Page 90 - Because I know, I can let go

Mokkh Nanachat, we should try to be each other’s kalyānamitta, and although we don’t
have Dhamma in the full sense, yet we can try to have the Dhamma as our kalyānamitta
whenever we speak or act, then we can become a kalyānamitta for each other. This is one
most important condition for the development of our lives.

Then there’s the path we walk, that is, the method we practice, this also is important in
much the same way that a map is: if our map is wrong then we won’t get where we want

to go, but if the map is correct then we can try to proceed, and, depending on our our
energy and ability, will reach, more or less, our destination. Therefore, our path of practice
is very important. In Suan Mokkh Nanachat we use ānāpānasati, which was the method
the Buddha taught to his followers.

If we possess the several conditions mentioned, then we’re able to cause our lives to
gradually develop. Being born human was a stroke of fortune, only human beings can
comprehend the Dhamma which the Buddha taught, other species can’t do this, it’s

those humans who are fully developed as humans, whose bodies and minds are full and
complete, that have this boon, while those whose mentality isn’t complete, or those with
wrongs views, with wrong understanding, won’t be able to comprehend. So we should
be satisfied to at least have some degree of right understanding, if we didn’t we probably
wouldn’t be interested in coming here to practice. Hence we have good fortune on one

level in that we still have the time to practise and make ourselves correct.

This evening I want you all to look at life: what is life? If we don’t know what life is then we

won’t be able to develop it, so we need to know what it is.

We have the opportunity to look and to study, to study life internally; studying the world is
mostly concerned with externals the result of which is that we’re able to know many things
and finish up with degrees, finally, perhaps, with a doctorate, the highest attainable, but

mostly that will be about external things and won’t cause life to become cool and peaceful,
it will be about making a living, making money, becoming famous, becoming powerful,
gaining stature, etc. all of which won’t do anything to quench dukkha.

90 Because I Know...