Question

So all of our possessions, our body, our relatives and friends, all of this is impermanent and not ours. But how about the mind? Maybe it is also impermanent, not ours. Does it matter if we know the answer or not? In any case our good and efforts will benefit the world and make ourselves a happier person less affected by Dukkha. Can one practice the Dhamma from such a perspective?

Answer

Yes, indeed. You don't need the intellectual side of Buddhism. You don't need to know about "not ours", "not-self", Anatta. You don't need to know about rebirth, you don't have to believe lots of these things about ultimate enlightenment. It is not going to change a great deal the work you have to do. It may help you get a different perspective, but the work you have to do is right now. Do you have fear, do you have anger, do you have greed? Do you have compassion, do you have patience and so on? How do you decrease the negative, how do you increase the positive to become a better person who will benefit the world? So as to the actual practice, you don't need to know all that other information. It can be helpful sometimes to know what that information is, as I said, to give a different perspective, but as to the actual practice it is right here in this moment.

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