Why Vedana and What is Vedana
By S. N. Goenka
Dhamma eradicates suffering and gives happiness. Who gives this happiness
It is not the Buddha but the Dhamma, the knowledge of anicca (impermanence) within the body, which gives this happiness. That is why you must meditate and be aware of anicca continually.
-Sayagyi U Ba Khin
I remember the first time I met Sayagyi U Ba Khin. I had gone with great attachment to my beliefs and misgivings about the teaching of the Buddha. Sayagyi knew that I was a leader of the local Indian Hindu community. He asked me, "Do you Hindus have any objection to sila-a life of morality, to samadhi-mastery over the mind and to panna-wisdom to purify the mind
" How could I object! How could anybody object! He continued, "Well, this is what the Buddha taught. This is all I am interested in and this is all that I am going to teach you." Sayagyi”s interpretation of Dhamma was universal and non-sectarian. He had no problem in my being a Hindu.
My first Vipassana course introduced me to the teachings of the Buddha and transformed my life forever. I was pulled like a magnet to his logical, practical, pragmatic, universal and non-sectarian teaching. There was nothing objectionable in it. I had been hearing about and talking about the eradication of defilements and the purification of mind. When I started observing sensations, initially there were moments of doubt, "How is this going to help me
" But soon I realized that by observing sensations, I am going to the root of the defilements. I was actually walking towards the goal of full liberation. Whatever Sayagyi taught me was not merely to develop faith or to satisfy the intellect, though both are important. He taught me the way to know the truth at the experiential level. If anybody had tried to convince me about the teaching of the Buddha by intellectual discussion, logic or argument, I would not have been convinced as I was fully satisfied with my own beliefs. What convinced me and gave me here-and-now results was the experience of the truth through bodily sensations. This tangible tool gave me the confidence that I could indeed become sthitaprajna (thitapanno) which is the cherished goal of every Hindu.
The more I practised, the more I was convinced that the Buddha was the foremost scientist of mind and matter, the foremost analyst of the truth about suffering and its eradication. And what makes him a peerless scientist is the discovery that tanhatanha (trsnatrsna, craving) arises in response to vedana. I had studied the teachings of the Indian spiritual teachers before and after the Buddha who also accept tanha as the cause of misery, but for them tanha arises because of the sense objects only. They miss the most important link: not one of them discusses vedana and its relation to tanha. They always pronounce sense objects to be the cause of tanhatanha. Tanha is craving. Craving for continuing or acquiring that which is pleasant and craving to get rid of or repelling that which is unpleasant. Therefore tanha actually means both craving and aversion.
The discovery of the Buddha, that the real cause of tanha lies in vedana, is the unparalleled gift of the Buddha to humanity. With this one discovery he gave us the key to open the door of liberation within ourselves. Others proclaimed salayatana paccaya tanha; the Buddha discovered and disclosed that vedana paccaya tanha, which means that defilements arise at the level of vedana and in response to vedana. It is logical that if tanha arises in response to vedana, any endeavour to reach the root of tanha and to eradicate tanha must include the understanding of vedana, the experience of it and the knowledge of how it causes craving and aversion, and the wisdom to know how it can be used for the eradication of…
《Why Vedana and What is Vedana
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