Rapture (pīti)
Rapture (pīti)
19. “What is the difference between pīti and sukha?” [Rapture] [Happiness] // [Continuity of mindfulness] [Concentration] [Jhāna] [Tranquility] [One pointedness] [Mindfulness]
Simile: A traveller through a desert learns of an oasis (pīti) then drinks and bathes at the oasis (sukha) (Path of Purification by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, p. 139). [Rapture] [Similes]
1. “In the palm reader story, you mentioned that Ajahn Chah still had a lot of anger, but he chose not to act from it. So does this mean that if there was a troublesome monk, Ajahn Chah would still experience a flare of anger but have the wisdom to set it aside and consider what to do with a cool head? This sounds similar to something Ram Das said about his practice....” [Ajahn Chah] [Aversion] [Discernment] [Ram Dass] [Unwholesome Roots] // [Personality] [Kamma]
Story: Ajahn Jayasaro is massaging Ajahn Chah's feet when a monk undergoing a disciplinary procedure walks by. [Ajahn Jayasaro] [Vinaya] [Fierce/direct teaching] [Emotion]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno observes Ajahn Mahā Boowa's fierce behaivor. [Ajahn Mahā Boowa] [Arahant] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Rapture] [Goodwill]
Quote: “You never quite knew...you were always very careful around [Ajahn Chah] because you never knew which side was going to come out. It wasn't as if he was just playing with you, but he always responded to the situation or the person.” [Heedlessness] [Personal presence] [Teaching Dhamma]
5. “When you guided meditation in the past two afternoons, I've enjoyed slipping past the high energy of rapture/joy. I found these meditations grounding and at the same time streaming with energy. I'm finding it difficult to get past joy without your vocal guidance. Can you offer suggestions?” [Rapture] [Energy] [Right Concentration] // [Mindfulness of body] [Mindfulness of breathing]
5. Story: Ajahn Chah's practice matures and he receives permission to teach. [Teaching Dhamma] [Ajahn Chah] // [Wat Pah Pong] [Rapture] [Almsround] [Ajahn Kinaree]
7. Story: Ajahn Supah chooses tudong over further studies. [Ajahn Supah] [Culture/Thailand] [Study monks] [Learning] [Tudong] // [Liberation] [Goodwill] [Simplicity] [Virtue] [Recollection/Virtue]
Story: Ajahn Pasanno's mother cries when she meets Ajahn Supah. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Faith] [Rapture]
Story: A python begins to eat Ajahn Supah. [Animal] [Determination]
3. Comment: You spoke about suffusing the body with extreme well-being. But I've been in states like that and my body seems to disappear. [Jhāna] [Happiness] [Rapture] [Mindfulness of body] [Gradual Teaching] [Meditation/Unusual experiences]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno.
Quote: “It isn't so much the experience of extreme well-being that is the goal. It's the ability to gain clarity and stability so that one can see through the experience as something that is uncertain or impermanent, has a changing nature. The mind often wants to disregard that. The tendency to identify self with experience on a refined mental level is tempered by the body experience.” [Rapture] [Clear comprehension] [Concentration] [Knowledge and vision] [Impermanence] [Delusion] [Self-identity view] [Relinquishment]
Follow-up: “Are you saying you can become attached to these states?” [Clinging]
8. “I appreciate your emphasis on clarity, stability, and spaciousness. How does concentration relate to these?” [Clear comprehension] [One pointedness] [Spaciousness] [Concentration] // [Pāli] [Thai] [Etymology] [Tranquility] [Happiness] [Rapture] [Conditionality]
Suttas: AN 10.3: Virtuous Behaivor; AN 6.10 Mahānāma [Virtue]
Quote: “The way my mind worked before was, 'Boy, when I get my concentration together, I'm going to be happy...'” [Ajahn Pasanno]
Quote: “The happy mind is easily concentrated.” [Hindrances] [Relinquishment] [Knowledge and vision]
1. “What degree of pīti and sukha is necessary to establish the first jhāna?” [Rapture] [Happiness] [Jhāna] // [Hindrances] [One pointedness] [Directed thought and evaluation]
5. “At times during my meditation, my body acts funny, leaning to one side or the other or spinning. What causes this? Is it a good or bad sign?” [Meditation/Unusual experiences] [Mindfulness of breathing] // [Kamma] [Teachers] [Mindfulness of body] [Rapture]
3. “This has happened a few times only but I'm puzzled, please help. When my mind was very calm, a sudden sort of energetic feeling is all over the body and my spine feels very cold. And then suddenly I have a flash of memory from childhood of drowning in the tank in our backyard. On a different occasion I saw the dead putrefied face of an old woman, horrific, mouth wide open. How do I deal with all this? I get a shock and concentration stops, sometimes sending shivers.” [Meditation/Unusual experiences] [Concentration] [Rapture] [Recollection/Death]
15. “The problem of extremes. Yesterday, pīti. This morning, the horrors of the bait and craving for annihilation in all their ugliness. Then, pīti again. The only thing I've figured is to back off from meditation when things get too extreme. Any other suggestions?” [Meditation/General advice] [Rapture] [Craving not to become]
6. “When you described pīti yesterday, it was different than how I think of it. Sometimes, I get a feeling of a great, expansive happiness like the realization that this practice actually works. It's exciting and empowering but I'm not jumping up and down. It's a combination of the mind settling and opening. Is that a cousin of pīti? Does pīti only happen in meditation?” [Rapture]
18. “If the body is a sack of grains, my legs after 7 / 7:30pm are electric jumping beans. This has occurred on retreat for 30 years. At first, I assumed it was the usual resistances / saṅkhāras. For a decade, I’ve known it’s a neurological syndrome that many have (R.L.S.) and although it affects other parts of life, e.g., sleep, it’s never so intense as on retreat in the evening. As I calm and cleanse, it actually gets worse, even on longer retreats. If I don’t focus on exhaling calm and mettā, I would drive my neighbors crazy, twitching and squirming like a bored 4 year-old. But I’m not bored and I want to hear the teachings. The level of controlling the legs necessarily, even with calming, creates sometimes a kind of negative pīti—thunderbolts in the body with no delight or rapture! I intuit an ancient root to it but, what to do? Alternative and western guidance have not helped much. From your vast experience of squirming mediators, any advice? Any research on sitting and milder neurological phenomena like this? Right now, besides leaving the hall / tortured endurance / drugs / cutting off my legs, suggestions for a middle way?!” [Meditation/Unusual experiences] [Rapture] [Restlessness and worry]
2. “Why is the intellect not included in the five cords of sensual pleasure?” [Sense bases] [Sensual desire] [Right Mindfulness] // [Culture/West] [History] [Culture/Thailand] [Craving]
Sutta: SN 47.6-7.
