Meaning of Happiness - Buddha's teachings

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

Buddha's teachings on Happiness [Majjhima Nikaya, Bahuvedaniya

Sutta 59]:

 

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/samyutta/sn36-019.html

 

"There are five strands of sense desire. What are these five? Forms

cognizable by the eye that are wished for, desirable, agreeable and

endearing, bound up with sensual desire and tempting to lust. Sounds

cognizable by the ear... odors cognizable by the nose... flavors

cognizable by the tongue... tangibles cognizable by the body, that

are wished for, desirable, agreeable and endearing, bound up with

sense desire, and tempting to lust. These are the five strands of

sense desire. The pleasure and joy arising dependent on these five

strands of sense desire, that is called sensual pleasure.

"Now, if someone were to say: 'This is the highest pleasure and joy

that can be experienced,' I would not concede that. And why not?

Because there is another kind of pleasure which surpasses that

pleasure and is more sublime. And what is this pleasure? Here, quite

secluded from sensual desires, secluded from unwholesome states of

mind, a monk enters upon and abides in the first meditative

absorption (jhana), which is accompanied by thought conception and

discursive thinking and has in it joy and pleasure born of seclusion.

This is the other kind of pleasure which surpasses that (sense)

pleasure and is more sublime.

"If someone were to say: 'This is the highest pleasure that can be

experienced,' I would not concede that. And why not? Because there is

another kind of pleasure which surpasses that pleasure and is more

sublime. And what is that pleasure? Here, with the stilling of

thought conception and discursive thinking... a monk enters upon and

abides in the second meditative absorption... in the sphere of the

infinity of space... of the infinity of consciousness... of no-

thingness... of neither-perception-nor-non-perception.

"If someone were to say: 'This is the highest pleasure that can be

experienced,' I would not concede that. And why not? Because there is

another kind of pleasure which surpasses that pleasure and is more

sublime. And what is this pleasure? Here, by completely surmounting

the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, a monk enters

upon and abides in the cessation of perception and feeling. This is

the other kind of pleasure which surpasses that pleasure and is more

sublime.[3]

"It may happen, Ananda, that Wanderers of other sects will be saying

this: 'The recluse Gotama speaks of the Cessation of Perception and

Feeling and describes it as pleasure. What is this (pleasure) and how

is this (a pleasure)?'

"Those who say so, should be told: 'The Blessed One describes as

pleasure not only the feeling of pleasure. But a Tathagata describes

as pleasure whenever and whereinsoever it is obtained.'"

 

 

Regards,

 

Sunder