I believe this line, associated by Ajahn Chah and his students, is a quote from a sutta, or perhaps a commentary. Unfortunately, I can’t locate it…
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I don’t recall coming across that exact phrase in the suttas. The closest thing I can think of is an excerpt from SN 12.15:
But if—when it comes to this attraction, grasping, mental fixation, insistence, and underlying tendency—you don’t get attracted, grasp, and commit to the thought, ‘my self’, you’ll have no doubt or uncertainty that what arises is just suffering arising, and what ceases is just suffering ceasing. Your knowledge about this is independent of others.
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Similar quote can be found in SN 5.10. Bhikkhuni Vajirā’s reply to Māra is very elegant:
“Why do you believe there’s such a thing as a ‘sentient being’?
Māra, is this your theory?
This is just a pile of conditions,
you won’t find a sentient being here.When the parts are assembled
we use the word ‘chariot’.
So too, when the aggregates are present
‘sentient being’ is the convention we use.But it’s only suffering that comes to be,
lasts a while, then disappears.
Naught but suffering comes to be,
naught but suffering ceases.”
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I may be mixing up various stories from the suttas and some of Ajahn Brahms talks in my mind. My recollection was a sutta or commentary where a monastic was muttering words like “bliss, bliss”, and his friends though he had gone crazy. However, I may be recalling the Bhaddiyasutta, Ud2.10, where Bhaddiya was happy to have no responsibilities or threats since he gave up his lay life.
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AN9.34 doesn’t have this exact quote, but perhaps that’s the direction?
“But Reverend Sāriputta, what’s blissful about it, since nothing is felt?”
“The fact that nothing is felt is precisely what’s blissful about it. …"
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Yeah Ajahn Brahm talks about this in the 10th Rains Retreat talk for 1999. It’s really cool to see a photo of what Ajahn was describing. Joy at last to know there’s no happiness in this world.
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I think this was an utterance of Ajahn Chah’s, as told by Ajahn Brahm. Perhaps it is in the talk referenced by sammasamadhi.
While I don’t have a sutta quote about these lines, what comes to mind is that the last paragraphs of MN1 clearly describe what the Buddha Awakened to; That there is no happiness/satisfaction to be had in the world (existence) - Realising this in its complete depth - all craving falls away …
SuttaCentral
“Bhikkhus, the Tathāgata, too, accomplished and fully enlightened, directly knows earth as earth. Having directly known earth as earth, he does not conceive himself as earth, he does not conceive himself in earth, he does not conceive himself apart from earth, he does not conceive earth to be ‘mine,’ he does not delight in earth. Why is that? Because he has understood that delight is the root of suffering, and that with being as condition there is birth, and that for whatever has come to be there is ageing and death. Therefore, bhikkhus, through the complete destruction, fading away, cessation, giving up, and relinquishing of cravings, the Tathāgata has awakened to supreme full enlightenment, I say."
With Awakening, it is a Liberating joy to realise, for yourself through direct insight, that there is no joy to be had in the world - so you can just let it (dukkha) all go!. As such I can imagine that “Joy at last, to know there is no happiness in the world” is a spontaneous udana, at the point of awakening insight. Just imagine, you’ve finally achieved release from continually striving and seeking satisfaction in the ‘world’ round and round the samsaric dukkha wheel. Oh what joy!! To know that there is no happiness to be found in the world. and step away light-heartedly
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