago at 3/8/18 12:49 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 1/30/16 3:14 AM

To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Noah, modified 8 Years ago at 1/30/16 3:39 AM
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RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Pawel, 

do you think this advice would be more useful for people after 2nd path?  Or is part of your journey of discovering how to transmit your experience directly to others, i.e. a shortcut of sorts, for even pre-1st yogis? 
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Richard Zen, modified 8 Years ago at 1/30/16 10:38 AM
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RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Resolve is good for concentration but yes intentionality is not what nibbana is but people usually need to see that as they look at the stress there is in maintaining concentration.
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Noah, modified 8 Years ago at 1/30/16 5:27 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 1/30/16 5:27 PM

RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Paweł K:
there is cold outside so I radiate my heat
it will be of use to no one, no one will understand its meaning and no one will stop using intents

Hmm.  A bit early in the game to call, no?  You should keep trying.  Some heating systems are more effective than others.
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Psi, modified 8 Years ago at 1/30/16 6:44 PM
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RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Paweł K:
there is cold outside so I radiate my heat
it will be of use to no one, no one will understand its meaning and no one will stop using intents

Perhaps, there is a difference between wholesome resolve and unwholesome resolve, such that replacing the unwholesome resolve with the wholesome resolve leads to a more peaceful and still state of being.  And, perhaps there is a time when the mind will understand that even the most wholesome resolve is yet just another mental formation, a disturbance, a fabrication, a type of I-making, Me-wishing.

Perhpas also, there is no cold, there is no heat, perhaps there is just the emptiness of the radiations.

Psi
Eva Nie, modified 8 Years ago at 1/30/16 9:05 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 1/30/16 9:05 PM

RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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I don't think I really understand the concept behind resolutions.  If you want to do something, it does make sense to make a plan.  But then to add some kind of emotional promise into it does not make sense to me.  Almost all resolutions are broken at least once.  IMO, if you don't do it 100% of the time, then you just broke your promise.  Now you've got the weight of a promise and the stress of trying to keep it and the stress of the fact that you will probably break it at least once.  Then you can spend more energy on self recriminations and thinking how much you suck which is also IMO not conducive to anything good.  Whereas if you have just made a plan, then if you fall off the plan, you can just get back to it without mental anguish.  If you want to do something, then you'll just do it.  If something feels right and good to you, then you'll just do it.  You won't need a resolutoin.  If you are not doing it, then there is some conflict inside you, IMO best spend your energies trying to investigate and resolve that conflict.  What is driving you to do this thing one part of you says you don't want to do yet another part of you is doing?  Understand that and IMO it has far more benefits than making another verbal promise to do something that a part of you still does not want to do.  What I see around me is a lot of people making resolutions often, and then usually breaking them soon, berating themselves, and then thinking the solution is to make a 'stronger' resolution the next time.  But the outcome is still the same because the underlying problem is still there and not being investigated. 
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Richard Zen, modified 8 Years ago at 1/30/16 10:13 PM
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RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Eva Nie:
If you are not doing it, then there is some conflict inside you, IMO best spend your energies trying to investigate and resolve that conflict.  What is driving you to do this thing one part of you says you don't want to do yet another part of you is doing?  Understand that and IMO it has far more benefits than making another verbal promise to do something that a part of you still does not want to do.  What I see around me is a lot of people making resolutions often, and then usually breaking them soon, berating themselves, and then thinking the solution is to make a 'stronger' resolution the next time.  But the outcome is still the same because the underlying problem is still there and not being investigated. 
This is really helpful.
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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 1/31/16 5:59 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 1/31/16 5:54 AM

RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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re: Paweł K (1/30/16 1:14 AM)

"Idea that resolve is helpful is direct result of third fetter: attachment to rites and rituals"

"
Right intention point on Noble Eightfold Path is not about creating intentions (which intention accomplish nothing at all) but doing everything in own might to do or not do what would be object of intention."


What you say is not technically wrong, but seems to hinge on a perspective of a relatively advanced stage of development – where one throws away the raft, having reached the other shore.

Another perspective is that raft is provisionally necessary; resolve, determination are essential to following the path to the shore. As Thanissaro Bhikkhu quotes his teacher (Ajahn Fuang), there is one thing that must be "clung-to" until the very end: the determination to find the end of suffering.

(Maybe you're addressing "resolve" of the sort especially now evident in the approach so typical of "New-Year" resolutions, which almost inevitably denotes a kind of fruitless ritual?)

