Feeling (vedanā)
Indeterminate qualities / Five Aggregates / Feeling
Part of key topic Dependent Origination
Also a subtag of Dependent origination
Subtags: Pleasant feeling, Unpleasant feeling, Neutral feeling
See also: Contact
48 excerpts, 3:03:00 total duration

All excerpts (52) Most relevant (35) Questions about (26) Answers involving (17) Stories (1) Quotes (1) Texts (1)

The Whole of the Path, Session 3 – Jun. 22, 2013

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5. “What is the role of emotion in our practice?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Emotion] [Feeling] // [Faith] [Compassion] [Generosity] [Four Noble Truths] [Relinquishment] [Discernment]


Abhayagiri 2014 Winter Retreat, Session 19 – Feb. 1, 2014

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6. “Did Upasika Kee focus on vedana more than other things or was that just in this chapter?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Upasikā Kee Nanayon] [Feeling] // [Insight meditation]


Abhayagiri 2014 Winter Retreat, Session 37 – Feb. 25, 2014

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5. “When I look at neutral objects, dullness often arises. Is this suffering?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Contact] [Sloth and torpor] [Unskillful qualities] [Suffering] // [Craving not to become] [Delusion] [Ignorance] [Mindfulness] [Clear comprehension]

Comment by Ajahn Jotipālo: Lack of desire is not enlightenment. [Desire] [Liberation]


Mindfulness of Breathing, Session 1 – Oct. 26, 2014

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10. “I get stuck with subtle unpleasant moods. Any advice?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Clinging] [Feeling ] [Emotion] [Mindfulness of breathing] // [Mindfulness of body] [Goodwill] [Continuity of mindfulness]


2014 Thanksgiving Monastic Retreat, Session 1 – Nov. 22, 2014

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9. “How does one work with the vedanā and neutral sensations?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness of feeling] [Feeling] [Neutral feeling] // [Happiness] [Pain] [Unwholesome Roots] [Delusion] [Mindfulness] [Continuity of mindfulness]


Abhayagiri 2015 Winter Retreat, Session 5 – Jan. 10, 2015

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3. “Is mindfulness of the body fabricating a wholesome mental image of the body as opposed to an unwholesome image? But how can we know the body in any way other than vedanā?” Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Mindfulness of body] [Visualization] [Feeling] // [S. N. Goenka] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Postures] [Clear comprehension] [Right Mindfulness] [Calming meditation] [Insight meditation] [Delusion] [Characteristics of existence]

Quote: “The availability of insight is through stepping back from the assumptions that we make, whether it’s around the body or feeling or mind or the sense of self.” [Relinquishment]


Abhayagiri 2015 Winter Retreat, Session 45 – Mar. 15, 2015

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3. Examples of unworldly, unpleasant feelings? Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Suffering] [Skillful qualities] // [Sense restraint]

Sutta: MN 44: Cūḷavedalla Sutta.


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4. Clarification of underlying tendencies to unworldly, pleasant feelings? Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Pasanno. [Unwholesome Roots] [Happiness] [Feeling] // [Desire] [Craving]


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5. “How is nirāmisa expressed in Thai?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Question in Thai] [Thai] [Feeling]


Abhayagiri 2015 Winter Retreat, Session 46 – Mar. 16, 2015

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1. “Is the second dart the self we create around feelings?” Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Self-identity view] [Feeling] // [Aversion]


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2. “How is it that when one feels a pleasant feeling, one cannot feel an unpleasant or neutral feeling?” Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Feeling] // [Consciousness] [Similes]


Abhayagiri 2015 Winter Retreat, Session 47 – Mar. 17, 2015

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1. Meaning of “will become cool right here?” Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] // [Characteristics of existence] [Knowledge and vision] [Nibbāna] [Pāli]


The Middle Way of Not-Self, Session 2 – May. 27, 2015

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4. Comment about working with not-self in direct experience in relation to discomfort and awareness of embodied release. [Direct experience] [Feeling] [Suffering] [Impermanence] [Not-self] [Mindfulness of body] [Relinquishment] [Fear]

Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Proliferation]


Jhāna: A Practical Approach, Session 3 – Oct. 10, 2015

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21. “When it says neither pleasant nor unpleasant, is this neutral?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Neutral feeling] [Jhāna] // [Mindfulness] [Pāṭimokkha]


