Furthermore, take a mendicant who, with the fading away of rapture, enters and remains in the third absorption. While a mendicant is practicing such a meditation, if perception and focus accompanied by rapture beset them, that’s an affliction for them. Suppose a happy person were to experience pain; that would be an affliction for them. In the same way, should perception and focus accompanied by rapture beset them, that’s an affliction for them. And affliction has been called suffering by the Buddha. That too is a way to understand how extinguishment is bliss.

Furthermore, take a mendicant who, with the giving up of pleasure and pain and the disappearance of former happiness and sadness, enters and remains in the fourth absorption. While a mendicant is practicing such a meditation, if perception and focus accompanied by bliss with equanimity beset them, that’s an affliction for them. Suppose a happy person were to experience pain; that would be an affliction for them. In the same way, should perception and focus accompanied by bliss with equanimity beset them, that’s an affliction for them. And affliction has been called suffering by the Buddha. That too is a way to understand how extinguishment is bliss.