Hoa Vo Uu (Buddha Dharma Education Association)
Venerable Shravasti Dhammika
The Buddha’s Words of Wisdom
There are these five strands of sense pleasure. What five? Material shapes cognizable with the eye, pleasant, liked, enticing, connected with sensual pleasures, alluring. Sound cognizable with the ear. Smells cognizable with the nose. Tastes cognizable with the tongue. Touches cognizable with the body. All of them agreeable, pleasant, liked, enticing, connected with sensual pleasures, alluring.
These are the five strands of sense pleasure. Whatever happiness or joy arises as a result of these strands of sense pleasure, that is called the happiness of sense pleasure—it is a common happiness, a happiness of the average person, an ignoble happiness. It should not be pursued, developed or emphasized. It is a happiness to be feared, I say.
