Happiness (sukha)
Skillful qualities / Noble Eightfold Path / Right Concentration / Happiness
Part of key topic Skillful Qualities
Subsumes: Pleasant feeling (sukhā vedanā), Pleasure (sukha)
137 excerpts, 8:56:19 total duration

All excerpts (137) Most relevant (66) Questions about (51) Answers involving (68) Stories (4) 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 ]


Abhayagiri 2014 Winter Retreat, 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]


Abhayagiri 2015 Winter Retreat, 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]