Ecstatic meditation works: Happiness

Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), based on Ven. Nyanatiloka/Anton Gueth (Buddhist Dictionary, palikanon.com), Wisdom Quarterly

I want bliss (piti), happiness, then equanimity.

I feel happy, which in Buddhism is the pleasant abiding called sukha (the opposite of the ennobling truth of dukkha).

Sukha is a stable happiness -- like Dr. Robert Lustig's distinction between the quick burning brain chemical for pleasure, dopamine, versus the slow one for happiness, serotonin. It's joy, ease, contentment, enduring and peaceful bliss.

Sukha is one of the three feelings (vedanā or sensations) in Buddhist psychology, which may be either physical (bodily) or mental (heart based).

• HOW CAN I become a (temporary) Buddhist monastic?

Buddhist sutras distinguish between the

• happiness of the senses versus happiness of renunciation or internally letting go (A. II),
• happiness that is worldly (sāmisa, "carnal") versus happiness that is unworldly (nirāmisa, "non-carnal") (MN 10). (See A.II, Chp. VIII).

Happiness is an indispensable condition for attaining unification (samadhi, coherent-concentration) of mind. Therefore, it is one of the Five Factors (Constituents) of Absorption (jhānanga), particularly of the first three absorptions (jhāna), which overcome and supplant the Five Hindrances.

Sukha is present up to the third absorption, after which it is sublimated into the far more peaceful and contented equanimity, unbiased calm.

"The mind of the happy person has mental-unification (samadhi) as its fruit and reward" (A.X,1). "In one who is filled with happiness, right-concentration (samma-samadhi) has found a base" (A.X,3).

• AUDIO: Pleasure or happiness? (Dr. Robert Lustig)