➥ rati and arati.

• for rati:
  • delight [in the celibate life]
  • delight
  • sensuous delight
• for rata:
  • delighting/finding delight (in solitude)
  • delighting/taking delight in
• for arati:
  • disgruntlement [with the celibate life]
  • disgust
  • source of disgust

Abhi- prefix redundant

Rata is the past participle of ramati. Abhi- is usually prefixed, but it makes no discernable difference to the meaning of rati or ramati, therefore we treat it as redundant, and treat related terms as synonyms.

We see the switching in the following passage, between prefix and no prefix. Although the dictionaries say abhi- has an intensifying effect, paradoxically the lower pleasures have the prefix:

• There is, Māgandiya, a delight that is unrelated to sensuous pleasures, unrelated to spiritually unwholesome factors, which surpasses even divine pleasure.

Yāhayaṁ māgaṇḍiya rati aññatreva kāmehi aññatra akusalehi dhammehi api dibbaṁ sukhaṁ samadhigayha tiṭṭhati

… Since I took pleasure in that delight, I did not covet what is inferior, nor did I take pleasure in it.

tāya ratiyā ramamāno hīnassa na pihemi na tattha abhiramāmi. (MN i 505)

Discriminating wholesome and unwholesome

Rati and arati are sometimes wholesome, sometimes unwholesome. This is often clear enough from context, and therefore no qualifying adjective is needed:

• They took (wholesome) delight in what is righteous and in meditation

Dhamme ca jhāne ca ratā ahesuṁ, SN iv 117).

• The wise man should be (wholesomely) delighted in the woods.

dhīro vanante ramito siyā. (Snp 709)

• It is one who (unwholesomely) delights in bodily form… who would assert that ‘A Perfect One continues to exist after death.’

rūparatassa… tathāgato parammaraṇāti pi’ssa hoti. (SN iv 389)

• This teaching is for those who take (wholesome) delight in unentrenched perception

ayaṁ dhammo nippapañcaratino. (AN iv 230)

• Taking (wholesome) delight in relinquishment

vossagarato. (SN v 393)

• Taking (unwholesome) delight in Māra’s realm

mārassa visaye ratā. (Thi 164)

• One who (unwholesomely) delights in doing harm

vihesābhirato. (Snp 274-5)

• Direct your mind there (to those realms) and you’ll experience (unwholesome) delight.

tattha cittaṁ paṇidhehi ratiṁ paccanubhossasīti. (SN i 133)

Sometimes rati seems neither wholesome or unwholesome, for example when cool-cloud devas think:

• ‘Let us revel in our own kind of (neither wholesome nor unwholesome) delight,’ then, in accordance with their wish, it becomes cool.

yannūna mayaṁ sakāya ratiyā rameyyāmāti tesaṁ taṁ cetopaṇidhimanvāya sītaṁ hoti. (SN iii 256)

Rati and arati in bhikkhus: wholesome and unwholesome

One type of rati and arati concerns bhikkhus, not lay people, because they are linked to dhammavinaya and brahmacariya. Here they are opposites: rati is wholesome, and arati is unwholesome. For example:

• Disgruntlement in this teaching and training system is suffering, and delight in it is happiness

anabhirati kho āvuso imasmiṁ dhammavinaye dukkhā abhirati sukhā. (AN v 122)

• He lives the celibate life disgruntled…lives the celibate life with delight

anabhirato… abhirato ca brahmacariyaṁ carati. (AN iii 146)

We choose the association with ‘celibate life’ as the default basis for our renderings, namely:

• arati: disgruntlement [with the celibate life]
• rati: delight [in the celibate life]

This is appropriate because arati is linked to lust:

• At one time, disgruntlement [with the celibate life] had arisen in Venerable Vaṅgīsa. Lust had invaded his mind

Tena kho pana samayena āyasmato vaṅgīsassa anabhirati uppannā hoti rāgo cittaṁ anuddhaṁseti SN i 186).

