[Buddha-l] Hope

[Joy Vriens]

Yes if evaluating and considering in that moment enter into it, but  there

> is a different way. I could look back at the immediate past and see  that
> the present moment at that time was degraded. I can also see it in  other
> people. A relative of mine is always hoping for a bigger house, a nicer
>  car, a
> multi-million dollar win at the lottery. She doesn't enjoy where she is  at
> that moment because her attention is off in the distance.
>


> Doesn't have to be. There is a difference between chanda and tanha.  Chanda
> in Pali means intention or resolve. An example might be deciding to  walk
> across the room. There is no degrading of the present moment. Tanha  in
> Pali
> means desire. Desire is wanting reality to be different, in  my opinion. I
> could sit down to meditate and have the intention to keep my  attention on
> the present. This intention, chanda, does not degrade the present  moment.
> I
> am peaceful with my attention wandering all over the place. My job  is to
> bring my attention back to the present moment and doing so without
>  judgement.
>
> Nice talking with you.
>
> Same here. I will be off for a couple of days, so I write you now using the
bit of time left.

Mike's point about relaxation (acceptance?) makes sense. If evaluation,
comparison and analysis lead to relaxation then they have served their
purpose. But there are other ways of arriving at the same relaxation.

There are different approaches of the present moment and of being in (or
being conscious of) the present moment, if that is what one wants to do.
Technically there can be the moment, followed by a moment of consciousness
of that moment. Being mindful of the first moment then entails in fact two
moments. Moreover if being mindful of the present moment (as a moment)
implies to totally adhere to it, then there is no space for anything else.
Do you see what I mean? E.g. if you are walking, you would be conscious of
the walking, but you couldn't be simultaneous aware of the present moment,
timewise. Being mindful of the present moment is in fact being mindful full
stop. As long as one is mindful the "present moment" can't be degraded.

Yet one is being mindful, because one took the resolution to be mindful. So
the mindfulness is somehow running at the same time as that resolution. The
resolution didn't appear out of the blue. Something must have triggered
it. What? A desire for change, not necessarily of reality, but of one's
attitude towards reality. So I see the mindfulness taking place as long as
the desire for some good, the resolution to go for it and favourable
conditions are there. That is as far as the mindfulness produced by effort
is concerned. At one point one may lose the "effort bit", which means the
initial resistance disappears. But I believe that somehow there still is an
undercurrent of the desire and the resolution.

Joy