Also, on another technical level,' kamma' is intention (at least according to G.Buddha), and used to follow the path. As in the "5 recollections" (again as interpreted by Thanissaro B ):
1) illness, (2) aging, (3) death gets everyone; (4) everything one holds dear will drop away; (5) all one is left with is kamma – the opportunity to intend and act skilfully in pursuing the path.
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Psi, modified 8 Years ago at 1/31/16 6:44 AM
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RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Eva Nie:
 If you want to do something, then you'll just do it.  
Indeed, and put another way.

Do... or do not. There is no try.

Yoda


The Force is strong with you Eva ...

Psiwalker  emoticon
Eva Nie, modified 8 Years ago at 1/31/16 3:19 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 1/31/16 3:19 PM

RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Chris J Macie:
re: Paweł K (1/30/16 1:14 AM)

"Idea that resolve is helpful is direct result of third fetter: attachment to rites and rituals"

"
Right intention point on Noble Eightfold Path is not about creating intentions (which intention accomplish nothing at all) but doing everything in own might to do or not do what would be object of intention."


What you say is not technically wrong, but seems to hinge on a perspective of a relatively advanced stage of development – where one throws away the raft, having reached the other shore.

Another perspective is that raft is provisionally necessary; resolve, determination are essential to following the path to the shore. As Thanissaro Bhikkhu quotes his teacher (Ajahn Fuang), there is one thing that must be "clung-to" until the very end: the determination to find the end of suffering.

(Maybe you're addressing "resolve" of the sort especially now evident in the approach so typical of "New-Year" resolutions, which almost inevitably denotes a kind of fruitless ritual?)

Also, on another technical level,' kamma' is intention (at least according to G.Buddha), and used to follow the path. As in the "5 recollections" (again as interpreted by Thanissaro B ):
1) illness, (2) aging, (3) death gets everyone; (4) everything one holds dear will drop away; (5) all one is left with is kamma – the opportunity to intend and act skilfully in pursuing the path.

      Yes, I suspect we are mostly here talking about about the 'new year's resolution' type of thing.  Like 'From now on I'm going to..'  or 'Starting tomorrow I'm going to..'  From my experience, almost all of those fail sooner or later.  I think it's because action is just a symptom of thoughts and feelings.  To attempt to change the actions without properly sorting out the tangle of thoughts and feelings is unlikely to work.  It's like trying to drive a car through mud and then getting stuck and trying to fix it by stomping on the gas harder and harder. .  The prob is not the amount of gas (effort) but the instability of the ground in that region. Adding more gas can yield good results if the ground is decently flat but try the same thing in mud and suddenly it just makes things worse.  Maybe you are digging in deeper now or maybe spiralling around but not actually reaching the actual destination  you want.  What worked in one situation can backfire in another.  IMO, enlightenment is like getting all the roads fixed, then the car can drive smoothly and easily wherever with minimal gas output.  The big question is how to fix the roads!?!  That's a can of worms that is much debated but I am pretty sure stomping on the gas is not a very efficent way is all I am saying.  ;-P

I think you may be talking about something a bit different.  I don't think anyone is arguing against intention or decisions.  Perhaps you have a thing you want, like less suffering, and you think the way to get that is to experience some shorter term suffering now to get more relief longer term.  I'd just call that a plan, one that may be altered as new data comes available.  A plan need not be tied in self recriminations or special beliefs about the power of a sentence or any such.  Another plan may be I want to be a good person overall and/or to not hurt others, so I decid on a definition for being a good person, and may need to identify and change some atttitudes and actions to get to that goal.  Or I may decide next week I want money for food so I decide that right now, a good plan for that would be to go to work and get paid.  Those are plans and intentions and they often work well if the roads in question are in good repair.  Otherwise  you are probably going to experience some kind of self sabotage.  For myself, it seems like it's usually some kind of stress/fear feeling that is underlying a muddy spot.  If I experience anxious thoughts, there is a natural tendency to want to avoid them.  But by avoidance, I also avoid the prob, the road does not get repaired, and every time I need to drive that route, I continue to have probs.  My logical mind may well say a good plan to accomplish many good things, but the plan can only be inacted if all the roads are functioning.     
Eva Nie, modified 8 Years ago at 1/31/16 3:39 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 1/31/16 3:39 PM

RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Psi:
Eva Nie:
 If you want to do something, then you'll just do it.  
Indeed, and put another way.

