Sukha

Sukha (T. bde ba བདེ་བ་; C. le 樂) is translated as "happiness," "bliss," "joy," "pleasure," etc.

In Buddhist literature, the term is used in a general sense to refer to "well-being and happiness" (hitasukha) in either this present life or future lives. In addition, sukha is identified as:

• one of three types of sensations (vedanā)
• the fourth of the five factors of meditative absorption (dhyānāṅga)

Aspect of sensations (vedana)

Sukha is identified as one of the three types of sensations (vedana).

In general, sensations (vedana) can be of one of three types:

• pleasant (sukha),
• unpleasant (dukkha), or
• neither-unpleasant-nor-pleasant (adukkha-asukha).

The Buddhist Dictionary states:

sukha: ‘pleasant’, 'happy’, ‘happiness’, ‘pleasure’, ‘joy’, ‘bliss’. It is one of the three feelings (see vedanā) and may be either bodily or mental. The texts distinguish between the happiness of the senses and the happiness of renunciation (AN 2), worldly (carnal; sāmisa) and unworldly (non-carnal; nirāmisa) happiness (MN 10). See AN 2, ch. 8.

In the development of concentration

Sukha is a necessary condition for developing concentration.

The Buddhist Dictionary states:

Happiness (sukha) is an indispensable condition for attaining concentration of mind (samādhi, q.v.), and therefore it is one of the five factors (or constituents) of the first absorption (jhānaṅga) and is present up to the third absorption inclusively. “The mind of the happy one has concentration as its fruit and reward” (AN 10:1). “In him who is filled with happiness, right concentration has found a foundation” (AN 10:3).

A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma states:

Happiness (sukha): This jhāna factor is pleasant mental feeling. It is identical with somanassa, joy, and not with the sukha of pleasant bodily feeling that accompanies wholesome-resultant body-consciousness. This sukha, also rendered as bliss, is born of detachment from sensual pleasures; it is therefore explained as nirāmisasukha, unworldly or spiritual happiness. It counters the hindrance of restlessness and worry (uddhaccakukkucca). Though pīti and sukha are closely connected, they are distinguished in that pīti is a conative factor belonging to the aggregate of mental formations (sankhārakkhandha), while sukha is a feeling belonging to the aggregate of feeling (vedanākkhandha). Pīti is compared to the delight a weary traveler would experience when coming across an oasis, sukha to his pleasure after bathing and drinking.

Within meditative absorption (dhyāna)

Meditative absorption (dhyāna) refers to a state of meditation where awareness is fully absorbed in the object of attention. The Buddha described four levels of absorption, each of increasing depth.

The mental factor sukha is present in the first three of the four absorbtions.

Five factors related to the first absorption

Main article: Mental factors in the jhanas

Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo describes the mental factors related to the first absorption (jhāna, dhyāna) within the contexts of meditation on the breath.

To think of the breath is termed vitakka, directed thought. To adjust the breath and let it spread is called vicara, evaluation. When all aspects of the breath flow freely throughout the body, you feel full and refreshed in body and mind: This is piti, rapture. When body and mind are both at rest, you feel serene and at ease: This is sukha, pleasure. And once you feel pleasure, the mind is bound to stay snug with a single preoccupation and not go straying after any others: This is ekaggatarammana, singleness of preoccupation. These five factors form the beginning stage of Right Concentration.

Distinction between pīti and sukkha

The Visuddhimagga distinguishes between pīti and sukha in the context of the jhanas as follows:

And wherever the two are associated, happiness [here, Ñāṇamoli's translation of pīti] is the contentedness at getting a desirable object, and bliss [sukha] is the actual experiencing of it when got. Where there is happiness [pīti] there is bliss (pleasure) [sukha]; but where there is bliss [sukha] there is not necessarily happiness [pīti]. Happiness is included in the formations aggregate; bliss is included in the feeling aggregate. If a man exhausted in a desert saw or heard about a pond on the edge of a wood, he would have happiness; if he went into the wood's shade and used the water, he would have bliss....

According to Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, piti is a stimulating, exciting and energizing quality, as opposed to the calmness of sukha.

Arising in the absorbtions

The Upanisa Sutta (SN 12.23) states that sukha arises from tranquillity (passaddhi) of the body and mind, and in turn gives rise to concentration (samādhi).

Bodhi (1980) states:

The subcommentary to the Upanisa Sutta explains sukha as the happiness of the access to absorption. The term 'access' (upacara) denotes the stage in the cultivation of serenity immediately preceding full absorption, the intended goal of serenity meditation. Access is characterized by the abandonment of the five hindrances and the arising of the 'counterpart sign,' the self-luminous object of interior perception which is the focal point for the higher stages of concentration.

General life pursuit

In the Pali Canon, the Buddha discusses with different lay persons "well-being and happiness" (hitasukha) "visible in this present life" (diṭṭha-dhamma) and "pertaining to the future life" (samparāyika), as exemplified by the following suttas.

