[Buddha-l] Suffering Vs. Joy and Happiness in Buddhism

[Katherine Masis]

I would like to bring up a jumble of topics that need
to be sorted out.

(a) In most angst-ridden western Buddhist centers, and
in most practice-oriented Buddhist books written by
westerners, there is an emphasis on suffering as the
inevitable condition of human and non-human life (the
First Noble Truth), suffering as a motivation to
practice Buddhist meditation and Buddhist ethics, etc.
 But what about joy and happiness?  Don't they have a
part to play in Buddhism as well?  

(b) If the answer to (a) is yes, then, in Buddhism,
how to distinguish between pleasure, well-being, and
the jhannas?  It would seem, for example, that the
practice of the Brahma-Viharas (metta, karuna, mudita
and uppekkha) would lead to well-being and a life
well-lived.  If I'm correct, the jhannas would seem to
come in later stages of meditation practice.  Would
they be a culmination of a life well-lived?  At the
same time, wouldn't they be a sort of "spiritual
pleasure," a meditator's experience?  

Katherine Masis



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