Do... or do not. There is no try.

Yoda


The Force is strong with you Eva ...

Psiwalker  emoticon
LMAO!  Well I am still working on picking up a space ship out of the swamp with my mind, I'll get back to you once I have that sorted.  ;-P  Over time, my personal interpretation of Yoda's words is that when you have a state of mind of calm determination, that is the most effective state to accomplish the task.  If you are insecure or vascilating or some such, failure is more likely.   When you have really decided on something, then even early failures are considered just temporary road blocks and when you see the roadblock, your mind turns immediately to how to get around the road block.  So you are not thinking things like, 'See I knew it, always something in the way, what a hassle, I can't do it, I'm always a failure, i am no good at this, I always have bad luck, this is too hard' etc.  Even the word 'try' has an assumption that failure is likely so that already brings the mind further from a calm confident mindset.  People who bring such meditative skills into their daily lives are IMO going to have an advantage for accomplishing task more effectively.  Luckily, things can still get done even without a super stable zen mindset though, otherwise much I've done would not have gotten done!  But the more I can cultivate the mindset and fix the roads, the easier things do get. 

Certainly, the whole dark side/light side allegory is an interesting story for our times and I do wonder how much it has subtly influenced thought patterns for those who grew up with it before Buddhism was even much known at all in the general population.  Relax your mind, concentrate... 
;-P    
-Eva
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Nicky, modified 8 Years ago at 1/31/16 9:52 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 1/31/16 9:45 PM

RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Paweł K:
Do not use intents or resolves. That is IMHO right intention and how stream enterer do things.

Thanks for your attention!

If I hold a heavy weight object in my hand & resolve to drop it/let it go, I must use resolve to open up & relax my hand. Similarly, when the mind establishes itself in the emptiness, openess & freedom of letting go & non-craving, it also uses resolve. 

'Resolve' is not always like forcefully using a hammer to strike a nail. When the hammer is thrown away, resolve is also used to drop the hammer into the garbarge bin. This is why the Lord Buddha did not teach 'resolve is a terrible habit'. 

It is not about not using 'resolve' but about the quality & type of resolve. 

To believe the mind is not using resolve is delusion or mere impression because the mind always uses resolve. In other words, the resolve to abandon resolve is also a resolve. 

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Psi, modified 8 Years ago at 2/3/16 5:33 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 2/1/16 9:18 AM

RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Nicky:
Paweł K:
Do not use intents or resolves. That is IMHO right intention and how stream enterer do things.

Thanks for your attention!

If I hold a heavy weight object in my hand & resolve to drop it/let it go, I must use resolve to open up & relax my hand. Similarly, when the mind establishes itself in the emptiness, openess & freedom of letting go & non-craving, it also uses resolve. 

'Resolve' is not always like forcefully using a hammer to strike a nail. When the hammer is thrown away, resolve is also used to drop the hammer into the garbarge bin. This is why the Lord Buddha did not teach 'resolve is a terrible habit'. 

It is not about not using 'resolve' but about the quality & type of resolve. 

To believe the mind is not using resolve is delusion or mere impression because the mind always uses resolve. In other words, the resolve to abandon resolve is also a resolve. 

emoticon
So, under the assumption of using metaphors and analogies for the mind, i.e. symbols is all we have to communicate.

So, Is what you are saying like this?

Say One picks up a heavy piece of trash, grasping it with the hand (mind), then uses resolve to let go of the trash , then uses resolve in such a way that one does not pick up additional trash not already accumulated.  But, continues to use resolve in such a manner that one continues to find trash already present and continues with the process of dropping the trash.  

And further, one uses resolve , in such a way thet the hand remains open, non-grasping.

Still further, could there be states of mind where there is no resolve?  Yet the hand (mind) remains open, and non-grasping, i.e. there being no trash to deal with in the present moment.

And yet further still, there could be that there is resolve, yet no resolver.

The point.

To be direct and blunt, what I am saying is that perhaps one uses resolve to get to a state where there is no resolve, a state where resolve is not necessary.  Then, if and when that state passes away, one then uses correct resolve, as a tool.  Incorrect resolve, therefore would be a hindrance.

This may be one of those definition and conceptual things , where we are actually discussing, sammá-sankappa ??

In other words, Right Intention??


