Temptation or the path before us

[Sacred yantra]

We are not born with knowledge and wisdom. We learn and develop. How should we know that which falls before us is a path we must travel in order to develop and that which is nothing but temptation? And is that temptation also not a discovery and a journey we must experience?

[Zenainder]

We are not born with knowledge and wisdom. We learn and develop. How should we know that which falls before us is a path we must travel in order to develop and that which is nothing but temptation? And is that temptation also not a discovery and a journey we must experience?

SY,

The idea that we can permanently change an impermanent existence, "self" improvement (be it finding / improving a new self, divine self, etc.) and resisting the mundane life fact of suffering is ignorance. The Buddhist path, as I have come to understand it, is one of present mindfulness with applied concentration and the dawning of insight of the truth of the stream of existence: impermanence, no self, and suffering with eventual dispassion and unfettering. The goal is realizing the emptiness of existence and ending suffering. It is not a goal to perpetuate anything that it (self, soul, etc.) may continue to experience to "learn". The entire existence all comes from within and experience is also an internal event, so to say that we must "experience" more to learn is quite opposite of Buddhist understanding (at least in my relative understanding). That is not without understanding that events happen and the mind responds, but we still look within at the ongoing activity for insight and eventual liberation.

Metta,

Zen

[Sacred yantra]

Thank you for your insight. I have questioned many times if we are upon the path divined before us or we choose the path for the enlightment we require.