Su-kha, Duḥ-kha, and the Space of Being
Su-kha, Duḥ-kha, and the Space of Being
To study Sanskrit is not an act of antiquarian curiosity but a return to a living atmosphere. It is to enter a semantic ecology where consciousness, grammar, cosmology, and contemplative experience interpenetrate. The student of Sanskrit steps not into a museum but into an alive sky: a sky in which words themselves are apertures, openings, kha, through which meaning flows like wind, light, breath, and awareness.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the polarity of sukha / duḥkha, terms that Buddhist thought universally adopted, refracted, and elevated. In modern languages these words are rendered as “pleasure” and “pain,” or “happiness” and “suffering,” or “bliss” and “dissatisfaction.” Each translation is serviceable, none is adequate. Each translation functions, none is alive. What the tradition once heard in these words—what the early Buddhists and the Sanskrit grammarians and the Tantric contemplatives heard—has been largely flattened.
If one studies them philologically, if one considers them phenomenologically, if one listens with the inner ear of Dzogchen practice, something astonishing occurs: the words open. They bloom. They reveal a semantic depth that is not merely academic but existential, a grammar of experience.
The purpose of this expanded study is to restore that luminous interiority. Sanskrit meanings clarify meditative experience, etymology exposes phenomenology, and the language of the Dharma is also its geometry.
To restore this grammar is already to step into openness—to taste sukha in the act of insight itself.
1. The Spatial Heart of sukha and duḥkha
The nerve of both words is kha, one of the oldest and most persistent terms in the Indo-European lexicon. It is a word that radiates like moonlight through multiple semantic fields.
Before kha meant “sky,”
before it meant “ether,”
before it meant “void,”
before it meant “the sense-openings,”
before it meant “space” in the cosmological sense,
it meant simply and originally:
an opening, a hollow, an aperture, a space with flow-possibility.
This primordial sense is the root from which all further meanings branch. Kha is that through which light moves, through which wind travels, through which perception arises. It is an opening that is not absence but possibility.
Thus, the contrast:
su–kha = a well-aligned opening → beneficial space, auspicious aperture
duḥ–kha = a misaligned opening → constricted or obstructed space
This difference between a well-fitted aperture and an ill-fitted one is not a casual metaphor. It is not a poet’s flourish. It is a deep structural metaphor embedded in early Indo-European cognition. It touches ecology, physiology, architecture, and finally contemplative experience.
To understand this spatial grammar is already to feel a shift inside one’s being. The shift is itself a movement toward sukha.
Let us now expand the three primary registers in which this metaphor developed.
1.1 Pastoral Ecology: Space as Livability
Before Sanskrit, before the Vedas, before Indo-Aryan migration, the pastoral ancestors of the Indo-European family lived in landscapes defined by movement. They followed grazing herds. They sought open valleys, uncluttered horizons. To such a culture, kha—the open—was life itself.
A period of su-kha meant:
unobstructed pasture,
open sky,
navigable paths,
smooth transit of animals and people,
the world offering no resistance to movement.
A period of duḥ-kha meant:
blocked routes,
rocky passages,
drought,
environmental tightness,
danger in the landscape,
the sense that one’s movement is thwarted.
Thus the earliest human experience of sukha/duḥkha was not psychological: it was ecological. The world either opened or closed; life either flowed or was constrained. The metaphor was not metaphorical. It was environmental fact: good space versus bad space (and even today, we still say, I am in a bad space today when we are unhappy).
To this day, traces of that archaic spatial worldview survive in how the mind interprets ease and struggle. When obstacles recede, when the environment feels navigable, the body relaxes into sukha. When conditions tighten, the felt-sense contracts into duḥkha.
This is remarkably close to Dzogchen:
Rigpa = unobstructed openness.
Avidyā = constriction, tightening, narrowing.
What the pastoral ancestors felt externally, Dzogchen recognises internally as the geometry of awareness itself.