Psi

Edited, took italics off last words, dunnon why it was italicized, carried over from samma-sankappa, also added question mark to clarify acknowledgement of my own incomplete understndings of the subject matter. emoticon
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Psi, modified 8 Years ago at 2/1/16 3:45 PM
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RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Paweł K:
Idea that resolve is helpful is direct result of third fetter: attachment to rites and rituals
It should be dropped and mind operate completely without it. It cloud mind and hinders perception and inhibit actions, make mind dull.

Right intention point on Noble Eightfold Path is not about creating intentions (which intention accomplish nothing at all) but doing everything in own might to do or not do what would be object of intention. Using intention, using resolve is like sacrificing goat to some God' here is my resolve, can you feel how resolved I am? may you my mind do what I want". If you are so resolved in your minds then be wary of actions that are happening and use all your might to do or not do what would be otherwise intended or resolved by any means necessary instead intent or resolve and then go to sleep because intent or resolve will make necessary work to be somehow done. This little potential that is there, this thought of what is right or wrong should not be wasted on useless intents and resolves but go unrealized if it have no possibility to be realized and realized if it have possibility to be realized. Do not use intents or resolves. That is IMHO right intention and how stream enterer do things.

Thanks for your attention!
Okay, upon further contemplation, and thanks go out to you Pawel, for bringing up this Investigation.

I think you are on to something here.  Right Intention, which would be renunciation, goodwill, and harmlessness, would not exactly be a kind of creating Intentions or Resolutions.  It would more be along the lines of abandoning or subtracting, letting go of their opposites, i.e. Wrong Intention, Intention rooted in desire, harmfulness, and ill will.

So, upon further Thought and Investigation, Right Intention would be what was left after the Wrong Intnetion States were abandoned.  In the same way that an Engine would run along on idle, the Mind would run along on idle, and thus free of any Resolutions, i.e. attachments to rites and ritualistic Resolve and Intention.

But, it also may be possible that some may have to start out with Intentions steeped in rites and rituals, and resolutions to at least get the whole ball rolling in the right direction on the first place?! I am unsure of this point though.

Just some thoughts.

Psi
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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 2/3/16 4:58 AM
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RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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re: Eva Nie (1/31/16 3:39 PM as a reply to Psi.)

"Even the word 'try' has an assumption that failure is likely so that already brings the mind further from a calm confident mindset.  People who bring such meditative skills into their daily lives are IMO going to have an advantage for accomplishing task more effectively."

Traditionally, as we know, there's a developmental interplay between confidence or faith (saddha) and knowing or wisdom (pannya) – both listed as 'faculty' (indriya) and, when established, as 'power' (bala.). With faith / confidence, or perhaps better, the lack of doubt or uncertainty (as another of the 'fetters', along with the 'rites & rituals' one drops with stream-entry), 'trying' is less a matter of blind stabbing in the dark (mud), more of, as you say, effectiveness or skill, as cultivated by 'practice'.

So initial trust is a form of knowing, and along the way, validated by experience, gradually morphs into the the knowing (gnosis) of wisdom. Getting to know the nature ofthe inevitable mud, and how to work through, being often a kind of pre-requisite.

'I think I can, I think I can,… I thought I could, I thought I could,…'

The roads to be fixed can be seen as (by association, not reduction) neural pathways, muddied by conditioned defilements, when clarified becoming a clear Path.
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CJMacie, modified 8 Years ago at 2/3/16 5:04 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 2/3/16 5:02 AM

RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Paweł K
...Meditation can start only when mind sees no use in itself, drops all rationality and throw itself to insanity of no-mind.

...If I sound mad and contradicting myself then good, that mean I am doing my job.



Granted you are presenting a s/w rhetorical, paradoxical viewpoint. Here's another perspective ( from Thanissaro Bhikku's Meditations 3, section titled "May 25, 2005")

"… think of the meditation as an experiment, something you try."

"The instructions for breath meditation involve discernment, and they also involve training yourself."


He outlines using the "4 bases of success":
1) desire (chandra of the skillful sort – maybe even "resolve"),
2) persistance,
3) intent / attention,
4) intelligence / ingenuity (vimansa), or "concentration based on the powers of analysis."

