Page 96 - Because I know, I can let go

We must always have sati in our life, if it’s deficient the mind will receive its various objects

in a mostly unskillful way, then it won’t be peaceful. If we make it correct it will be peaceful.
If we have the sati of the four satipathānas, that is, mindfulness of the body, of feelings, of
the mind, and of dhammas, that, is ānāpānasati; the four satipathānas are ānāpānasati,

are ‘sammāsati,’ right mindfulness.

When the mind is samādhi then it’s right samādhi.

Hence developing ānāpānasati is to develop the eightfold path as the basis of the mind, and

when we’ve achieved this our life has been developed, because then it will be composed
of just the five aggregates as they are in Nature. Worldly people have the five clinging
aggregates, the aggregates mixed up with clinging, with upādāna, hence their lives are

heavy, we cling to the aggregates as ‘ours’ hence they become heavy, that’s the nature of
worldly people.

Noble ones begin to let go of that weight, begin to avoid clinging to the aggregates,
sometimes there might be just the aggregates as they are in Nature, sometimes it

will be the aggregates mixed up with clinging, but whenever there’s clinging to the
aggregates they become heavy. The Arahant doesn’t cling to the aggregates, so has just
the aggregates as they are in Nature and doesn’t have the dukkha of worldly people.

‘Bhārahavepancakhandha,’ means the five aggregates are heavy, heavy because of being
clung to, when the weight has been dropped there’s no more dukkha, which means that
if we don’t cling then dukkha will quench.

Hence, practising ānāpānasati isn’t about getting or being anything, even hoping to be

a stream enterer, a once returner, a never returner, or an Arahant, should be avoided,
that’s not the way to practise, because being a noble person is about getting rid of the
defilements.

The aim of dhamma practice is the attainment of the path, its fruit, and nibbāna. In
practising we need to completely forget about there being a ‘me,’ a practitioner. Ajarn
Buddhadāsa always cautioned that there should just be the practising without any feeling

96 Because I Know...