Page 79 - Because I know, I can let go

Chapter 7

Nibbāna

Nibbāna: it’s possible that we’ve studied the Buddha’s teaching in

an incomplete way so that we’re confused, and we’re Buddhists who
don’t understand nibbāna properly, who can’t attain to it, and who
don’t get a taste of that nibbāna we should get.

Understand that without nibbāna there’s no Buddhism. If there’s no

nibbāna then it can’t be Buddhism. Now, if we don’t know about
nibbāna then we’re not Buddhist. If we hold to the correct meaning
we are, so we must know that which is the heart, the highest thing, in

Buddhism, we must have a proper understanding of nibbāna.

If we practise as we should we’ll get exactly what we ought to get, no
more, no less, just do this and we’ll be Buddhists.

We believe that ordaining and putting on a robe means that we’re
Buddhists, but if we don’t know the heart of Buddhism then the robe
is just another skin, just a registration, another name in the book.

In this day and age in Thailand, people believe that nibbāna is
something very difficult, almost impossible to attain, that the time
when it was possible is gone, so that it’s not something we need to talk
about now. And it’s believed that we need to develop the pāramī, the

perfections, through tens and hundreds of thousands of lives, then
we can reach nibbāna. Which means that we have to get put into
a coffin tens and hundreds of thousands of times to attain nibbāna.

...I can let go 79