"… approach the meditation as a skill. Remember how you learned skills in the past. If it was music or art, a sport, carpentry, whatever:  how did you go about mastering that skill? A lot of times you made mistakes. You noticed that they were mistakes but you didn't give up. You went back and tried it over again, trying to observe what you did wrong, what you did right, what worked and what didn't. Over time, your hands — which originally seemed to be all thumbs — gradually became human hands: a carpenter's hands, a violinist's hands. And your mind became a craftsman's mind. You reached a point where you didn't have to go running to somebody else to pass judgment on whether you did it right or not. You began to know yourself whether it was right or not. That's when you really mastered the skill."

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Nicky, modified 8 Years ago at 2/4/16 5:15 AM
Created 8 Years ago at 2/4/16 4:27 AM

RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Paweł K:
I never said to to use resolve to stop using resolve/intent/relief_seeking/whatever. There is paradox in this but this paradox is what meditation is about. Meditation can start only when mind sees no use in itself, drops all rationality and throw itself to insanity of no-mind. Before it is understood meditation is rare. When mind do what it sees as rational it won't overcome its limitation it put on itself. Meditation must be used to develop right intention, to unlock it.

Sitting with resolve is doing it wrong, it is reinforcing all behavioral patterns that cause suffering. Same story with seeking relief. If there is any sensation associated with relief it can be experienced immediately without reinforcing relief_seeking, making intentions, resolves etc. These are empty gestures which became distraction which mind use because it forgot how to experience itself and is afraid of doing it.

Obviously intents, resolves, etc. do not seem that bad. Well, it is because there is opaque mud in perception that make experiencing own experiences impossible. Once perception is clear enough to see through even a little bit all those things are seen as source of incredible suffering, suffocating. One doesn't need to add more intent to end suffering, just feel own suffering that is already there, to know what is its source and how to end it. If there is intent it means it have source, it need to be found and experienced. Content of intent is not as important. Once mind learn to see true causes then intents will start to resemble those causes. But intents should not be followed, only their causes or whole dukkha thing will try to happen again.

BTW. many masters use various kinds of devices to aid people with various success rate. Because I do not like anything at all I also do not like such devices. Imho in the end those end to confuse everyone and it is better to sound mad or at least raw than try to trick anyone. Better for Dharma to die out than being presented in way that help house builders do their jobs. If I sound mad and contradicting myself then good, that mean I am doing my job.

EDITED 1x

There is no paradox. In reality, your mind is simply deluded, i.e., unclear. 

There is mind and there is no such thing as no-mind. 

Your mind appears to be reading & brainwashed by too many Mahayana books.

If there was no-mind then how & why are you posting here? 

BTW. You are not the Master (Messiah); you are a very naughty boy.

When the Lord Buddha taught Right Resolve, this was the part of the method that ends suffering rather something reinforcing all behavioral patterns that cause suffering.

The Lord Buddha, who had perfect mental clarity (unlike your confusion) distinguished between Right Resolve & Wrong Resolve. 

 emoticon

Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy) is a comedic oratorio based on Monty Python's Life of Brian. It was written by Python Eric Idle and collaborator John Du Prez, and commissioned by the Luminato festival.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plZRe1kPWZw
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Nicky, modified 8 Years ago at 2/4/16 5:25 AM
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RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Psi:
So, under the assumption of using metaphors and analogies for the mind, i.e. symbols is all we have to communicate.

So, Is what you are saying like this?

Say One picks up a heavy piece of trash, grasping it with the hand (mind), then uses resolve to let go of the trash , then uses resolve in such a way that one does not pick up additional trash not already accumulated.  But, continues to use resolve in such a manner that one continues to find trash already present and continues with the process of dropping the trash.  

And further, one uses resolve , in such a way thet the hand remains open, non-grasping.

Thank you good sir for your clear explanation of Dhamma. Please accept me as your disciple. emoticon

And what is the faculty of concentration? There is the case where a noble disciple, making it his (meditation) object to let go, attains concentration, attains singleness of mind.

SN 48.9 & 10

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Nicky, modified 8 Years ago at 2/4/16 5:25 AM
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RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Still further, could there be states of mind where there is no resolve?  Yet the hand (mind) remains open, and non-grasping, i.e. there being no trash to deal with in the present moment.

And yet further still, there could be that there is resolve, yet no resolver.

The point.

To be direct and blunt, what I am saying is that perhaps one uses resolve to get to a state where there is no resolve, a state where resolve is not necessary.  Then, if and when that state passes away, one then uses correct resolve, as a tool.  Incorrect resolve, therefore would be a hindrance.