But the terms could otherwise have been called:

• disgruntlement [with the teaching and training system]
• delight [in the teaching and training system]

Aratirati: both unwholesome

Sometimes rati and arati are both unwholesome, and not opposites:

• arati: disgruntlement [with the celibate life]
• rati: sensuous delight

In this case, rati means kāmarati, and because of the potential confusion, it needs its ‘sensuous’ adjective:

• Having abandoned disgruntlement [with the celibate life] (aratiṁ) and sensuous delight (ratiṁ) entirely, and thoughts connected with the household life, one should not cultivate craving for anything. One who is free of craving, being without craving, he is a bhikkhu.

aratiṁ ratiñca pahāya sabbaso gehesitañca vitakkaṁ
Vanathaṁ na kareyya kuhiñci nibbanatho avanatho sa bhikkhu. (Tha 1214)

• One who has abandoned both sensuous delight (ratiṁ) and disgruntlement [with the celibate life] (aratiṁ), one who is freed from inward distress, free of attachment, one who has transcended the whole world [of phenomena], a Hero, he is what I call a Brahman.

Hitvā ratiñca aratiñca sītibhūtaṁ nirupadhiṁ
Sabbalokābhibhuṁ vīraṁ tamahaṁ brūmi brāhmaṇaṁ. (Dhp 418; Snp 642; MN ii 196)

Disgruntlement [with the celibate life] and sensuous delight: stem from love

Disgruntlement [with the celibate life] and sensuous delight both stem from love:

• Disgruntlement [with the celibate life], sensuous delight, and excitement are born here, [in oneself]. Arising here, [in oneself], are thoughts in the mind, like boys throwing up a [captive] crow.

Aratī ratī lomahaṁso itojā
Ito samuṭṭhāya manovitakkā kumārakā dhaṅkamivossajanti.

… They are born from love. They arise within oneself like the shoots from the trunk of a banyan tree.

Snehajā attasambhūtā nigrodhasseva khandhajā. (Snp 271-2)

Aratirati: the mastery of

The Ākaṅkheyya Sutta says disgruntlement [with the celibate life] and sensuous delight are overcome through practises of virtue, jhāna, insight, and the cultivation of solitude:

• If a bhikkhu should wish ‘May I overcome disgruntlement [with the celibate life] and sensuous delight, and may disgruntlement [with the celibate life] not overcome me; may I abide mastering disgruntlement [with the celibate life] whenever it arises,’

ākaṅkheyya ce bhikkhave bhikkhu aratiratisaho assaṁ na ca maṁ arati saheyya uppannaṁ aratiṁ abhibhuyya abhibhuyya vihareyyan ti

• he should fulfil the precepts

sīlesvevassa paripūrakārī

• be given to inward calm,

ajjhattaṁ cetosamathamanuyutto

• be not neglectful of meditation,

anirākatajjhāno

• be endowed with insightfulness,

vipassanāya samannāgato

• cultivate solitary abodes.

brūhetā suññāgārānaṁ. (MN i 34)

Overcoming disgruntlement: Ariyavaṁsa Sutta

In the Ariyavaṁsa Sutta (AN ii 27), the battle against disgruntlement with the celibate life is conveyed in terms of war. The sutta promotes lifestyle guidelines, not quick techniques. The sutta says one overcomes arati through being content with ‘any old robe, almsfood and abode whatsoever’ (santuṭṭho hoti itarītarena cīvarena… piṇḍapātena… senāsanena) and through finding enjoyment in one’s spiritual development (bhāvanārāmo hoti bhāvanārato pahānārāmo hoti pahānarato):

• Bhikkhus, when a bhikkhu is possessed of these four noble traditional ways of behaviour, if he dwells in the east he overcomes disgruntlement [with the celibate life], disgruntlement [with the celibate life] does not overcome him; if he dwells in the west… in the north… in the south…

Imehi ca pana bhikkhave catūhi ariyavaṁsehi samannāgato bhikkhu puratthimāya cepi disāya viharati sveva aratiṁ sahati na taṁ arati sahati. (AN ii 27-9)

The Dasuttara Sutta (DN iii 249) gives a direct technique aimed at arati, namely the practice of [unlimited] warmhearted joy (muditā cetovimutti):

• For this is the liberation from disgruntlement [with the celibate life] namely the liberation [from perceptually obscuring states] through [unlimited] warmhearted joy.

nissaraṇaṁ hetaṁ āvuso aratiyā yadidaṁ muditā cetovimuttī ti.

