223: About Feeling

 In this talk, we explore Vedana (feeling) as a key mental factor in Buddhist meditation and daily life. The teacher explains how feelings arise as pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, and how they are classified in different ways in the teachings of the Buddha. By learning to observe feelings with mindfulness, listeners discover how to prevent craving and aversion, understand impermanence, and break the cycle of suffering through Satipatthana Vipassana practice.

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Sayar Myat 0:02

Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa,Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa, Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa. Theravada Buddhism series, Dhamma talk number Forty Six. About Feeling. Vedana. This topic came up based on a meditation interview of a yogi a week ago. Vedana in English (feeling) has a specific meaning. It is a state of a being pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral when one comes in contact with a physical or mental object. It is a mental factor that accompanies every consciousness of a being. However, it can take one to an unwholesome or wholesome path based on the conditions or its associates. When it comes to feeling, most of us have an auto-response. And when we feel unpleasant about things, we don't like it. We are non-reactive or oblivious to neutral feelings. However, if we are mindful at the moment of arising of Vedana, the feeling, we don't fall in love or hate, and we are sure of the true nature of Vedana at that moment, then one does not step into the wholesome or unwholesome path, and karma cannot be formed. Vedana is one of the four foundations of mindfulness. By practicing Satipattana Vipassana, one escapes from the cycle of life. Buddha taught many people of different personalities and intelligence. Even though he taught the same subject, the same Dhamma, the approach varies based on the maximum efficiency and benefits of the targeted audience. Elaborate in detail for intelligent people to grab their attention and to match their analytical power. Sometimes the Buddha skipped steps in between and give a moderate version so that the audience could not feel tedious, but still get the salient points, the key point, and attain insight. Sometimes the Buddha taught those who had great paramis just with one line to enlightenment. That's why one of his qualities is the master of all teachers, the most skillful teacher. Buddha taught Vedana, the feeling, as having five kinds, three kinds, two kinds, and only one at different places and at different times. Sometimes he talked to the audience. And another place he will say, There's only one Vedana. One can find in different parts of the scriptures with these different enumerations. But as we are learning now, it is confusing due to the non-conformity of the facts at various places and time on the same subject. So let's see why it is not conforming, for what reason, or how it is presented. Let's look, first of all, the five kinds of vedana. The first one is called dukkha vedana. It is used for all pain and discomfort in the body that comes from the physical source. In other words, there's a pain in your joints, knees, hips, ankle, neck, and so on. Any discomfort or pain arising in the body is called the physical source. However, we need to know that Vedana actually is a mental factor. Vedana is not physical at all. It's mental. And they operate in harmony. Whenever that harmony is broken, when one of the elements becomes excess or deficient, severe or very noticeable pain arises. That's what it means by the pain coming from the physical source. Just to have a clearer understanding, I'll give you an example. C-O-R-P-S -E . Corpse. A body without consciousness, dead person, is totally in a state of disbalance of the full elements. Four elements broke down, water leaking, become cold, heavy, and so on. So as there is a disbalance, there must be pain, and there is pain. But there is no consciousness in that body. As there is no consciousness to become aware of any object. Only when there is an object it has a quality to know, ability to know the object. Without consciousness, it cannot know anything. Any object. Painful sensation is absent, even though the foue element has broken down. That is dukkha vedana. Dukkha vedana, that's what they call. The next one is called Dommanasa Vedana. Dommanasa. It is a painful feeling from a mental source. Mental source. Experienced by the mind. An example when a person recalls a dissatisfying or disastrous event that had taken place, there arise the unpleasant feeling or unpleasant Vedana in the mind. And that is called Dommanasa. Dommanasa is the unpleasant feeling arising from the mental source. The third one, sukha vedana, it is a pleasant feeling in the mind that comes from the physical source. For instance, a person is stroking a cat and feels very good, enjoyable. That is sukkha vedana. The next one is sommanasa vedana. When