Anana Sutta

In the Anaṇa Sutta (AN 4.62), the Buddha describes four types of happiness for a "householder partaking of sensuality" (gihinā kāma-bhoginā):

• the happiness of earning (atthi-sukha) wealth by just and righteous means
• the happiness of using (bhoga-sukha) wealth liberally on family, friends, & on meritorious deeds
• the happiness of debtlessness (anaṇa-sukha) be free from debts
• the happiness of blamelessness (anavajja-sukha), to live a faultless and pure life without committing evil in thought, word, and deed

Of these, the wise (sumedhaso) know that the happiness of blamelessness is by far the greatest householder happiness. Economic and material happiness is not worth one sixteenth part of the spiritual happiness arising out of a faultless and good life.

Kalama Sutta

In the Kalama Sutta, townspeople ask the Buddha how they are to ascertain which spiritual teaching is true. The Buddha counsels that one should "enter and dwell" in "things" or "qualities" (dhammā) that are:

• skillful (kusalā),
• blameless (anavajjā),
• praised by the wise (viññuppasatthā), and
• when put into practice, are conducive to well-being and happiness (samattā samādinnā hitāya sukhāya saṃvattantī)

Dighajanu Sutta

In the Dighajānu Sutta (AN 8.54), Dighajānu approaches the Buddha and states:

"We are lay people enjoying sensuality; living crowded with spouses & children; using Kasi fabrics & sandalwood; wearing garlands, scents, & creams; handling gold & silver. May the Blessed One teach the Dhamma for those like us, for our happiness & well-being in this life, for our happiness & well-being in lives to come."

In response, the Buddha identifies four sources that lead to well-being and happiness in the current life:

• productive efforts (uṭṭhāna-sampadā) in one's livelihood,
• protective efforts (ārakkha-sampadā) regarding ones wealth in terms of possible theft or disaster,
• virtuous friendship (kalyāṇa-mittatā), and
• even-headed living (sama-jīvikatā), abstaining from womanizing, drunkenness, gambling and evil friendships.

In terms of well-being and happiness in the next life, the Buddha identifies the following sources:

• faith (saddhā) in the fully enlightened Buddha;
• virtue (sīla), as exemplified by the Five Precepts;
• generosity (cāga), giving charity and alms; and,
• wisdom (paññā), having insight into the arising and passing of things.

Mettā practice

Mettā (benevolence, kindness) is expressed in the Karaniya Mettā Sutta ("Scripture of Compassionate Benevolence") (Sn 1.8) as follows:

May all beings be happy. (Sabbe sattā bhavantu sukhitattā.)

Similarly, the Pali commentaries (SN-A 128) define mettā as "the desire to bring about the well-being and happiness [of others]" (hita-sukha-upanaya-kāmatā)

As a characterization of awakening

Nibbāna (Sanskrit: Nirvāṇa) entails the foundational extinction or "blowing out" of the processes of unwholesome desire, aversion, and delusion. From the perspective of awakened experience, the latter processes are appreciated as "agitations" of the mind. In contrast to such agitation, sukha and its cognates are used to characterize the calm of Nibbāna, the "Unconditioned," as a bliss. For example:

The born, come-to-be, produced,

The made, the conditioned, the transient,

Conjoined with decay and death,

A nest of disease, perishable,

Sprung from nutriment and craving's cord —

That is not fit to take delight in.

The escape from that, the peaceful,

Beyond reasoning, everlasting,

The not-born, the unproduced,

The sorrowless state that is void of stain,

The cessation of states linked to suffering,

The stilling of the conditioned — bliss.

Etymology

According to Monier-Williams (1964), the etymology of sukha is "said to be su ['good'] + kha ['aperture'] and to mean originally 'having a good axle-hole'...." Thus, for instance, in the Rig Veda sukha denotes "running swiftly or easily" (applied, e.g., to chariots). Sukha is juxtaposed with duḥkha (Sanskrit; Pali: dukkha; often translated as "suffering"), which was established as the major motivating life principles in early Vedic religion. This theme of the centrality of dukkha was developed in later years in both Vedic and the offshoot Buddhist traditions. The elimination of dukkha is the raison d'être of early Buddhism.

Sources

• Bhikkhu Bodhi, ed. (2000), A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma, Pariyatti Publishing 
• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 
• Nyanatiloka Thera (2019), Nyanaponika Thera, ed., Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines, Pariyatti Publishing 
• Bodhi, Bhikkhu (1980). Transcendental Dependent Arising: A Translation and Exposition of the Upanisa Sutta (Wheel No. 277/278). Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society. Retrieved 2008-05-08 from "Access to Insight" (1995) at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/wheel277.html.
• Bodhi, Bhikkhu (2005). In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-491-1.
• Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu (trans.) (1999). The Path of Purification: Visuddhimagga. Seattle, WA: BPS Pariyatti Editions. ISBN 1-928706-00-2.
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• Rhys Davids, T.W. & William Stede (eds.) (1921-5). The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary. Chipstead: Pali Text Society. Retrieved 2008-05-08 from "U. Chicago" at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/.
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