This may be one of those definition and conceptual things , where we are actually discussing, sammá-sankappa ??

In other words, Right Intention??


Psi

This further inquiry is excellent. 

The academic literature states resolve is absent only in the 8th and 9th jhanas (MN 111). 

Apart from this, I would suggest resolve becomes automated when the mind reaches a certain level of meditation. 

In other words, resolve ceases to be the 'battle' between 'good' & 'evil' once the mind enters the stream because the mind becomes positively 'habituted' in states of liberation thus it 'inclines' in a certain way. This 'inclination' is resolve because the mind, via Dhamma delight, becomes resolved upon the taste of Nibbana. 

Therefore, it is certainly as you have described, namely, resolve without a resolver

A great delusion of people is that of conscious or 'self' will or 'agency'. For example, a woman or man may believe they want to (resolve to) have sex or a baby. But in reality, their mind & body is actually under the control of hormones, chemicals & the like, which lead to the manifestation of lust. There is really no conscious will but instead the automated/robotic control by hormones, chemicals, etc. 

Dhamma Resolve is the same. It ceases to be a product of any 'self' orientation or 'ideal' but it remains an underlying drive of the mind, similar to hunger for food of a hungry body. 

Once the mind, i.e., the nervous system, tastes Nibbana, the energy of the mind resolves/inclines towards Nibbana, like a magnetic attraction. 

Having savored the taste of solitude and peace (of Nibbana), pain-free and stainless he [the mind] becomes, drinking deep the taste of the bliss of the Truth.

Dhammapada 205
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Psi, modified 8 Years ago at 2/4/16 9:51 AM
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RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Nicky:
Thank you good sir for your clear explanation of Dhamma. Please accept me as your disciple. emoticon
Lol

Metta,

Psi  emoticon
Eva Nie, modified 8 Years ago at 2/4/16 3:38 PM
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RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

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Psi:


I think you are on to something here.  Right Intention, which would be renunciation, goodwill, and harmlessness, would not exactly be a kind of creating Intentions or Resolutions.  It would more be along the lines of abandoning or subtracting, letting go of their opposites, i.e. Wrong Intention, Intention rooted in desire, harmfulness, and ill will.

So, upon further Thought and Investigation, Right Intention would be what was left after the Wrong Intnetion States were abandoned.  In the same way that an Engine would run along on idle, the Mind would run along on idle, and thus free of any Resolutions, i.e. attachments to rites and ritualistic Resolve and Intention.

But, it also may be possible that some may have to start out with Intentions steeped in rites and rituals, and resolutions to at least get the whole ball rolling in the right direction on the first place?! I am unsure of this point though.

Just some thoughts.

Psi
Yes, I think you are seeing my point too.  Like that old story about two monks, they encounter a woman who needs carrying across the river, they are not supposed to associate with women, but one of the carries her across anyway.  Then as they walk on, the other monk complains and complains that the first one touched a women, even if only to help her.  And the first monk reponds with something like, "I left the woman at the river bank but you are still carrying her." 

The point is that  you can resolve to not go near women but the real goal (for those monks in the story at least) was to stop wanting women.  Hiding from women will not by itself get rid of the wanting.  Maybe it will help some, i don't know, but I think the point is that it is not REALLY about resolutions, it's about finding the source of the clinging and letting it go.  The second monk thought he only had to follow the resolution, but by ONLY following the resolution, it had lead him to still be weak towards women and also not help a woman in need.  Whereas the first monk was able to be charitable to the woman without fear of clinging desires, the point being that first monk understand the darma much better, that resolutions are a tool but not the final point of it and tools are to be used when useful and appropriate and not used when not useful and appropriate. 

As for Pawel's assignment of resolutions as attachment to rights and rituals, maybe, but it's not really how I think of them.   I think of them more as somethign like people fixating on the letter of the law and not fixating on the spirit of the law.  The spirit of the law is much more important, IMO, but involves a lot more emotional commitment and work.  And I think that's why people avoid it.  By making resolutions, their ego can think that it is making progress even if little real substantive progress and development is actually occuring.  Of course that may not ALWAYS be the case with resolutions, certainly resolutions can happen alongside of considerable internal change, but not sure how much resolutions by themselves can really cause such internal change.  Looking at myself, I just have not seen any great mileage out of them.  Maybe it is different for others.  But for me, if I am ready to do it, then I will just do it anyway.  It seems weird to me to make a big statement, maybe my mind is sorta weird anyway.  But to me it's like I don't say, "Today I am going to do the dishes!" with a big bunch of fanfare, I just do them.  I guess i don't understand the point of a resolution somehow.  

