Question

Many Western spiritual people believe that every one of us has an individual task for his life, an inner destination or master plan, which we will find when we live our full potential and serve other beings. Does Theravadin Buddhism share this common view or is there no master plan?

Answer

I have never heard of any master plan. A task for his life, that is an interesting little phrase. One of our Thai teachers used to say, "tam nati." Which means to "do your duty". And in particular he was referring to "do your Dhamma duty." So a task for your life is certainly to do your Dhamma duty, your Dhamma work. Inner destination? Ok, interesting words. Inner journey, we talk about that, they are similar words, but master plan is a bit different, I can't really put that one in. We could look at Theravadin Buddhism and say the Buddha has given us a master plan, each one of us. But as to some big master plan for all of us that would be a different way of looking at things.

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