Yes, Bhante, if you define the path as the aggregate of experiences, you are quite right, and I agree. I just referred to the influence of the dhamma as the path, which should always bring ease to the mind, and not burden. Or at least this is what I am confident in, based on the "elephant's footprint" concept of the Four Noble Truths. My impression is that practitioners are fallible to slipping into a borderline case of the false Jain view that suffering in and of itself is of a value in attaining liberation.appicchato wrote:Sorry...the path is full of torture, groaning, and suffering...it's only when one is liberated that these things are eliminated...then the path has been followed to the end (and the goal has been reached)...i.e. no more path...baratgab wrote:That the true path is free from torture, free from groaning and free from suffering.
My read anyway...
Downright self-torture is rare, of course, but I see all the time the phenomena of not taking up reachable spiritual happiness, which can be seen as a quality of holding onto inferior states, suffering. And since we see the roots of suffering in the defilements, this can be seen as a quality of holding onto the defilements. Undoubtedly, with a less happy mind one have a much harder time being mindful, being upright and being compassionate towards other beings. In the meditation practice it is common that the meditators deny themselves (actively or passively) the bliss that is born from stillness and seclusion. I can't reconcile these things with the path, and I think that our traditions should pay more attention to encouraging spiritual happiness. But of course these are just my own reflections; they can be completely wrong...