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
45 excerpts, 2:58:41 total duration

All excerpts (49) Most relevant (33) Questions about (24) Answers involving (16) 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]


Abhayagiri 2014 Winter Retreat, Session 48 – Mar. 12, 2104

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4. Ajahn Pasanno describes the meditation method he used during his first year as a monk. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Meditation/Techniques] // [Contact] [Feeling] [Movement meditation] [Concentration]


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] [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]


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4. Discussion of which excercises described as mindfulness of the body (MN 10) are reflective techniques and which are based on vedanā. Led by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Mindfulness of body] [Recollection] [Feeling] // [Elements] [Unattractiveness] [Insight meditation] [Liberation]

Comment about S.N. Goenka’s use of the term vedanā. Contributed by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [S. N. Goenka] [Feeling] [Contact] [Sense bases] [Aggregates]


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

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[Session] [Mindfulness of feeling] [Feeling]

Reading: “The Perceptual Process,” p. 156-159 in Satipaṭṭhāna: The Direct Path to Realization by Venerable Analayo.

Reading: MN 44: Cūḷavedalla Sutta, The Small Discourse Giving an Elaboration.


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1. Explanation of sāmisa and nirāmisa. Teaching by Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Pāli] // [Translation]


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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]


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8. Discussion about feeling, craving, self and kamma. Led by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Craving] [Self-identity view] [Kamma] // [Dependent origination]

Sutta: MN 18: Madhupiṇḍika Sutta, The Honeyball.


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

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[Session] [Feeling]

Reading: SN 36.4: “The Bottomless Abyss.”

Reading: SN 36.6: “The Dart.”

Reading: MN 74: Dīghanakha Sutta, To Dıghanakha.


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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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[Session] [Feeling]

Reading: SN 36.7: Gelañña Sutta, “The Sick Ward.”

Reading: SN 36.21: “Sivaka.”

Reading: “The End of Rebirth,” The Stillness of Being by Ajahn Viradhammo, p. 67-77.


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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]


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2. Discussion about kamma and the results of kamma. Led by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo, Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Kamma] [Conditionality] [Feeling] // [Abuse/violence] [Abhidhamma] [Ajahn Chah] [Vajrayāna] [Sickness] [Compassion] [Culture/India] [Equanimity] [Disasters] [Christianity]

Quote: “Too much Dhamma.” — Ajahn Buddhadāsa. Quoted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Buddhadāsa]

Sutta: AN 4.77 Acinteyya: “Vexation or madness.”

Story: Ajahn Chah to Ajahn Munindo: “If it wasn’t supposed to be this way, it wouldn’t have been this way.” Told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Munindo] [Self-pity]

Thai saying: “That’s as far as their merit takes them.” [Culture/Thailand] [Death] [Merit] [Thai]


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]


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. [History/Early Buddhism] [Buddha/Biography] [Mindfulness] [Feeling] [Jhāna]


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]


Abhayagiri Kaṭhina 2021, Session 2 – Nov. 5, 2021

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3. Comment: Sīla (virtue) is like a compass. You know if you’re off. [Virtue]

Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Suffering] [Feeling]

Quote: “The language of Dhamma is the language of feeling.” — Ajahn Chah. Quoted by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Dhamma] [Feeling]