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which helps to vanquish laziness. 
You need 
to accept how you are and use 
what you have to 
the very best of your ability. It is 
not like some 
people who think to themselves, 
"My father is 
only an ignorant fool, what hope 
have I of doing 
anything worthwhile? Why 
couldn't I have the 
272 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
towards Enlightened Living 
president for my father?" Some 
people blame 
their parents for being so poor, 
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thinking, "What 
have they wasted their time doing 
all these years 
instead of amassing riches? Why 
couldn't I have 
been born with a silver spoon in 
my mouth?" 
Some people are not content with 
their nationality. 
Some people are not content with 
their own 
wife, thinking that other people's 
wives are all 
so much better. Some people 
wonder how their 
own children could ever have 
grown up with 
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such a monstrous personality —
without ever 
thinking to ask themselves where 
those children 
got their bad habits from! It's no 
use wasting 
your energy being discontent —
instead you 
ought to be rechanneling our 
energy into improving 
the situation. 
2. contentment with what you get 
[santena 
santosa]: in the words of the Lord 
Buddha 
(J.i.476): 
YaO laddhaO tena tuEEhabbaO 
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"You should be content with 
whatever you 
receive" 
when we are working on a task, 
this sort of contentment 
means contentment with the 
outcome. 
Sometimes the results don't reach 
the targets of 
beauty, quantity or craftsmanship 
we had set for 
ourselves — but if we can be 
content, instead of 
losing sleep about it or revelling in 
the suffering 
of it we can go on cheerfully to 
make the necessary 
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adjustments. Some who lack this 
sort of contentment 
will tend to assume that they are 
destined 
to misfortune. One tends to revel 
in the 
shortcomings of one's work 
instead of concentrating 
on the successful part of what one 
has 
achieved. A fisherman lacking 
such contentment 
will always think that the fish that 
escaped his 
net are larger than the ones he has 
caught. In the 
end he spends his whole life eating 
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fish he is disappointed 
with. Thus he never enjoys his 
food 
to his dying day. If your parents 
can only afford 
to give you 1,000 or 10,000 you 
should be thankful 
- it's better than being given a 
debt to service. 
By contrast someone who is 
contented will 
be happy with whatever they are 
endowed with 
instead of always looking to see 
what their neighbour 
has that might be better. If you 
already have 
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something and you feel that it is in 
some way 
inappropriate, then if you decide to 
make some 
adjustments then that is another 
matter. If someone 
gives you a small piece of land to 
build a 
house, and you can build only a 
small house —
you should be thankful that you 
don't have to 
waste money renting for many 
years — but at 
the same time, you should work 
diligently, building 
up your financial position, so that 
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you can 
expand the house to your full 
requirements at a 
later date. Supposing you are in 
business and 
you expect to make a profit of a 
million. You work 
as hard as you can but can manage 
a profit of 
only 500,000. You have to learn to 
live with that. 
Don't be like some people who 
immediately go 
into chronic depression. Instead of 
being upset 
about the small size of your profit, 
you should 
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be thankful that you haven't made 
a loss. Some 
people take an entrance exam 
hoping to be accepted 
to study medicine — but when 
they are 
turned down, they commit suicide. 
Why can't 
they look on the bright side and 
find something 
else to study instead? Some people 
fall in love 
with a girl who shows no interest 
in them — so 
they hang themselves with a 
broken heart. People 
of such stupidity deserve no 
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sympathy. If 
they didn't have their love 
returned, why 
couldn't they learn to be content 
with living 
alone? You can be content with 
what you have 
or what you are given. If you are 
content with 
what you are given, supposing 
when it comes to 
time for promotion, the boss gives 
it to someone 
else who is lazy, even though you 
have been 
working hard all year, maybe you 
can be content 
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with that. However if it happens 
every year, 
maybe you need to do something 
about it. 
3. contentment with what is 
appropriate for you 
[samena santosa]: In practice this 
means that we 
don't keep in our possession things 
that are surplus 
to what is appropriate for us. 
Supposing 
someone comes along and offers 
you something 
that is unbefitting of your ability or 
social status 
it is better to be content with what 
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you already 
have. If someone comes along one 
day and ofBlessing 
Twenty-Four: Contentment 273 
fers to make you president, if you 
were to accept, 
it might just be the death of you. If 
you were 
just a newly ordained monk and 
someone came 
along and offered to make you the 
abbot of a 
temple, again it might not be 
fitting because you 
are not yet well trained enough. 
Monks have to 
think carefully before they accept 
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certain offerings. 
Supposing someone were to come 
along 
and offer a monk a jade Buddha or 
a huge Buddha 
image made of gold 
it might be 
better to 
refuse it otherwise you might have 
to be a security 
guard for the rest of his life. There 
was once 
a tramp who bought a lottery ticket 
and miraculously 
got the first prize. When the tramp 
heard 
the news of how much he had won, 
he had a 
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heart attack and died. A second 
person went to 
collect the money, but as they had 
never had any 
experience of looking after the 
money before, 
they died in the ensuing quarrels 
between various 
friends and relatives who thought 
they were 
entitled to a share of the money. 
You have to 
know what is appropriate or 
inappropriate for 
yourself. When considering what 
is appropriate 
for one, there are three deciding 
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factors: 
1. whether it is appropriate to our 
status [yathA 
lAbha]: we should consider what 
our socio-economic 
status is — are we a monastic, a 
householder, 
a senior, a subordinate, a teacher, a 
student, 
a military general, an infantryman, 
a faculty 
head, an odd-job man — and the 
things 
which we use and consume ought 
to be appropriate 
to the socio-economic status we 
occupy 
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instead of being pretencious things 
inappropriate 
to our status. If you are a manual 
worker 
maybe you should be contented to 
furnish your 
house with plain furniture rather 
than the upholstered 
`reception furniture' more fitting to 
the 
office of the primeminister! If you 
are a monk 
and someone offers a female 
maidservant to attend 
to all your domestic needs — then 
in spite 
of their good intentions, you would 
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be better to 
turn them down, because that 
would not be fitting 
a monk — or perhaps not building 
a huge 
air-conditioned house you cannot 
afford, having 
to take out loans to do it; 
2. whether it is appropriate to our 
potency [yathA 
bala]: If one knows and accepts the 
level of 
one's own potential, one will be 
better able to 
know what is appropriate for one. 
You should 
not over- or under-estimate 
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oneself. You 
should look at oneself deeper than 
surface features 
such as gender, size or beauty. 
Don't go 
comparing yourself to others out of 
your 
league — thinking that just 
because you know 
them or can speak to them, that 
you you deserve 
the same treatment as them. If you 
know 
your capabilities are only enough 
to take the 
responsibilities of a minister in 
parliament, 
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don't go coveting the title of 
primeminister. If 
your capabilities are only enough 
to be a handservant, 
don't go dreaming of being an 
employer 
— e.g. not choosing 
status-symbols inappropriate 
to our actual status — like a 
highbacked 
director's chair if one is not 
capable 
of being a director; 
3. whether it is appropriate to our 
level of morality 
[yathA sarupa]: Even if something 
is appropriate 
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to our status and potential, if it is 
something 
inappropriate to the level of 
Precepts we 
have set for ourselves — or if it 
will discredit 
us or compromise our dignity to 
receive it —
then we should not be contented to 
receive 
that kind of thing. For example, we 
should 
not accept goods we know to be 
stolen or salary 
earned by illegal employment —
in order 
that possessions don't become 
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