a person recalls a happy event, feels pleasant, feels good. And that is sommanasa vedana. It arises from mental source. So we have a two unpleasant feeling. One from physical source. And the other from mental source is called dommana sa. And there's a pleasant feeling. One from physical source is called sukkha. One from mental source is called sommanasa. There are four kinds already. And the fifth and the last one is upakavedana. A feeling that is not strong and cannot produce pleasant or unpleasant feeling is called neutral feeling. A physical or mental object in contact with the mind. A physical or mental object of average or very common in nature comes in contact with the mind, cannot produce a detectable feeling. And that is called neutral feeling, Upakka Vedana. So that's just what it means by five kinds of feeling. And in some sutta, Buddha will explain about Vedana feeling with this five types of five kinds for those who want to know in detail. And sometime in the scriptures, Buddha said there's only three feelings, three types of Vedana. Okay, why suddenly five become three? When Buddha says there are only three feelings, he's referring to dukkha, sukkha, and upakha, pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feeling. So what's the difference between this five times and three kinds of Vedana? It is actually the same except in this category. When the Buddha said dukkha vedana, it includes both physical and mental sources. Both are under dukkha vedana. It doesn't split into dukkha and dommanasa. Both dukkha and dommanasa combined is called dukkha. The same applies for the sukkha vedana. Under the sukkha vedana, both sukkha and sommana sa are there. In other words, sukha vedana covers both physical and mental sources. And the third one is Upaka Vedana, neutral feeling. So in some of the sutta the Buddha mentioned there are three. And when he said three, that's what it means. In fact, it is five. But he gave us a condensed version, some in terms of types, three types. Actually, they are one and the same, five and three. And in some cases, the Buddha said there are only two types of two kinds of Vedana feeling. So how does it become two? There's two kinds of Vedana consists of dukkha and sukha. Painful and happy. Both physical and mental sources. Sukha Vedana is a pleasant feeling coming from both physical and mental sources. That too. So where is the neutral feeling? A neutral feeling does not give discomfort or disturbance. Neutral feeling does not have discomfort or disturbance. That's why it is considered pleasant. When there's no discomfort is good. There's no disturbance, it's good. So it's why it's considered as pleasant. That's why neutral feeling stays under the wing of sukha. When the Buddha say there are only two types of feeling, he means unpleasant feeling both from physical and mental source, and pleasant feeling from physical source, mental source, as well as neutral feeling because it has no disturbance and discomfort. That's how it becomes two. So in reality, five kinds of Vedana, three kinds of Vedana, two kinds of Vedana are one and the same. Buddha presented in a different way, under a different context, based on the nature of the audience and how they would grab it or understand it. And there's one more. On some occasion the Buddha said, Bhikkhu, there's only one feeling. That's it. There's only one feeling, not two, not three, not five, only one. So what does he really mean by that? Here the Buddha meant all feelings are impermanent, arise and passes away. Every feeling arises and passes away, arises and passes away, they are impermanent. Therefore, it is subject to the constant oppression of impermanence. Impermanence oppressed this feeling. That's why under this context there is only one feeling because every kind of feeling, two or three or five, they are all the same. They arise and pass away. Suffering, oppression by the nature of impermanence. I hope this talk clarifies some confusion you may have on Vedana feeling. If you are mindful, you will know at the moment of arising of this vedana. You see as it is. What is as it is? It arises and passes away. And if you know it arises and passes away, that feeling has no more function to do, nothing to do anymore. Only if you don't know, only if you are not mindful, that pleasant feeling becomes craving, liking, lobha, unpleasant feeling become aversion, dosa, and the wheel of kamma turns round and round into samsara. But if you know at the moment of arising of Vedana, whatever that may be, you know it is simply arising and passing away. It is simply constantly oppressed by impermanence. If you see the first noble truth, dukha sacca, the wheel of sansara is totally broken down. May all of you be able to practice Satipattana Vipassana meditation and be able to break down the wheel of samsara at the point of feeling with a strong, firm and precise mindfulness and escape from the cycle of life as soon as possible. Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu. Thank you very much.