Texasgomer <texasgo... at (no spam) gmail.com> wrote:
I posed a question at our church to a practicing Buddhist and did not
receive a really satisfactory answer.

My question was "Does the desire to seek the truth violate the eight
fold path?"

My take, and I am no means conversant in Buddhism, is desire to seek
the truth does violate the eight fold path.
One should sit quietly without desire, meditate, and let the truth
come to him.

I would, in general, agree. Desire not only violates the Eightfold Noble
Path, it interferes with your progress toward making Truth part of your
nature.

Whether you  sit, stand or recline, your role is that of observer, attached
to nothing. Without attempting to exercise control, you observe your breath
(or whatever). When you hear, see, feel, etc, you acknowledge the
interference without listening, looking or touching, etc.

With Metta Caruna,

--
Nick, KI6VAV. Support severely wounded and disabled Veterans and their
families:  https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/   Thank a Veteran!
Support Our Troops:  http://anymarine.com/  You are not forgotten.
Thanks ! !                 ~Semper Fi~                USMC 1365061

I posed a question at our church to a practicing Buddhist and did not
receive a really satisfactory answer.

My question was "Does the desire to seek the truth violate the eight
fold path?"

My take, and I am no means conversant in Buddhism, is desire to seek
the truth does violate the eight fold path.
One should sit quietly without desire, meditate, and let the truth
come to him.

If you intellectualize your desire, you are in fact deciding
beforehand what the answer, the truth that you seek, should be like,
so that is an error. But if you just let yourself want, let yourself
feel the feeling of wishing to find the truth, you can flow with the
feelings: it brings you concentration to the task at hand, that is ok,
but if you flow in your thoughts, in your prejudices: "The truth has
to be like THIS!" then you go wrong.
Your being at the level of feelings born out of the things in the real
world and not in your thoughts only, has it right, so you are free to
feel whatever desire you happen to have: just use a holistic view of
the world, an experienced one, and things will fall into place.
Compassion and a non-sides-taking attitude help to settle the seeming
conflicts with others.