[Buddha-l] Hope

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Jack,


> I meant mind moment when I say moment. The actual "outside" moment is
> different time-wise from the "inner" mind moment. I'm not sure what you mean by
> "Being mindful of the present moment is in fact being mindful full stop."
> ==============

I am a bit uneasy about using the moment or mind moment of a Buddhist
analytical context, because it tends to overschematize the present
moment as an indivisible moment that lasts only a small part of a
finger snap. I prefer Bergson's explanation of duration to tackle what
being mindful of the present moment is. As I see it from a practical
point of view, it's not literally being mindfull of each succeeding
present (indivisible) moment.

> ====
> As I said, there is a difference between tanha (desire) and chanda
> (intention).

Desire is too large and general.
"The origin of Tanha (craving, unwholesome desire, wish, thirst),
extends beyond the desire for material objects or sense pleasures. It
also includes the desire for life (or death, in the case of someone
wishing to commit suicide), the desire for fame (or infamy, its
opposite), the desire for sleep, the desire for mental or emotional
states (e.g., happiness, joy, rapture, love) if they are not present
and one would like them to be. If we experience, say depression or
sorrow, we can desire its opposite. The origin of Tanha is
far-reaching and covers all craving, irrespective of its intensity."
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%E1%B9%87h%C4%81

Unwholesome desire is probably a useful addition in order to not lose
the context. Tanha includes the desire for life or death. Does it
include the desire for moksa or nirvana? Depending on how one sees
life, death and nirvana, it's not impossible that for some views of
nirvana there may be an overlap between death and nirvana. In which
case the desire for nirvana could be unwholesome. E.g. someone who
sees nirvana as oblivion, sheer nothingness and death as well. Or for
Mahayana Buddhists.
I see thana very much as on a par with Pascal's concupiscence.

As for intention (chanda), wikipedia, which I merely use for practical
reasons here, gives the following definition:
"In Pali texts, Chanda is a sincere wish, wholesome desire or zeal – a
mental factor that does not involve unwholesome greed lobha, Kama, and
Tanha ."

It's purely on definition level that the two mental factors are
differentiated, tanha being unwholesome, and chanda wholesome.What
these definitions seem to say is that if the desired good is
wholesome, the desire is wholesome (chanda) and if the desired good is
unwholesome the desire is unwholesome (tanha).

But logically there is a deeper level on which desire is simply
desire. When it finds an object, then the intention is the motivation
to act on that desire. I can't see how intention can be
separated/isolated from the desire that initiates it. Even for
sitting, I don't see the intention or resolution to sit, chant etc. as
separated from the desire that motivates those actions. I do see that
somehow systematically following a procedure is to link one's desire
and intention to it in such a way that one's desire and intention
could be hidden by the procedure. But they are still active or hiding
in the adhesion to the procedure.

Joy