พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าความอยากที่แท้จริงเกิดจากตัณหาในรูปรสกลิ่นเสียงสัมผัส ทั้งภวตัณหาที่อยากมีอยากเป็น และวิภวตัณหาที่อยากหลุดพ้น ล้วนถูกฝ่ายอกุศลใช้เป็นเครื่องมือชี้นำให้ทำผิด ทางแก้คือความสันโดษและการสร้างความดีอย่างต่อเนื่องThe teacher explains that true craving arises from desire for sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touch — both the craving to have or become something, and the craving to escape a state — and both are exploited by unwholesome forces to push us into wrongdoing. The remedy is contentment paired with continuous, sincere goodness.
Someone asked the teacher to expand on a teaching of the late Khun Yai Acharn: "The reason people suffer every day is that they have nothing but craving. It is this craving that causes suffering — wanting to be beautiful is suffering, wanting to be rich is suffering, wanting to be prominent and famous is suffering. I have no craving for these things, so I have no suffering. I've carried my with me for a long time."
All craving relates to sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, and mental objects — everything perceived through our six sense bases. When we encounter something pleasing, we crave to remain with it; this is called -tanha, the craving to have or to become, wanting that pleasant state to continue. But once the karmic support that let us enjoy it runs out, we must part with it — and if the mind still clings and wants more, suffering arises. When we encounter something displeasing, we crave to escape it; this is called vibhava-tanha. But if karma forces us to continue facing it, we must endure what we dislike for the time being — and this too is the nature of suffering: a state to be endured, and endured with difficulty.
Both forms of craving are exploited by unwholesome forces as tools of persuasion. Once we accept their direction, they take hold of the mind, twisting our emotions to want more and more, until we are pressured into harmful speech and action just to obtain what we want — heedless of whether it's right or wrong. All of this serves to draw in unwholesome energy that brings suffering both now and in the future.
The remedy is contentment () — being sfied with what we currently have and are, without comparing ourselves to others as better or worse off. Whatever good karma is currently yielding its fruit, we accept and are content with that for now, while continuously cultivating goodness as pure, genuine merit. As Khun Yai Acharn taught: let others be whatever they will be; it's enough for us simply to keep doing good and thinking good thoughts. Abiding in this wholesome system lets a steady stream of merit flow in, gradually refining the mind, and in time leads us toward the fulfillment of what is right and good — without needing craving to drive us there.