1.2 Psychophysics of the Senses: Space as Perception
In the Upaniṣadic period, the metaphor migrated into the inner domain. The senses become khāni (plural of kha): “openings” or “apertures” through which consciousness radiates outward.
A famous line says:
parāñci khāni vyatṛṇat svayambhūḥ
“The self-existent (svayambhū) projected the sense-openings outward.”
The metaphysics of perception is built entirely on kha.
To perceive is to “open into.”
To attend is to “maintain the aperture.”
To suffer is to “have the openness obstructed.”
Thus:
su-kha = the senses aligned and functioning smoothly → the clear passage of awareness
duḥ-kha = senses misaligned, blocked, overburdened → the distorted passage of awareness
Every moment of perception is a modulation of kha.
Meditation practice itself can be be understood as kha-management.
This spatial grammar becomes even more evident in yoga psychology, where blockages in the nāḍī system produce duḥkha, and the smooth and open flow of prāṇa is sukha.
1.3 Tantric and Dzogchen Openness: Space as Being
In the Tantras, especially the Yoginī-Tantras and the Sahajayāna literature, the metaphor intensifies. Space becomes the very nature of awareness. The dharmakāya is “sky-like.” Dzogchen’s rigpa is “unbounded openness.”
Within this contemplative grammar:
su-kha = the effortless openness of resting in rigpa
duḥ-kha = the tightness arising when openness collapses into dualistic fixation
The journey from pasture to perception to primordial awareness is not a shift in meaning.
It is a shift in level. The grammar of space persists throughout, refining itself within consciousness.
At its highest octave, sukha becomes the signature of unobstructed and unbounded being.
2. Why This Philological Depth Matters
To understand Buddhism without understanding Sanskrit is to hear an echo without hearing the original sound. The great Buddhist masters—Pāṇini, Amarasiṃha, Candragomi, Asaṅga, Vasubandhu, Dharmakīrti, Candrakīrti—were not just philosophers. They were profound grammarians. Their thought presupposed fine semantic distinctions that modern languages cannot reproduce.
When Buddhism passed into Tibet:
doctrines survived
meditation survived and thrived
contemplative logic survived
but the linguistic matrix weakened
Tibetan is powerful, beautiful, precise in its own way: but it is monosyllabic and analytic. It cannot fully replicate the etymological depth of Sanskrit compounds, where prefixes, roots, and suffixes create multidimensional meaning.
Thus:
sukha → bde
mahāsukha → bde chen
The experiential insight remained profound. But the linguistic interiority was partially thinned. Only rare figures—Longchenpa especially—held Sanskrit as a living language within contemplative realisation.
Today, something extraordinary becomes possible again:
We study Sanskrit as a living philological discipline—root meaning, morphology, semantic fields.
We study Tibetan as practitioners—aware of its contemplative refinements.
We use modern linguistics to triangulate historical meanings.
We anchor the inquiry in meditation, especially Dzogchen, so that meanings are verified in lived awareness.
This fourfold vantage point—philological, Tibetan, analytic, contemplative—is historically unprecedented.
It allows us to:
see what earlier commentators saw,
see what they could not see,
and integrate linguistic structure with immediate experience.
Philology can thus become soteriology.
Etymology can become phenomenology.
Linguistic insight can become a mode of awakening.
3. The Meaning of SU: The Goodness of Alignment
To understand sukha fully, we must now understand the Sanskrit experience of “goodness.” Modern English uses “good” loosely. Sanskrit uses it architecturally. Goodness is not a vague attribute but a structural alignment.
At the centre of this semantic architecture is su-, cognate with Greek eu- (εὖ) that is still found in the English words eu-logy, eu-phemism, etc.
In Sanskrit, su- does not merely mean “good”; it means:
aligned
appropriate
auspicious
beautiful
excellent
proportionate
correct, true
radiant
harmonious
felicitous
Goodness in Sanskrit is not moral sentiment. It conveys a sense of full alignment or attunement.
