Delight in Forms
Rūpārāma Sutta (SN 35:136)
“Monks, devas & human beings take pleasure in forms, delight in forms, rejoice in forms. With the change, fading away, & cessation of forms, devas & human beings dwell in suffering & stress.
“Devas & human beings take pleasure in sounds… take pleasure in aromas… take pleasure in flavors… take pleasure in tactile sensations…
“Devas & human beings take pleasure in ideas, delight in ideas, rejoice in ideas. With the change, fading away, & cessation of ideas, devas & human beings dwell in suffering & stress.
“But the Tathāgata, monks—worthy & rightly self-awakened—knowing, as they have come to be, the origination, the disappearance, the allure, the drawbacks of—and escape from—forms, doesn’t take pleasure in forms, delight in forms, rejoice in forms. With the change, fading away, & cessation of forms, the Tathāgata dwells happily.
“Knowing, as they have come to be, the origination, the disappearance, the allure, the drawbacks of—and escape from—sounds… aromas… flavors… tactile sensations…
“Knowing, as they have come to be, the origination, the disappearance, the allure, the drawbacks of—and escape from—ideas, he doesn’t take pleasure in ideas, delight in ideas, rejoice in ideas. With the change, fading away, & cessation of ideas, the Tathāgata dwells happily.”1
“All sights, sounds, aromas, flavors,
tactile sensations, & ideas
that are welcome,
appealing,
agreeable—
as long as they’re said
to exist,
are supposed by the world
together with its devas
to be bliss.
But when they cease,
that’s supposed by them
to be stress.
The stopping of self-identity
is viewed by the noble ones
as bliss.
This, when seen,
runs counter
to the whole world.
What others say is blissful,
the noble ones say is stress.
What others say is stressful,
the noble know as bliss.
See the Dhamma, hard to understand!
Here those who don’t know
are confused.
For those who are veiled,
it’s darkness,
blindness
for those who don’t see.
But for the good it’s blatant,
like light for those who see.
Though in its very presence,
they don’t understand it—
dumb animals, unadept in the Dhamma.
It’s not easy
for those overcome
by passion for becoming,
flowing along
in the stream of becoming,
falling under Māra’s sway,2
to wake up
to this Dhamma.
Who, apart from the noble,
is worthy to wake up
to this state?—
the state that,
through rightly knowing it,
they totally unbind,
effluent-free.”