It says if the practice of [unlimited] warmhearted joy is developed and cultivated, it is impossible, out of the question, that disgruntlement [with the celibate life] would plague one’s mind. There is no such possibility.

The Udumbarika Sutta (DN iii 49) says the practice of muditā cetovimuttī mentioned in the Dasuttara Sutta in fact has several preliminary steps:

1) Virtue

2) Living in solitude

3) The practice of mindfulness

4) Freedom from the five hindrances

5) Finally, the practice of the four divine abidings including muditā, the subject of the Dasuttara Sutta

Thus, again, overcoming arati is not only a matter of practising muditā but also of undertaking lifestyle changes as well.

The Parisā Sutta says that in whatsoever community the bhikkhus dwell together in unity (samaggā), on friendly terms (sammodamānā), without quarrelling (avivadamānā), like milk and water mixed (khīrodakībhūtā), viewing each other with affection (aññamaññaṁ piyacakkhūhi sampassantā), such a community is called united (samaggā parisā).

When bhikkhus dwell like this, they dwell in a divine abiding, that is to say, in the liberation [from perceptually obscuring states] through muditā, [unlimited] warmhearted joy.

Brahmaṁ bhikkhave vihāraṁ tasmiṁ samaye bhikkhū viharanti yadidaṁ muditāya cetovimuttiyā. (AN i 243)

This implies that disgruntlement with the celibate life comes from living in disunity, on unfriendly terms, quarrelling, and viewing other people with disaffection. It is not just a matter of lust. Overcoming disgruntlement would therefore involve either overcoming these factors, or living in solitude.

Sensuous delight: kāmaratī

Sensuous delight sometimes has a kāma- prefix:

• Seeing your eyes, my sensuous delight (kāmaratī) increases all the more.

Tava me nayanānudikkhiya bhiyyo kāmaratī pavaḍḍhati. (Thi 381)

Often, however, there is no kāma- prefix, and in translation, likewise, the ‘sensuous’ adjective is not necessary because the context is clear enough:

• Being unsatisfied with amusement, delight (ratiṁ), and sensuous pleasure, being indifferent [to them].

Khiḍḍaṁ ratiṁ kāmasukhañca loke analaṅkaritvā anapekkhamāno. (Snp 59)

• In the midst of companions there is amusement, delight (ratī).

khiḍḍā ratī hoti sahāyamajjhe. (Snp 41)

Arati: wholesome disgust

Arati can mean wholesome disgust:

• And what Ānanda, is the perception of disgust for the whole world [of phenomena]?

sabbaloke anabhiratasaññā

… In this regard, Ānanda, for whatever in the world [of phenomena] there is clinging, grasping, obstinate adherence, stubborn attachment, and identification, a bhikkhu abides abandoning, not grasping.

ye loke upayupādānā cetaso adhiṭṭhānābhinivesānusayā te pajahanto viharati na upādiyanto. (AN v 111)

For other examples, see Illustrations below.

Illustration: rati, delight

There is, Māgandiya, a delight that is unrelated to sensuous pleasures, unrelated to spiritually unwholesome factors, which surpasses even divine pleasure.

Yāhayaṁ māgaṇḍiya rati aññatreva kāmehi aññatra akusalehi dhammehi api dibbaṁ sukhaṁ samadhigayha tiṭṭhati

Since I took pleasure in that delight, I did not covet what is inferior, nor did I take pleasure in it.

tāya ratiyā ramamāno hīnassa na pihemi na tattha abhiramāmi. (MN i 505)