Happiness (sukha)
Skillful qualities / Noble Eightfold Path / Right Concentration / Happiness
Part of key topic Skillful Qualities
Subsumes: Pleasant feeling (sukhā vedanā), Pleasure (sukha)
150 excerpts, 10:36:50 total duration

The Pāli word sukha includes both pleasure and happiness.


Events (1) All excerpts (150) Most relevant (72) Questions about (55) Answers involving (73) Stories (5) Quotes (14) Texts (8)

Tudong Stories at Spirit Rock, Session 2 – Jun. 2, 2011

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3. Comment: Living on faith increases your potential anxiety level. I came to Buddhism thinking this would settle my life, but I realize that being open, aware, and sensitive to the world keeps bringing me new challenges. [Faith] [Restlessness and worry] [Everyday life] [Conscience and prudence] [Tudong]

Sutta: Dhp 244-245: Life is easy for for one without shame. [Conceit] [Virtue]

Response by Ajahn Pasanno: “You get more than what you bargained for.” [Happiness] [Culture/West] [Communal harmony] [Trust] [Concentration] [Ardency] [Energy] [Discernment] [Guilt/shame/inadequacy] [Right Effort]

Sutta: AN 11.1: Virtue leads to non-remorse and samādhi. [Happiness]


New Year, New Life, Session 1 – Dec. 16, 2013

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6. “I find I do need some pleasures even thought they don’t last, things like fine arts and being in nature. I’m curious, how did you manage as a monk in your early years at Ajahn Chah’s monastery where there’s almost no pleasure....How did you manage to keep going over the years until the present?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Sensual desire] [Artistic expression] [Culture/Natural environment] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Monastic life] [Ajahn Chah] [Food] [Entertainment and adornment] [Monastic life/Motivation] // [Cessation of Suffering] [Happiness ] [Simplicity ] [Association with people of integrity] [Empathetic joy] [Human] [Hindrances] [Jhāna] [Virtue] [Discernment]

Quote: “One of the extraordinary perks of being a monk is that everyone tries to be good around you.”

Sutta: MN 36.32: “Why am I afraid of that happiness?” [Buddha/Biography] [Ascetic practices] [Suffering] [Happiness ] [Skillful qualities] [Eightfold Path]

Quote: “As a monk, I can look back on forty years of living in a way where I don’t have to feel remorseful or regret anything.” [Happiness ]


Our Roots in the Thai Forest Tradition, Session 37 – Feb. 25, 2014

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1. “Could you describe ways to work with delighting and wanting around the pleasure of food?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Food ] [Craving] [Happiness] [Unattractiveness] [Disenchantment] // [Elements] [Mindfulness of body] [Clinging] [Impermanence] [Dependent origination]

Sutta: AN 5.208: The benefits of chewing toothwoods. [Cleanliness] [Happiness]


The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, Session 45 – Mar. 15, 2015

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2. Examples of pleasures of renunciation? Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Happiness] [Renunciation] [Rapture] // [Skillful qualities]

Sutta: Ud 2.10: “Oh, what bliss!” [Happiness]


Jhāna: A Practical Approach, Session 3 – Oct. 10, 2015

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16. “The rapture and joy that are being described are not pleasure, right?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Rapture] [Happiness] [Jhāna] // [Pāli]

Commentary: Path of Purification by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, p. 139 [Happiness] [Similes]


2015 Thanksgiving Monastic Retreat, Session 1 – Nov. 21, 2015

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6. “What is the difference between piti and sukha? Also equanimity and emptiness as a felt sense?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Rapture ] [Happiness ] [Equanimity] [Emptiness ] // [Self-identity view] [Theravāda] [Relinquishment]

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The difference between pīti and sukha. [Rapture ] [Happiness ] [Emotion]

Commentary: Path of Purification by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, p. 139: Similes for pīti and sukha. [Similes] [Rapture ] [Happiness ]


Honoring the Buddha: The Mahāparinibbāna Sutta – Apr. 25, 2021

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10. Comment by Ajahn Pasanno: Throughout the whole teaching (DN 16) there is the sense of the ordinary and the transcendant together all the time. [Conventions] [Unconditioned] [Sutta] [Buddha/Biography] // [Nature of mind] [Ceremony/ritual] [Precepts] [Meditation] [Devotional practice] [Middle Path] [Release]

Sutta: Aniccā vata saṅkhārā... (SN 6.15) [Cessation] [Happiness] [Recollection/Peace]


Madison Insight Retreat 2023, Session 2 – Oct. 14, 2023

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5. “I have had many losses over the year, and both my parents passed away six years ago. I found that taking refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha, keeping the precepts, and having daily meditation practice helps. There is peacefulness and gratitude. I have heard that if one wants to share merits with the deceased, one could. What is the proper way? Could you give some guidance?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Death] [Grief] [Parents] [Merit ] // [Recollection/Virtue] [Goodwill] [Translation] [Three Refuges] [Precepts] [Generosity] [Happiness]

Sutta: Iti 22: “Do not be afraid of puñña.” [Happiness]

Quote: “Puñña is accomplished through the heart itself.” [Heart/mind] [Cultural context]

Quote: “A spark of merit is worth more than a mountain of effort.” — Tibetan saying. [Vajrayāna] [Self-identity view]