Page 39 - Because I know, I can let go

Chapter 3

The four kinds of

perception (saññā)

If people know about the four kinds of perception they can attain

nibbāna even in this present existence, if they don’t they’ll attain the
saṃsāra instead, and spin around in the mass of dukkha.

Those four kinds of perception, of saññā, expressed in ordinary

language, are
1) anapākiyasaññā, the perception of loss,
2) titthipākiyasaññā, the perception of breaking even,
3) visesapākiyasaññā, the perception of gain,

4) nipetikapākiyasaññā, the perception of breaking through.

When we talk, for instance, about the perception of gain the meaning
will be unclear because householders seldom know what this word

saññā actually means, they only understanding it as ‘remembering,’
but, in truth, saññā doesn’t just mean that, it also has the meaning of
regarding, or seeing, something as actually being this or that thing.
It is remembering too, but the more intense form of saññā is about

regarding something as being this or that, as being what we think it
to be.

This more intense level must involve defilement, particularly the

defilement of clinging, that’s why we end up regarding things as
being this or that - as, for instance, with ittisaññā, which is to regard,

...I can let go 39