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Dhp 79: wordling drinks wine to help sleep at night, wise person drinks Dharma and sleeps with jhānic pleasure

Dhp 79 contains a hidden jhāna reference, and reinforces some ideas about jhāna that are commonly misunderstood.


Pīti: rapture, a factor of jhāna and same as awakening factor pīti-sambojjhanga

'pīti' can mean drinking [something like water], and in Buddharakkhita's translation that's what he goes with.

Sujato sticks to the straightforward jhāna pīti & sukha context and renders pīti as 'joy' here.

I believe the Buddha is making a pun here and both meanings are intended and need to be translated, otherwise you couldn't pick up the double meaning from the target English translation, which is exactly what happens when you read Buddharakkhita and Sujato's translation. 

The former doesn't make the jhāna context clear, the latter misses the pun on drinking, and perhaps contrasting what worldlings often do, drinking fermented liquor as an intoxicant to help sleep at night.


vip-pasanna citta: pure and confident mind

The second line's 'vip-pasanna citta' is a reference to second jhāna's adhi-attam sam-pasādanam, internal purity and self confidence [in one's ability to do a solid jhāna samādhi].



♦ 79.
♦ dhamma-pīti sukhaṃ seti,
He who drinks the Dharma [and is enraptured by that] sleeps in pleasure,
vippasannena cetasā.
with pure and confident mind.
♦ ariya-p-pavedite dhamme,
The Dharma proclaimed by the Noble one, [the Buddha,]
sadā ramati paṇḍito.
a wise pundit always delights in that.



Pīti is mental, not physical

A common misunderstanding is that pīti in jhāna is physical. 

Dhp 79 confirms the correct understanding, that pīti (and the closely related pāmojja) are mental, they are the joy and rejoicing that comes from mentally inspecting, understanding and appreciating the power of the Dharma, the Buddha's teaching that lead to nirvana.

Of course physical pleasure often  follows mental pleasure, but that would go under 'sukha', which followed the passaddhi pacification/relaxation enlightenment factor.

(see 7 awakening factors)



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