The Three Basic Facts of Existence II: Suffering (Dukkha) - Buddhist ...

specific and general characteristics, of Dhammas other than this is the highest form of pleasure,of which it is said “Whenever a man comprehends the categories rise and fall, he finds therehappiness and bliss: that knowledge is of deathlessness.” 89 The “non-knowledge” should beunderstood in the opposite sense; for abiding in confusion is suffering. An alternativeexplanation is that “knowledge” means the knowledge’s actual presence (sabhâva); for theneutral (subjective conascent) feeling associated with the knowledge, and that which is theknowledge’s supporting object (which the knowledge of neutral feeling is considering), ispleasant in its agreeable mode, according as it is called “agreeable and giving agreeable fruit.““Non-knowledge” can then be understood in the opposite sense.” 90Pleasure as gratification or as relief from pain is real while it lasts“Were there no gratification in the case of the eye (etc.), creatures would not lust in connectionwith the eye: it is because there is gratification in the case of the eye (etc.), that creatures lust inconnection with the eye (etc.). Were there no inadequacy in the case of the eye, creatures wouldnot become dispassionate (disgusted) in connection with the eye … Were there no escape in thecase of the eye, creatures would not find an escape in connection with the eye …” 91 “It is anypleasure or joy (somanassa) that arises dependent on feeling that is the gratification in the case offeeling. That this feeling is impermanent, suffering, and subject to change is the inadequacy(danger) in the case of feeling. The disciplining and abandoning of desire and lust for feeling isthe escape in the case of feeling.” 92 But neutral feeling is ignored while the pleasureaccompanying knowledge is lacking, and so “the untaught ordinary man understands noescape from unpleasant feeling other than sensual pleasure (kāma-sukha).” 93The impermanence of all feeling makes it impossible to find any enduring refuge from theundesirable unpleasant feeling within the range of feeling, and so ultimately “pleasant feelinghas to be seen as suffering, unpleasant feeling as a dart, and neutral feeling as impermanent;” 94for “while three kinds of feeling have been stated by me, namely, pleasant, unpleasant, andneutral, still it has been also said by me that ’Whatever is felt, all comes under suffering.’ That,however, was spoken by me with reference to the impermanence of formations.” 95Now, while “Gratification in the case of feeling is, in its highest aspect, freedom fromaffliction,” 96 nevertheless, since feeling of some sort accompanies all experience whatever as oneof its necessary components, if that freedom is to be lasting it has to be sought not in feeling, noteven in formations, which are inseparable from feeling, but rather in the exhaustion of craving(taṇhākkhaya) and the stilling of all formations (sabbasaṅkhārasamatha). And just as the onlookingequanimityof the fourth jhāna is called a “pleasant abiding” 97 so too Nibbāna (extinction ofcraving) is called the “ultimate pleasure.” 98 While “suffering” is thus extended beyond feeling toall that is formed (saṅkhata), “pleasure” in the highest mode—that “beyond spiritual bliss”(nirāmisā nirāmisataraṃ sukhaṃ)—is withdrawn from the formed, including feeling, and equatedwith the unformed (asaṅkhata), which is Nibbāna. “The Blessed One describes pleasure withreference not only to pleasant feeling; rather, friends, a Tathāgata describes as pleasure any kind89Dhp-a 25:16/V 374.90Þìká ad MN 44/M II 294–5.91SN 35:17/S IV 10.92SN 36:15/S IV 220.93SN 36:6/S IV 208.94SN 36:5/S IV 207.95SN 36:11/S IV 216.96MN 13/M I 90.97MN 8/M I 41.98MN 74/M I 508.45