40. There are these five strands of sense pleasure. What five?
Material shapes cognizable with the eye, pleasant, liked, enticing, connected with sensual pleasures, alluring.
Sounds cognizable with the ear, smells cognizable with the nose, tastes cognizable with the tongue, and 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 five strands of sense pleasure, that is called the happiness of sense of 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.
Majjhima Nikaya I.454
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