Feeling (vedanā)
Feeling (vedanā)
10. “I have an ongoing problem with certain vibrations. Here the most problematic is the recording device. The trunk of my body feels like it is vibrating.... Any suggestions would be most gratefully received.” [Meditation/Unusual experiences] [Technology] // [Mindfulness of body] [Aversion] [Feeling] [Goodwill] [Worldly Conditions] [Relinquishment]
Recollection: Ajahn Chah was this peaceful, happy presence in the center of the universe. Things happened around him all the time...and Ajahn Chah was always happy. You realize that that's really possible in the human condition. [Ajahn Chah] [Happiness] [Faith] [Disrobing] [Human]
5. “What is the role of emotion in our practice?” [Emotion] [Feeling] // [Faith] [Compassion] [Generosity] [Four Noble Truths] [Relinquishment] [Discernment]
6. “Did Upasika Kee focus on vedana more than other things or was that just in this chapter?” [Upasikā Kee Nanayon] [Feeling] // [Insight meditation]
2. “How does one incline the mind towards recollecting one's own good actions?” [Recollection/Virtue] [Merit] [Aversion] [Gladdening the mind] // [Emotion] [Feeling] [Kamma] [Investigation of states] [Vajrayāna]
5. “When I look at neutral objects, dullness often arises. Is this suffering?” [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]
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]
10. “I get stuck with subtle unpleasant moods. Any advice?” [Clinging] [Feeling] [Mindfulness of breathing] // [Mindfulness of body] [Goodwill] [Continuity of mindfulness]
29. “The Buddha teaches to end suffering, but from the ordinary person's view, cultivating the practices of forest monks is also suffering. Who is right?” [Buddha] [Suffering] [Ascetic practices] // [Four Noble Truths] [Faith] [Investigation of states] [Happiness] [Feeling]
Quote: “The teaching of the Buddha isn't about language....The teaching of the Buddha is the language of experience.” — Ajahn Chah [Ajahn Chah] [Language] [Dhamma] [Direct experience]
9. “How does one work with the vedanā and neutral sensations?” [Mindfulness of feeling] [Feeling] [Neutral feeling]
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?” [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]
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]
2. “How can one be mindful of the beginning of thought?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Kaccāna and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Directed thought and evaluation] [Mindfulness] [Right Mindfulness] // [Appropriate attention] [Perception] [Proliferation]
Comments about observing proliferating thoughts. [Conditionality] [Right Effort] [Restlessness and worry] [Mindfulness of mind]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness of breathing] [Feeling]
Sutta: MN 118 Ānāpānasati Sutta.
4. “What does “know the mind as mind; know feeling as feeling” mean?” [Right Mindfulness] [Relinquishment] // [Proliferation]
Comment: Self-view forms around the feeling from sense contact. [Sense bases] [Contact] [Feeling] [Self-identity view]
Sutta: MN 18: Madhupiṇḍika Sutta, The Honeyball.
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Volitional formations] [Perception]
Sutta: MN 118: Ānāpānasati Sutta. [Mindfulness of breathing]
6. Comment by Ajahn Ñāṇiko: There is the concern that we practice meditation to make something happen. [Meditation/General advice]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Neutral feeling] [Delusion]
Sutta: MN 44: Cūḷavedalla Sutta, The Small Discourse Giving an Elaboration. [Feeling] [Unwholesome Roots]
1. “Why does the Buddha describe perception in terms of colors but consciousness in terms of tastes?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Perception] [Consciousness] [Sense bases] // [Bhikkhu Bodhi] [Commentaries] [Ven. Analayo] [Memory] [Feeling]
Sutta: SN 22.79: Being Devoured; footnote 114 in Bhikkhu Bodhi translation.
Follow-up: “Could you say that perception is identification whereas consciousness is more refined?” [Aggregates] [Not-self] [Self-identity view] [Rebirth] [Translation] [Similes]
[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.
