Resoluteness
Mindful Monday Meditation class offered weekly from 12 noon until 12:35 p.m. is open to all, by donation (to the Family Food Pantry). We have been meeting weekly since January, 2019.
If you’d like to be on the mailing list for Mindful Monday Meditation, please send your email address to: debennis50@gmail.com. Thank you.
In our guided practice sessions, we are currently exploring 10 qualities of the heart as taught by the Buddha. (You don’t have to call yourself a Buddhist to benefit from this, it is being taught as a secular, non-religious practice and is relevant and beneficial for all human beings who want to create lasting sources of happiness and freedom).
Called the Paramis, these practices help us to bring Mindfulness into all aspects of our lives, individually and in relationship with others, both on and off the proverbial cushion.
I am using these sources as references:
Creating a life of integrity: in conversation with Joseph Goldstein Gail Andersen Stark 2020
Parami: Ways to cross life’s floods Ajahn Succito 2012 https://www.amaravati.org/dhamma-books/parami-ways-to-cross-lifes-floods/
A Whole Life Path: a lay Buddhist’s guide to crafting a dhamma-infused life Gregory Kramer 2017
Pay Attention, for goodness’ sake: practicing the perfections of the heart Sylvia Boorstein 2002
For a description of the previous Paramis, refer to earlier blog posts, thank you.
Resoluteness can be described as: tenacity, perseverance, determination, carry-through. It is a quality that supports each of the other paramis, and can lead towards setting and achieving one’s aspirations. It is supported by faith in the practice, previous experience, teachings we’ve received, and by observing others who we admire.
Resoluteness can help us to clearly and truthfully identify our aspirations, to bring precision and clarity towards seeing what is needed to achieve them. Asking “what is needed here” helps keep the mind state focused and resolute.
We can notice what supports the quality of resoluteness in our day to day lives, and what undermines our moving towards achieving our aspirations.
The application of resoluteness can be practiced on a wide range of things.
As Joseph Goldstein reminds us, for a quality to be considered a “parami”, rather than simply a “wholesome state”, it needs to be practiced with an aspiration for awakening. This may be confusing, and I invite you to investigate the subtle difference between these motivations for practice.
What does it mean to recognize that ordinary everyday tasks and conversations can be done with an aspiration for enlightenment (waking up)? How does that broaden and deepen our perspective and our practice? For me it means being aware of the impermanent nature even of wholesome states. It helps when I recognize the tendency to identify “this is me, who I am”, forgetting that this too will change, come and go, ebb and flow.
Resoluteness is a quality that supports our formal (ie sitting) practice in terms of bringing a dedicated effort to our intention/aspiration to sit for a certain period of time (20-30 minutes is a worthy goal). Without resoluteness we are likely to give up and get up after a short period of watching our mind wander and deciding “I just can’t do this”. With resoluteness we stay with it, trusting (having faith) that our efforts will lead to increased skill and familiarity with our minds.