Now for rules and laws, I can see a point to those.  You need to do what you can to make the community stable, so you make laws and try to get people to do them even if they don't always want to do them. You do that so that you can maintain order amongst all those that are not yet deeply in tune with the spirit of the law.  But I would think that once you had decently unlightened peoples only in a community, the more that was the case, the less need you'd have for laws.  Because they would get along decently and respect others decently as a natural course of behavior. 
Eva Nie, modified 8 Years ago at 2/4/16 3:48 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 2/4/16 3:48 PM

RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

Posts: 831 Join Date: 3/23/14 Recent Posts
Chris J Macie:
Paweł K
...Meditation can start only when mind sees no use in itself, drops all rationality and throw itself to insanity of no-mind.

...If I sound mad and contradicting myself then good, that mean I am doing my job.



Granted you are presenting a s/w rhetorical, paradoxical viewpoint. Here's another perspective ( from Thanissaro Bhikku's Meditations 3, section titled "May 25, 2005")

"… think of the meditation as an experiment, something you try."
I think what happens is someone finds a way that works for them, then they assume that is the only way that works for anyone.  They believe their way as the only way, for instance that you must believe XYZ in order to get enlightened, otherwise you can't get enlightened and you are doing it wrong.  But yet there are many who have gotten enlightened with a variety of views, not all believe in 'no self' and used that method.  The pali canon clearly states that both the belief in self AND the believe in no self are wrong view.  So either Gautama or those who wrote the pali canon were not using 'no self' as a solid hardcore fact of the universe that must be clinged to.  In fact, pali canon warns strongly against clinging to any view.  Than-Geoff interprets the pali canon (as best as I can tell) to be saying that the type of thought patterns and beliefs advocated in pali canon are advocated as tools and should not be clinged to overly hard and Than-Geoff  has many good quotes to support his viewpoint.  Actually this makes a lot of sense to me, that clinging to views (even in no self) is a hindrance because clinging to anything is a hindrance. Yes thinking from no self perspective seems to yield many benefits to many and helps cut clinging to other things, but who the heck knows for sure what is a self or if one exists or if it changes or not, and if it change, then how much through the eons, how could we of such limited perspective know that when in the pali canon even gautama could not say?
-Eva 
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Nicky, modified 8 Years ago at 2/8/16 2:10 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 2/8/16 1:52 PM

RE: To use 'resolve' is terrible habit

Posts: 484 Join Date: 8/2/14 Recent Posts
Paweł K:
He outlines using the "4 bases of success":
1) desire (chandra of the skillful sort – maybe even "resolve"),
2) persistance,
3) intent / attention,
4) intelligence / ingenuity (vimansa), or "concentration based on the powers of analysis."

none of these points is improved by making intents or resolves.

 crazy side emoticon

You continue to talk in circles, like a dog chasing its own tail 

Your resolve for non-resolve is resolve 

Please study the quote below, which articulates accurately what you are inaccurately trying to say. 

The spirit or essence of what you are proposing, namely, that 'resolve is a terrible habit' is correct. 

However, you are articulating it incorrectly because meditation requires not only resolve but conscious resolve in every moment (until ekkagattacitta - one pointedness).

There is right resolve & wrong resolve. 

Wrong resolve seeks, strives, pushes, etc, to watch breathing, for example. While right resolve focuses exclusively on non-clinging, non-craving, non-judging, etc.

I already quoted SN 48.9 & 10, which state 'the noble disciples develops right concentration by making letting-go/non-clinging the meditation object'. 

You are trying to say the same thing but in the wrong way. 

You are mixing-up 'resolve' with craving & clinging. 'Resolve' is not necessarily craving, clinging, etc. 

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As for samadhi, an empty mind is the supreme samadhi, the supremely focused firmness of mind. The straining and striving sort of samadhi isn't the real thing and the samadhi which aims at anything other than non-clinging to the five khandas is micchasamadhi (wrong or perverted samadhi). You should be aware that there is both micchasamadhi and sammasamadhi (right or correct samadhi). Only the mind that is empty of grasping at and clinging to 'I' and 'mine' can have the true and perfect stability of sammasamadhi. One who has an empty mind has correct samadhi

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