Question
Do we move away from inner well-being if we succumb to our desires and senses?
Patricia
Answer from Master Kosen
Pleasure, suffering, desire, and aversion are merely a matter of contrast.
True satisfaction, true pleasure, is a matter of mastery. A true thoroughbred will not let an ignorant person without finesse ride it. Someone with no self-control eventually ceases to experience any deep well-being.
Sensual pleasures are not forbidden, but they will belong only to someone who has abandoned all desire; the opposite path leads only to dependence and unhappiness.
Kosen