pleasant, happy; happiness, pleasure, joy, bliss.

It is one of the three feelings (s. vedanā) and may be either bodily or mental.

The texts distinguish between the happiness of the senses and the happiness of renunciation (A. II), worldly (carnal; sāmisa) and unworldly (non-carnal; nirāmisa) happiness (M. 10).

See A.II, ch. VIII. - Happiness is an indispensable condition for attaining concentration of mind (samādhi, q.v.), and therefore it is one of the 5 factors (or constituents) of the 1st absorption (jhānanga; s. jhāna) and is present up to the 3rd absorption inclusively. "The mind of the happy one has concentration as its fruit and reward" (A.X,1). - "In him who is filled with happiness, right concentration has found a foundation" (A.X,3).