Spiny Norman wrote:
Yes, interesting. I tend to look at suttas in terms of their purpose. This is a type I would class as "encouragement to practice".
Yes, and here's another lovely one from MN 139. Although it does not state it in positive terms of pleasure and happiness, I think the message still get across -
One should not pursue sensual pleasure, which is low, vulgar, coarse, ignoble, and unbeneficial; and one should not pursue self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble, and unbeneficial. ’ So it was said. And with reference to what was this said?
“The pursuit of the enjoyment of one whose pleasure is linked to sensual desires1258—low, vulgar, coarse, ignoble, and unbeneficial—is a state beset by suffering, vexation, despair, and fever, and it is the wrong way.1259 [231] Disengagement from the pursuit of the enjoyment of one whose pleasure is linked to sensual desires—low, vulgar, coarse, ignoble, and unbeneficial—is a state without suffering, vexation, despair, and fever, and it is the right way.
“The pursuit of self-mortification—painful, ignoble, and unbeneficial—is a state beset by suffering, vexation, despair, and fever, and it is the wrong way. Disengagement from the pursuit of self-mortification—painful, ignoble, and unbeneficial—is a state without suffering, vexation, despair, and fever, and it is the right way.
per BB trans
The underlined words are
adukkha anupaghāta anupāyāsa apariḷāha. Ven Nyanatiloka translated the last line more lyrically as -
Free from pain and torture is this path,
free from groaning and suffering:
it is the perfect path.
For some strange reason, Ajahn Brahm prefers Ven Nyanatiloka's translation. I guess it comes from a shared understanding of the
anupaghāta = without injuring/without hurting/with kindness.