I wonder if someone can give me a definitive authoritative ruling on this.

Different buddhists seem to translate piti and sukkha differently. I had always thought piti was mental pleasure, and sukkha was a physical based pleasure. For example, my buddhist dictionary and visuddhimagga give these 2 examples to differentiate between piti and sukkha:


How 5 jhana factors (jhananga) drop out with successively higher jhanas

(not to be confused with "5 factored concentration to be developed")

4 jhanas

1

2

3

4

Directed thought (vitakka): laying hold of initial thought. Fixing consciousness on object

X







Sustained thought (vicara): discursive thinking, mind roaming

X







Rapture (piti): mental pleasure, like man dying of thirst who sees a spring from a distance

X

X





Joy (sukkha): physical pleasure, like man dying of thirst tasting the water from spring

X

X

X



Equanimity (ekagatta): one pointedness of mind, stillness

X

X

X

X


So according to those 2 sources, sukkha is the more refined kind of pleasure, with a physical basis rather than just a purely mentally conjured joy. Yet different buddhist english translations I read seem to sometimes define piti and sukkha opposite from my understanding.

In terms of pali, what were the common usages for piti and sukkha, and how exactly did the Buddha mean those terms to mean in a buddhist context?

-fk










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