Follow-up: “Are the pīti and sukha of samādhi considered mano (intellect) states?” [Rapture] [Happiness] [Concentration] [Aversion]
2. “Does the consistency of vicara correlate with samadhi?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Directed thought and evaluation] [Concentration] // [Rapture] [Happiness] [One pointedness]
Sutta: MN 119: Simile of the bathman. [Similes]
1. “In Right Mindfulness, Ajahn Ṭhānissaro focuses on how the first three tetrads apply to high states of concentation. How can these be useful in more mundane levels of meditation?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Right Mindfulness] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Jhāna] // [Investigation of states] [Rapture] [Volitional formations] [Heart/mind]
Commentary: Path of Purification by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, p. 137: Five levels of pīti.
2. “Could anyone give examples of how to apply the enlightenment factor of pīti when the mind is sluggish?” Answered by Ajahn Ñāṇiko and Ajahn Pasanno. [Rapture] [Sloth and torpor] // [Ajahn Mahā Boowa] [Gladdening the mind] [Investigation of states]
2. “Why did the Buddha ask the monk to develop meditation in many ways [in AN 8.63]?” [Meditation] [Meditation/General advice] [Buddha/Biography] // [Directed thought and evaluation] [Rapture] [Happiness] [Equanimity] [Jhāna] [Calming meditation] [Cessation of Suffering]
Recollection: Ajahn Chah would rarely label meditation states. [Ajahn Chah]
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!" [Rapture]
7. “The story that we hear frequently about the Buddhaa as a child in the cattle pasture with his father. He talks about going into a pleasant, rapturous state. Would you consider that jhāna?” [Buddha/Biography] [Happiness] [Rapture] [Jhāna] // [Skillful qualities]
Sutta: MN 36.31 Mahāsaccaka Sutta
9. “Isn't rapture and joy a sensual pleasure?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Rapture] [Happiness] [Sense bases] [Jhāna] // [Dhamma] [Virtue] [Generosity] [Compassion] [Recollection/Virtue]
Quote: “You can actually give yourself permission to enjoy the meditation.” — Ajahn Pasanno [Meditation]
14. “That sukha (happiness) is still experienced through the sense object of the mind?” [Happiness] [Rapture] [Sense bases] [Jhāna] // [Mindfulness of body]
Quote: “The way the Buddha describes the jhāna factors, all the images are grounded in the body.” (MN 39.15) [Similes]
16. “The rapture and joy that are being described are not pleasure, right?” [Rapture] [Happiness] [Jhāna] // [Pāli]
Commentary: Path of Purification by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, p. 139 [Rapture] [Similes]
17. “Does jhāna exclusively contain the five mental states?” [Directed thought and evaluation] [Rapture] [Happiness] [One pointedness] [Jhāna] // [Right Concentration]
Sutta: MN 111 Anupada Sutta
22. “So the rapture and joy has dropped away between second and third jhāna?” [Rapture] [Jhāna] // [Happiness] [Mindfulness] [Equanimity]
6. “What is the difference between piti and sukha? Also equanimity and emptiness as a felt sense?” [Rapture] [Happiness] [Equanimity] [Emptiness]
6. “Today there was a lot of rapturous energy during the sits. It started to get to be too much. How do I work with this? Do I let it take its course or do I try to ground it down?” [Rapture]
15. “Could you explain if the steps of the anapanasati sutta need to be experienced sequentially? Does sukha always need piti before? Or can one experience sukha after calming the mind without piti every single time?” [Mindfulness of breathing] [Rapture] [Happiness]
3. “I find when the mind settles, it is highly suggestible, and the gentlest whisper of piti or sukha will sometimes bring those, if they haven’t arisen on their own. You spoke a little last night about sustaining and expanding piti and rapture and moving the mind towards equanimity. If you could expand or reiterate, that might be helpful for further exploration.” [Calming meditation] [Rapture] [Equanimity]