Page 46 - Because I know, I can let go

However, if we still want to make gains then we need to change our focus, and make our
gains by defeating the kilesa. Today, for instance, consider, have we defeated the kilesa at

any point during the day, if we have then how, and by how much? If we have defeated them
our character will be clean, bright, peaceful, the mind will be fresh and joyful – that will be
making a gain in the real sense. Then we’ll be correct, living on the nipapetikapākiyasaññā
side of things, minus ignorance, so, providing we can stay correct then, we can become

increasingly smarter until able to clearly know the breaking through to reality and the final
escape from the defilement of tanhā.

If anyone wants to be an expert trader, then don’t trade in money, in gold, don’t be involved

with the good or the bad, make the conquest of the defilements our trade, that is, live
above the good and the bad, above gain and loss. Being involved with good and bad
means that we’ve yet to escape from the world of gain and loss, because ‘good,’ to the
ordinary person, is about getting something they like and desire. The ‘good,’ if it’s the good

of the householder, must have its roots in the defilements, and must be something ‘heavy,’
something heavy we have to carry around, something heavier than any stone could be.
But this is the ‘good’ the worldly person generally wants, it’s ‘good’ in the ordinary worldly
sense.

‘Good’ in the genuine, in the Dhamma sense can never be a heavy experience, because
the genuine good is what cleanses, wipes away the defilements, what cuts them, what
defeats the bad guys.

‘Good’ in the worldly, counterfeit sense will cause the defilements to increase, will cause
the ‘bad’ to grow, no matter that it may be a subtle form of defilement, such as doesn’t
make us suffer unduly, yet, in reality, it will increase the dukkha we have to bear with.

Nobody will think that feeling satisfied is dukkha, unless they’re someone with enough
satipaññā, sharp mindfulness and wisdom, the sort of person who already knows that
sukha, happiness, tortures the mind more than dukkha does, because it binds the mind
more than dukkha does. We’re infatuated with happiness because we’re bound to it. We

hope for it, so we crave and cling and don’t want to let go of any of those things we believe
can make us happy.

46 Because I Know...