Aṅguttara Nikāya - The Numerical Discourses

2: The Book of the Twos

74

1"Bhikkhus, there are these two kinds of happiness. What two? The happiness based on the presence of rapture and the happiness based on the absence of rapture. These are the two kinds of happiness. Of these two kinds of happiness, the happiness based on the absence of rapture is foremost." [n.305] Sappītikārammaṇaṁ sukhaṁ and nippītikārammaṇaṁ sukhaṁ. It is doubtful that, in the four Nikāyas, the word ārammaṇa ever means "object of consciousness" in the general sense it has in the Abhidhamma and the commentaries. Its original meaning is closer to "basis" or "support." Occasionally, as in SN 34:5, III 266, the word designates a "meditation object." Over time, the meaning of ārammaṇa must have broadened from "object of meditation" to "object of consciousness" in a general sense, but to my knowledge this development occurred after the period when the Nikāyas were compiled.

1"Dvemāni, bhikkhave, sukhāni. Katamāni dve? Sappītikārammaṇañca sukhaṁ nippītikārammaṇañca sukhaṁ. Imāni kho, bhikkhave, dve sukhāni. Etadaggaṁ, bhikkhave, imesaṁ dvinnaṁ sukhānaṁ yadidaṁ nippītikārammaṇaṁ sukhan"ti.

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