I've been suspecting all along this was the case, as in all other religions I've ever heard about, but if going against the grain means fighting yourself, then the problem I have with that is, why do some people succeed in fighting themselves, while others fail?Srilankaputra wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2019 2:14 pm
Ajahn chah said, if you haven't gone against the grain you have never practiced. The path goes through the obstacles. You yourself have to find a way to overcome the obstacle. That's how wisdom grows.
The most common answer to that is "they have willpower, others don't". But willpower is not a muscle in your body, it's a construct that's supposed to describe what exactly? I don't even know.
In other words, I tend to see the concept of willpower as a fiction, and that there must be more specific and more definable factors explaining why some people find it in them to do XYZ while others don't. Maybe the ambivalence I was talking about is related to not clearly understanding what those stumbling blocks are for those who fail, and what those success factors are for those who succeed.
I really need to read more
I have the same problem with that. What is it that determines that you can easily make an effort that I can't? I wish it were possible to divide up the necessary effort into a number of tiny steps that would be numerous enough to make the effort seemingly disappear.Making that turn takes effort
I hate that depressing rule. It reminds me of old-school teaching in general, when teachers/trainers believed that the best way to teach was to make the learners suffer, whereas less taxing, more rational and carefully devised approaches could be just as effective. Of course I'm not contradicting you, I just don't like to read this!Struggling to end suffering is the practice
Thank you Binocular, yes I have heard similar stuff in the past, including the spiral of relapse/change, although again I'm not quite sure how this could apply to motivating someone to practice (I'll read up on it though, thanks for the references).