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Where in the canon does the Buddha say, There is no happiness without calm?

I've heard the statement only second hand, and paraphrased.

ruben2020
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stick-in-hand
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3 Answers3

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It's the other way round according to Kimattha Sutta.

Without joy, you cannot have serenity.

Without serenity, you cannot have concentration.

Without concentration, you cannot become liberated i.e. attain Nibbana.

Dhammapada 204 says that Nibbana is the highest bliss. And without serenity, you cannot attain the highest bliss. So the other way round is also explainable.

"Thus in this way, Ananda, skillful virtues have freedom from remorse as their purpose, freedom from remorse as their reward. Freedom from remorse has joy as its purpose, joy as its reward. Joy has rapture as its purpose, rapture as its reward. Rapture has serenity as its purpose, serenity as its reward. Serenity has pleasure as its purpose, pleasure as its reward. Pleasure has concentration as its purpose, concentration as its reward. Concentration has knowledge & vision of things as they actually are as its purpose, knowledge & vision of things as they actually are as its reward. Knowledge & vision of things as they actually are has disenchantment as its purpose, disenchantment as its reward. Disenchantment has dispassion as its purpose, dispassion as its reward. Dispassion has knowledge & vision of release as its purpose, knowledge & vision of release as its reward.

"In this way, Ananda, skillful virtues lead step-by-step to the consummation of arahantship."
Kimattha Sutta (Ven. Thanissaro's translation)

The Pali terms used:

Please see here for Pali-English translation based on Ven. Sujato's translation.

ruben2020
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    Nice. And I noticed that in the updated version of Kimattha Sutta, Ajahn Geoff has replaced the word "Serenity" with "Calm". Thanks. – stick-in-hand Oct 07 '22 at 08:56
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    Wow this is great – blue_ego Oct 07 '22 at 10:26
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    I referred to the translator, but omitted the word "Ajaan" before his birth name. Very sloppy, but no disrespect was intended. Sincere apologies to anyone offended by my blunder. – stick-in-hand Oct 09 '22 at 21:04
  • And now I've edited that comment. – ChrisW Oct 10 '22 at 06:17
  • Am I right here that joy and rapture and serenity here is piti and sukha? As in one needs piti and sukha to then cultivate jhana (concentration) – Remyla Oct 11 '22 at 13:47
  • @Remyla https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/piti – blue_ego Oct 11 '22 at 18:08
  • @Remyla it can be hard to get exact translations, but you can try...i think sukha means well-being (happiness) – blue_ego Oct 11 '22 at 18:14
  • @Remyla the entire dialog sounds like jhana unfolding – blue_ego Oct 11 '22 at 18:32
  • @Remyla In this translation by Ven. Thanissaro, joy is pamojja, rapture is piti, serenity is passaddha and pleasure is sukha. For the original Pali you can find it together with Ven. Sujato's translation here (click View and enable translation if you don't see it). He translated passaddha as tranquility and sukha as bliss. Ven. Bodhi too translated sukha as pleasure. The sutta is definitely talking about piti and sukha of jhana. – ruben2020 Oct 11 '22 at 21:02
  • I asked because it seemed like the bojhangas and at least a sort of successive stages or perquisites for jhana progression. Was just trying to clarify my assumptions and it seems from what you all replied with my assumption was correct. – Remyla Oct 11 '22 at 22:45
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    @blue_hefe There's a readable dictionary here of frequently-used terms: sukha. And here. And in detail, quoting the PTS dictionary, here. Also Wikipedia. I suppose I think of it as the more-or-less the opposite of, perhaps more precisely the absence of, dukkha. – ChrisW Oct 12 '22 at 07:11
  • @ChrisW yes, i understand the same, opposites – blue_ego Oct 12 '22 at 12:41
  • @blue_hefe I was going to say that "it's the opposite thing", but to the extent that "every (conditioned) thing is dukkha", maybe sukha isn't a thing but maybe more like an absence (and maybe therefore not very attractive to some people) -- see e.g. this answer. – ChrisW Oct 12 '22 at 12:46
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"There’s no fire like passion, no loss like anger, no pain like the aggregates, no ease other than peace."

~ Dhammapada 202, transl. Thanissaro https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Dhp/Ch15.html

Antony Woods
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  • Thanks, I think this might be what I was thinking of. What I wanted to see was the phrasing: it should be "other than", as you quoted, and not "without", as I wrote. Venerable Thanissaro explains it's an important difference, here: https://www.dhammatalks.org/books/ePubDhammaTalks_v3/Section0079.html – stick-in-hand Oct 09 '22 at 18:13
  • is passion the same as lust? it could be, but perhaps passion can still be good... – blue_ego Oct 11 '22 at 18:08
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Calm (pasada) is the precondition of Sukha (heal, happiness) on the lokuttara-paṭiccasamuppāda, co-depending-path beyond, found in all teachings of the path.

ChrisW
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user24217
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  • https://buddhism.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2661/should-we-use-honorifics-when-referring-to-monks – ChrisW Oct 09 '22 at 15:48