SN 36.2 Sukha Sutta

Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Samyutta Nikaya >> Sukha Sutta

SN 36.2 Sukha Sutta : Happiness
"There are, O monks, these three feelings/sensations: pleasant feelings/sensations, painful feelings/sensations, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant feelings/sensations." Be it a pleasant feeling/sensations, be it a painful feeling/sensations, be it neutral, one's own or others', feelings/sensations of all kinds(1) — he knows them all as ill, deceitful, changing. repeatedly experiencing them with equanimity & understanding(of rise and fall/Aniccha), these weaken and disappear,(2) he wins detachment from the feelings/sensations, passion-free.

Notes:

1.On "feelings/sensations of all kinds," see SN-36.22.

2.Phussa phussa vayam disva, anena phusitva phusitva," These verses occur also in Sutta Nipata, v. 739, with one additional line.

Also, this is the method practiced in Vipassana meditation, which is highly praised by Buddha himself, as the way to Nibbana, the final goal. It appears that, since Nibbana is the highest happiness(Sukha), this Sutta is named as such. This is contrast to the Buddha's preaching of Dukkha(Suffering) in all worldly/sensory phenomena, as the solution to it.