Contemplation of Feeling

　　The Discourse-Grouping on the Feelings

　　translated from the Pali, with an Introduction by

　　Nyanaponika Thera

　　© 1995

　　Contents

　　Introduction

　　The Place of Feeling in Buddhist Psychology

　　The Discourse-grouping on the Feelings (Vedana-Samyutta)

　　Miscellaneous Texts

　　Notes

　　Introduction

　　"To feel is everything!" — so exclaimed a German poet. Though these are rather exuberant words, they do point to the fact that feeling is a key factor in human life. Whether people are fully aware of it or not, their lives are chiefly spent in an unceasing endeavor to increase their pleasant feelings and to avoid unpleasant feelings. All human ambitions and strivings serve that purpose: from the simple joys of a humdrum existence to the power urge of the mighty and the creative joy of the great artist. All that is wanted is to have more and more of pleasant feelings, because they bring with them emotional satisfaction, called happiness. Such happiness may have various levels of coarseness or refinement, and may reach great intensity. These emotions, on their part, will produce many volitions and their actualizations. For the purpose of satisfying the "pleasure principle," many heroic deeds have been performed, and many more unheroic and unscrupulous ones. For providing the means to pleasurable feelings, thousands of industries and services have sprung up, with millions of workers. Technology and applied sciences, too, serve to a large extent the growing demands for sense-enjoyment and comfort. By providing questionable escape routes, these purveyors of emotional and sensual happiness also try to allay painful feelings like fear and anxiety.

　　From this brief purview one may now appreciate the significance of the Buddha”s terse saying that "all things converge on feelings." From such a central position of feeling it can also be understood that misconceptions about feelings belong to the twenty Personality Views, where the Aggregate of Feeling (vedana-kkhandha) is in various ways identified with an assumed self.

　　Yet, feeling by itself, in its primary state, is quite neutral when it registers the impact of an object as pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent. Only when emotional or volitional additions are admitted, will there arise desire and love, aversion and hate, anxiety, fear and distorting views. But that need not be so. These admixtures are not inseparable parts of the respective feelings. In fact, many of the weaker impressions we receive during the day stop at the mere registering of a very faint and brief feeling, without any further emotional reaction. This shows that the stopping at the bare feeling is psychologically possible, and that it could also be done intentionally with the help of mindfulness and self-restraint, even in cases when the stimulus to convert feelings into emotions is strong. Through actual experience it can thus be confirmed that the ever-revolving round of Dependent Origination (paticca-samuppada) can be stopped at the point of Feeling, and that there is no inherent necessity that Feeling is followed by Craving. Here we encounter Feeling as a key factor on the path of liberation, and therefore, the Contemplation of Feeling has, in Buddhist tradition, always been highly regarded as an effective aid on that path.

　　The Contemplation of Feeling is one of the four Foundations of Mindfulness (satipatthana) and may be undertaken in the framework of that meditative practice aiming at the growth of Insight (vipassana). It is, however, essential that this Contemplation should also be remembered and applied in daily life whenever feelings are prone to turn into unwholesome emotions. Of course, one should not try to produce in oneself feelings intentionally, just for the sake of practice; t…

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