This is why the philosophical traditions use su- to signify optimal functioning.
Let us expand the two primary expansions of su-:
3.1 suṣṭhu: Correctness, Properness, Alignment with Truth
suṣṭhu is the most common meaning of su- given by Buddhist commentators.
It means:
properly
rightly
accurately
fittingly
in accordance with reality
In grammar, it means the correct function of a word in context. In ritual, it means the correct performance of an action. In philosophy, it means alignment with the nature of things.
Thus, suṣṭhu contributes to sukha the sense of:
correctness
appropriateness
structural alignment or attunement
accurate functioning
In sukha, the aperture (kha) is not merely open; it is well-fitted, accurate, rightly oriented.
3.2 śobhana: Beauty, Radiance, Auspiciousness
The root √śubh means:
to shine
to be bright
to be auspicious
Thus śobhana means:
beautiful
radiant
auspicious
aesthetically attuned
This is not merely aestheticism. In Sanskrit thought: Beauty is the radiance of attunement, auspiciousness is truth expressed visibly.
Therefore śobhana adds to the su- field:
a shining quality
a radiance
an auspicious presence
and an aesthetic coherence
Sukha contains this radiance as the beauty of an openness functioning naturally.
3.3 Convergence: su as suṣṭhu/śobhana + kha = Sukha
Sukha is:
alignment or correct attunement (from suṣṭhu)
radiance (from śobhana)
openness (from kha)
Thus, sukha is not pleasure. It is:
Radiant correctness of an opening, the luminous and natural rightness of unobstructed space, the beauty of a world that fits.
Experientially, sukha is when experience feels both:
“naturally right”
“quietly luminous”
It is the felt-sense of unobstructed being.
3.4 Bhadra: The Goodness of Being Itself
Another word in the constellation of “goodness” is bhadra, as in Samantabhadra.
Bhadra means:
auspicious
fortunate
noble
wholesome
beautiful
right
It is the auspiciousness of goodness itself: not operational goodness, but goodness as being.
In Samanta-bhadra:
samanta = all-around, universal, from all angles (anta)
bhadra = auspicious goodness
Samantabhadra is:
the all-pervading goodness
the universal auspiciousness
In Dzogchen, this is the ground or base of being.
Thus su- and bhadra complement one another:
su- = goodness of alignment (functional)
bhadra = goodness of the ground (goodness from being)
Sukha arises because the ground (bhadra) is good, and openness (kha) aligns with it (su).
4. Kha: The Multidimensionality of Space
kha appears in Sanskrit across an astonishing array of meanings:
sky
ether
atmosphere
emptiness
cavity
aperture
orifice
the senses
the mind as the sixth sense, i.e. mental space
cosmological space
cognitive space
Yet all of these meanings reduce to one core:
an opening that permits movement or appearance.
Thus:
sukha = open, aligned aperture
duḥkha = obstructed or ill-fitted aperture
This applies:
ecologically
physiologically
psychologically
contemplatively
It is the geometry of experience.
5. Mahā: That Which Is Worthy of Worship
Mahā comes from √mah:
to be great
to be magnified
to be worthy of honour
to be worshipped
Thus mahā-sukha is not “great pleasure.” It is the bliss that is exalted, worshipful, magnificent.
Tantric pūjā is the honouring of the deity with mahā-sukha itself—the worshipful offering of that bliss which is itself worthy of worship: from bliss to bliss.
The Buddha himself said:
nirvāṇam paramaṃ sukham
Nirvāṇa is the supreme sukha.
Thus mahāsukha is none other than:
the taste of liberation as open, radiant space.
6. The Ten Nuances of Sukha in Sanskrit Buddhist Grammar: Amarasiṃha’s Distinctions
Now we enter the most delicate field: the ten terms that the most astitute Buddhist Sanskritist to ever live, Amarasiṃha, offers as the nuanced modes of sukha. These are not mere synonyms. They are phenomenological micro-textures of joy.
