Agony and Ecstasy

54
This delight (pīti) is to the other concomitant mental factors as
the lubricating oil in a machine. Owing to the anticipated delight
of motherhood a woman will bear up again and again the pangs
of childbirth; in nearing his destination the traveller will forget his
fatigue; the neighbourhood of the stable makes even the tired horse
run again. All this shows delight as mental and not purely emotional.
Five kinds of joy are distinguished: a thrill of joy; a flash of joy
like lightning; a flood of joy as when a river breaks its dykes and
inundates the country; transporting joy which could even lift the
body in the air; all-pervading joy which is overwhelming and suffusing.
This delightful interest is usually shown as a good quality,
but it should be well noted that it can also occur in unskilful action
(akusala kamma). In that case, it will always combine with greed
(lobha) owing to its nature of expectation. It is, of course, not to be
found in any mental state where there is grief (domanassa) or indifference
(upekhā) with which mental states it is incompatible. Also it
is not in those states of mental absorption (jhāna) which have transcended
joy, viz. the fourth and fifth stage, where respectively ease
(sukha) and one-pointedness of mind (ekaggatā) are predominant.
Thus it will not be found in the formless spheres (arūpāvacara),
where the concentration of mind is so pure and subtle that even
spiritual joy will there find no place, as being too gross. Its difference
from well-being (sukha) gives it a place all of its own and
full of charm; for, where the feeling of well-being must be naturally
somewhat subjective, the mental factor of delight (pīti) can be also
with regard to others; and then, it will be combined with and almost
synonymous with sympathetic joy (muditā).
Many are the shapes and shades which occasion various degrees
of joy, and not all of them skilful. The source of joy need not necessarily
be a good or healthy one (kusala); for, delight may find its
interest even in its own misery, thereby deriving satisfaction from
the compassion of others. In such a mental state there may be a