สัตบุรุษคือผู้มีปัญญาแยกแยะได้ว่าสิ่งใดเป็นประโยชน์ เมื่อมีทรัพย์จึงมองทรัพย์เป็นเพียงเครื่องมือสนับสนุนชีวิตและสร้างบารมี ไม่ตระหนี่ พร้อมแบ่งปันเกื้อกูลผู้อื่น เพราะเข้าใจว่าทรัพย์ทั้งหมดมีบุญเป็นเบื้องหลังA truly good person (sabburusa) has the wisdom to see what is beneficial. When wealth comes, it is treated only as a tool to support life and build perfections, never hoarded — instead shared, because all wealth ultimately rests on merit.
Someone asked the teacher to expand on the teaching, "A good person who holds wealth becomes a great benefit to the multitude."
How a good person sees wealth
A truly good person (sabburusa) has clear eyes and clear wisdom, able to tell precisely what is greatly beneficial, slightly beneficial, or not beneficial at all — seeing clearly both this world and the path to the next. Even when wealth arises, such a person treats it merely as a tool that supports a comfortable life and as an instrument for building perfections and doing great good for humanity. Wise people, once they have wealth, are never stingy with it. The great Bodhisattvas are called sabburusa precisely because in every life they were never stingy at heart — only ever giving. Anathapindika, the great almsgiver, is an example: he gave away his wealth for the benefit of humanity, including funding the great Jetavana monastery for spreading the . Wealth in the hands of a sabburusa therefore becomes a great benefit to the multitude.
The real cause behind human life
We are born into this world to accumulate merit and perfections, because the "cost of living" in every realm ultimately rests on merit. More merit means more refined assets; less merit means fewer. Every life runs on cause and condition, and the deepest cause behind everything is the three natures — wholesome (), unwholesome (), and neutral (abyakata) — which govern beings through the voice that echoes within the mind. The wholesome voice guides us toward what is right and good, restraining us from what is unwholesome. The unwholesome voice pressures and squeezes through boredom, stress, irritation, greed, anger, and delusion. The neutral voice lures us into spending time and wealth on eating, playing, and wandering aimlessly, creating neither merit nor harm.
Giving, precepts, and renunciation: purifying both the inner and outer world
Staying in wholesomeness requires cultivating and , so that wholesome becomes the host of our heart. The essence of giving, in the inner world, is clearing away the defilement of — the fear of running out, of poverty. This fear blocks the world's shared assets from flowing to us. Sharing builds a network of mutual support, both now and in future lives. Precepts are needed because we live in a world where the three natures compete to seize control; staying firmly within keeps and the neutral from gaining a foothold, and draws in the stream of merit to purify our body and speech. Renunciation means stepping away from sensuality, because the joy and sorrow born of sense pleasures are the bait the unwholesome uses to keep beings captive. The Dhamma is therefore a step-by-step movement into subtler and subtler dimensions, away from these sensual snares.
The Ten Perfections and the uplifting of life
Progress in building perfections accelerates when we are both teacher and student at once — guiding others while continuing to learn ourselves. The Ten Perfections — giving, morality, renunciation, wisdom, effort, , truthfulness, resolution, , and equanimity — are all tools for connecting with the wise and the powerful, both within and beyond us. The perfection of truthfulness in particular connects us to the ultimate truth, Nibbana and the Triple Gem, making our resolutions (adhitthana) easy to fulfill. Developing life through these Ten Perfections is therefore essential for refining our inner dimension — which is the true cause of every outer fullness and success.