They reveal how the Buddhist tradition felt the internal gradations of positive experience.
Let us expand each fully.
1. Mud / Mut — Soft Gladness, Gentle Blooming Joy
Etymology: √mud “to be glad, to rejoice.”
Phenomenology:
soft lift in the chest
delicate blooming
a subtle warmth without excitement
a gentle “yes” arising for no reason
Mud is the baseline gentle well-being of a mind that is not agitated.
Contemplative correlation:
The small, natural pleasantness when awareness relaxes.
2. Prīti — Affectionate Joy, Loving-Saturation
Etymology: √pri “to love, to delight in.”
Phenomenology:
warm, relational joy
tender glow, like honey
the joy of resonance, attunement
Prīti is joy with affection inside it.
Contemplative correlation:
The warm pleasure that arises when compassion and clarity meet.
It is no coincidence that the Buddha used this word to describe the first of the four dhyānas.
3. Pramada — Excited Joy with a Hint of Heedlessness
Etymology: pra- + √mad “to be thrilled, intoxicated.”
Phenomenology:
upward-surging excitement
slight instability
joy edging toward carelessness
Contemplative correlation:
Pleasure arising when prāṇa increases without grounding.
4. Harṣa — Sudden Exhilaration, Electric Joy
Etymology: √hṛṣ/√hrṣ “to thrill, to bristle.”
Phenomenology:
instantaneous spark
goosebumps (romaharṣa)
bright, kinetic uplift
Contemplative correlation:
Sudden flashes of recognition in insight practice.
5. Pramoda — Outward-Facing, Celebratory Joy
Etymology: pra- (forth) + moda (gladness).
Phenomenology:
spreading, communal delight
celebratory, expressive
outward, radiant, shared
Contemplative correlation: Joy in collective practice—chanting, offerings, sangha.
6. Āmoda — Inward, Savouring Delight
Etymology: ā- (toward, inward) + moda.
Phenomenology:
rich, inward thickening
intimate, private pleasure
savoring a taste or fragrance
Contemplative correlation:
Refined pleasure of concentrated samādhi.
7. Sammada — Saturated, Consummate Joy
Etymology: sam- (together, complete) + mada.
Phenomenology:
whole-body suffusion
immersive joy, fully saturated
strong but not reckless
Contemplative correlation:
All-suffusing when the channels open.
8. Ānanda — Deep, Abiding Bliss
Etymology: ā- (intensive) + √nand (rejoice).
Phenomenology:
even, oceanic bliss
timeless
stable, pervasive
not relational
Contemplative correlation:
Bliss of non-grasping in deep meditation.
9. Śarma — Protective Joy, Refuge-Bliss
Etymology: √śri “to lean on” → śarman. The root is the same as that of śaraṇa, refuge.
Phenomenology:
stable, cooling, grounding
joy of safety, refuge
homecoming quality
Contemplative correlation:
The joy of relying fully on the base of rigpa.
10. Śātam — Primordial Brightness-Joy
Ancient, possibly Indo-Iranian term.
Phenomenology:
brightness
shining uplift
clarity more than emotion
Contemplative correlation:
Luminosity aspect of awareness.
Summary: The Topology of Openness
Sukha = spacious alignment → radiant openness
Duḥkha = spatial constriction → misaligned aperture and closedness
Mahāsukha = the exalted magnificence of primordial openness as bliss
From Dzogchen’s view:
Rigpa is mahāsukha itself.
Avidyā is duḥ-kha at its root.
Thus philology, psychology, and contemplative experience all converge on a single truth:
Freedom is openness.
Suffering is constriction.
Awakening is the restoration of the aperture of being.
To study Sanskrit in this way is not academic exercise: It a reopening of the inner sky.
Every insight into Sanskrit grammar is itself a small act of unblocking—already a gesture toward sukha, already a taste of mahā-sukha, and already a glimpse into the goodness of the groundless ground.