2015 Thanksgiving Monastic Retreat, Session 4 – Nov. 24, 2015

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12. “If the list of the five khandas is intended to be linear, why is sense-consciousness the final one?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Aggregates ] [Consciousness] [Feeling] [Perception]

Sutta: MN 43.9: “Conjoined not disjoined”


2015 Thanksgiving Monastic Retreat, Session 8 – Nov. 28, 2015

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9. “The Buddha said that vedana is either pleasant, unpleasant, or neither. Contemplating papañca, I noticed that it felt comfortable – familiar and unthreatening. Would a better way to ‘neither pleasant nor unpleasant’ be ‘comfortable’ rather than ‘neutral?’” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Proliferation] [Neutral feeling]


Thanksgiving Retreat 2016, Session 6 – Nov. 24, 2016

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11. “Can you speak more about vedana and whether it is something to be changed, as in from dukkha to sukha?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Pain] [Happiness] // [Cause of Suffering] [Conditionality] [Eightfold Path]

Sutta: MN 53.5: The Buddha asks Sāriputta to teach because his back hurts. [Buddha/Biography]


Thanksgiving Retreat 2016, Session 7 – Nov. 25, 2016

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9. “Was sati, vedana, jhana part of the religious climate current at the Buddha’s time? How revolutionary was he seen to be then? Do we know?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [History/Early Buddhism] [Buddha/Biography] [Mindfulness] [Feeling] [Jhāna] // [Four Noble Truths] [Aggregates] [Culture/India ] [Kamma] [Volition]


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20. “Regarding the second foundation of mindfulness, feeling: Is pleasant/painful functionally wanting/not wanting?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness of feeling] [Feeling] [Craving]


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21. “Regarding unworldly or spiritual feelings, would you talk about what pleasant, painful, and neither look like? Is there guidance or examples to help practice?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] // [Relinquishment]


The Path of Practice, Session 2 – Jun. 16, 2019

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9. “When strong feelings associated with conceit come, what to do?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Conceit] [Feeling] // [Noble Truth of Suffering] [Mindfulness of feeling] [Clear comprehension] [Nutriment] [Relinquishment] [Patience]


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11. Comment: I’m improving my skill at seeing the greed or aversion when there are pleasant or unpleasant feelings, but I often don’t see the neutral feeling state so clearly. [Mindfulness of feeling] [Feeling] [Unwholesome Roots] [Neutral feeling] [Delusion] // [Mindfulness of body] [Restlessness and worry] [Fear] [Present moment awareness]

Response by Ajahn Pasanno.

Quote: “That whereby one is a conceiver of the world, a perceiver of the world, that is the world.” — SN 35.116 [Nature of the cosmos] [Proliferation] [Perception]


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12. “Could you talk about the difference between experiencing an unpleasant feeling and perpetuating an unpleasant feeling?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling ] [Discernment] [Cessation of Suffering] // [Compassion] [Mindfulness] [Patience] [Suffering]

Simile: Two arrows (SN 36.6). [Feeling ]


Living in a Changing Society – Aug. 23, 2020

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9. “How do we overcome unpleasant mental or physical feelings in the present moment?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Present moment awareness] // [Aversion] [Fear] [Suffering] [Goodwill] [Ajahn Sumedho]

Sutta: DN 22: Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta [Mindfulness of feeling]


Abhayagiri 25th Anniversary Retreat, Session 19 – Jun. 14, 2021

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3. “I remember reading in one of Ajahn Chah’s books about comparing our feelings to a snake with sadness and unhappiness at its head and happiness as its tail and how we should not touch any part of its body....How can we just watch [feelings] come in and out of our mind without interacting with it or getting influenced by it?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Feeling] [Similes] [Happiness] [Suffering] [Equanimity] // [Appropriate attention]

Reference: “The Middle Way Within,” Collected Teachings of Ajahn Chah, p. 2.


Abhayagiri Kaṭhina 2021, Session 1 – Nov. 3, 2021

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5. “Could you speak more about how to prevent feelings from becoming aversion or desire? How does this relate to Dependent Origination?” Answered by Ajahn Amaro. [Feeling] [Aversion] [Craving] [Dependent origination] // [Arahant] [Buddha] [Pain] [Mindfulness] [Birth] [Impermanence] [Happiness] [Direct experience] [Proliferation] [Master Hsuan Hua]

Story: Ajahn Pasanno breaks his pelvis in Thailand. [Ajahn Pasanno]