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Pīti

 
Financial & Investment Dictionary: Piti
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Acronym for principal, interest, taxes and insurance, the primary components of monthly mortgage payments. Many mortgage lenders, to ensure that property taxes and homeowner's insurance premiums are paid on schedule, require that borrowers include these amounts in their monthly payments. The funds are then placed in escrow until needed. When calculating how much a house will cost a borrower on a monthly basis, the payment is expressed for Piti.

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Wikipedia: Pīti
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This article is about a mental factor in Buddhism. For the town in Guam, see Piti, Guam. For the soup, see Piti (food). For the Spanish footballer, see Francisco Medina Luna.
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Pīti in Pali (Sanskrit: Prīti) is a mental factor (Pali:cetasika, Sanskrit: chaitasika) associated with the concentrative absorption (Sanskrit: dhyana; Pali: jhana) of Buddhist meditation. Piti is a very specific joy associated with a state of deep tranquillity. It is often translated with the English words "joy" or "rapture" and is distinguished from the longer-lasting meditative "pleasure" or "happiness" (Pali, Sanrkit: sukha) that arises along with pīti.

Contents

Absorption factor


Table:
Jhāna-related factors.
  first
jhāna		 second
jhāna		 third
jhāna		 fourth
jhāna
sensuality
(kāma),
unskillful
qualities
(akusala
dhamma)		 secluded
from,
withdrawn		      
applied
thought
(vitakka)		 accom-
panies
jhāna		 stilled    
sustained
thought
(vicāra)
rapture
(pīti)		 seclusion-
born;
pervades
body		 samādhi-
born;
pervades
body		 fades
away
(as does
distress)		  
pleasure
(sukha)		 pervades
physical
body		 aban-
doned
(as is
pain)
pure,
mindful
equanimity
(upekkhā-
sati-
pārisuddhi)		   [internal
confidence,
mental
unification]		 equani-
mous,
mindful		 neither
pleasure
nor pain;
permeates
body with
pure mind

 Source: AN 5.28 (Thanissaro, 1997)  *  diagram details

In Buddhist meditation, the development of concentrative absorption (Sanskrit: dhyāna; Pali: jhāna) is canonically described in terms of the following five factors:

  • applied thought (vitakka)
  • sustained thought (vicāra)
  • joy/rapture/happiness (pīti)
  • happiness/pleasure/bliss (sukha)
  • equanimity (upekkhā)[1]

Both pīti and sukha are born of bodily seclusion and mental quietude. The 5th c. CE Visuddhimagga distinguishes between pīti and sukha in the following experiential manner:

And wherever the two are associated, happiness [here, Ñāṇamoli's translation of pīti] is the contentedness at getting a desirable object, and bliss [sukha] is the actual experiencing of it when got. Where there is happiness [pīti] there is bliss (pleasure) [sukha]; but where there is bliss [sukha] there is not necessarily happiness [pīti]. Happiness is included in the formations aggregate; bliss is included in the feeling aggregate. If a man exhausted in a desert saw or heard about a pond on the edge of a wood, he would have happiness; if he went into the wood's shade and used the water, he would have bliss....[2]

Fivefold classification

As the meditator experiences tranquillity (samatha), one of five kinds of joy (piti) will arise. These are:

  • Weak rapture only causes piloerection.
  • Short rapture evocates some thunder "from time to time".
  • Going down rapture explodes inside the body, like waves.
  • Exalting rapture "makes the body jump to the sky".
  • Fulfilling rapture seems to be a huge flood of a mountain stream.

Note only the last two are considered specifically piti. The first four are just a preparation for the last one, which is the jhanic factor.[3]

See also

  • Dhyāna/Jhāna (absorption)
  • Sukha (happiness/bliss, conascent with piti during first two jhanas)
  • Rapture (Christian use of the term "rapture")

Notes

  1. ^ See, for instance, Samādhaṅga Sutta (a/k/a, Pañcaṅgikasamādhi Sutta, AN 5.28) (Thanissaro, 1997).
  2. ^ Vsm. IV, 100 (Ñāṇamoli, 1999, p. 142). Similarly, see also the Abhidhamma's commentary, Atthasalini (Bodhi, 1980).
  3. ^ Vsm. IV, 94-99 (Ñāṇamoli, 1999, pp. 141-2).

Sources

  • Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu (trans.) (1999). The Path of Purification: Visuddhimagga. Seattle, WA: BPS Pariyatti Editions. ISBN 1-928706-00-2.


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