1. Explanation of sāmisa and nirāmisa. Teaching by Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Pāli] // [Translation]
3. Examples of unworldly, unpleasant feelings? Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Suffering] [Skillful qualities] // [Sense restraint]
Sutta: MN 44: Cūḷavedalla Sutta.
4. Clarification of underlying tendencies to unworldly, pleasant feelings? Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Pasanno. [Unwholesome Roots] [Happiness] [Feeling] // [Desire] [Craving]
5. “How is nirāmisa expressed in Thai?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Question in Thai] [Thai] [Feeling]
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.
[Session] [Feeling]
Reading: SN 36.4: “The Bottomless Abyss.”
Reading: SN 36.6: “The Dart.”
Reading: MN 74: Dīghanakha Sutta, To Dıghanakha.
1. “Is the second dart the self we create around feelings?” [Self-identity view] [Feeling] // [Aversion]
2. “How is it that when one feels a pleasant feeling, one cannot feel an unpleasant or neutral feeling?” [Feeling] // [Consciousness] [Similes]
[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.
1. Meaning of “will become cool right here?” Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] // [Characteristics of existence] [Knowledge and vision] [Nibbāna] [Pāli]
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]
4. “Can one sense-bases that starts the proliferation process lead to different sense-bases?” Answered by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Pasanno. [Sense bases] [Conditionality] [Proliferation] [Perception] // [Feeling] [Heart/mind]
3. “The Buddha didn't answer the question, 'Is there a self?' But this question seems more important than other questions he didn't answer. How should we relate to not-self?” [Buddha/Biography] [Questions] [Not-self] // [Teaching Dhamma] [Feeling] [Relinquishment] [Self-identity view] [Four Noble Truths] [Views]
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]
10. “I meditate. Pleasure arises, and I enjoy that. Does that mean it's Dhamma practice?” [Meditation] [Happiness] [Practicing in accordance with Dhamma] [Jhāna] // [Investigation of states] [Feeling] [Mindfulness of mind]
21. “When it says neither pleasant nor unpleasant, is this neutral?” [Feeling] [Neutral feeling] [Jhāna] // [Mindfulness] [Pāṭimokkha]
11. Comment: This wanting mind becomes doing something... [Desire] [Jhāna]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Craving] [Ardency] [Happiness] [Tranquility] [Mindfulness of body]
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?”” [Feeling] [Proliferation] [Neutral feeling]
11. “Can you speak more about vedana and whether it is something to be changed, as in from dukkha to sukha?” [Feeling] [Pain] [Happiness]
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?” [History/Early Buddhism] [Buddha/Biography] [Mindfulness] [Feeling] [Jhāna]
7. “Do thoughts by themselves have karmic consequences?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Kamma] [Directed thought and evaluation] // [Perception] [Feeling] [Volition] [Self-identity view]
Sutta: MN 56: Upāli
Follow-up: “Is it good kamma to decide not to act on an unskillful thought?” [Skillful qualities]
Story: A person talks with Ajahn Liem, analyzing their consistently bad thoughts and obsessions. He replies, "If you see a pile of excrement, why would you want to stick your nose in it?" Told by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Ajahn Liem] [Unskillful qualities] [Similes] [Fierce/direct teaching] [Culture/Thailand] [Thai Forest Tradition]
Comment: I think my problem is that my nose is already in there, and I don't want to realize that I'm so stupid that it's hard to get it out. [Delusion]
9. “When strong feelings associated with conceit come, what to do?” [Conceit] [Feeling] // [Noble Truth of Suffering] [Mindfulness of feeling] [Clear comprehension] [Nutriment] [Relinquishment] [Patience]
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]
12. “Could you talk about the difference between experiencing an unpleasant feeling and perpetuating an unpleasant feeling?” [Feeling] [Discernment] [Cessation of Suffering] // [Compassion] [Mindfulness] [Patience] [Suffering]
Simile: Two arrows (SN 36.6). [Feeling]
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]
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]
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]