Page 57 - Because I know, I can let go

ought to be desired, what ought to be done. This desire isn’t tanhā, neither is it lobha. For
instance: we want to study, if we just want, want with satipaññā, then that’s not defiled.

But if we’re careless in the way we desire, if we want money, or whatever, for the sake of
stimulation, that then involves the defilement of tanhā. If we’re careless and desire under
the power of ignorance there must be dukkha. So, get to know the two kinds of desire.
Desire, whether we call it the defilement of tanhā or of lobha, must come from the base

of ignorance. If it comes from knowledge, from vijjā, it has another name and is just the
sort of desire natural to life. Then it’s not the cause of dukkha, rather it’s that which can
destroy dukkha: correct desire, rather than causing dukkha to arise, instead becomes its
quencher.

3) There’s the remainderless quenching of dukkha because of the quenching
of tanhā, that’s called ‘nirodha.’ Tanhā is the near cause of dukkha because it causes
possession, turns things into ‘mine.’ From the start there’s the clinging to ‘self,’ then it’s ‘I’

want, ‘I’ get, ‘I’do, ‘I’eat, ‘I’ use, I was born, ‘I’ will die, ‘I’ win, ‘I’ lose, and so on, which allows
all the levels of dukkha to arise. Hence, stop tanhā, foolish desire, stop upādāna, foolish
clinging, and none of the foolish forms of dukkha will appear.

4) The way of life which allows beings to attain to the remainderless quenching of
dukkha is ‘magga,’ the ‘eightfold path.’ The ‘eightfold path’ consists in the eight kinds of
correctness:

1. sammāditthi comes first, that is, correct, or, right view, right understanding.
2.sammāsankappo, right intention, or right aspiration, right desire.
3. sammāvācca, right speech.
4. sammākammanto, right physical action.

5. sammā ājivo, right livelihood.
6. sammāvāyāmo, right effort (to maintain oneself properly).
7. sammāsati, right mindfulness.
8. sammāsamādhi, right concentration.

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