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　　Samahito sampajano, sato Buddhassa savako;

　　vedana ca pajanati, vedanananca sambhavam.

　　Yattha ceta nirujjhanti, magganca khayagaminam;

　　vedananam khaya bhikkhu, nicchatonicchato parinibbuto”ti.1

　　A follower of the Buddha, with concentration, awareness and constant thorough understanding of impermanence, knows with wisdom the sensations, their arising, their cessation and the path leading to their end.

　　A meditator who has reached the end (has experienced the entire range) of sensations (and has gone beyond) is freed from craving, is fully liberated.

　　This is why the Buddha practised and taught the meditation of awareness of mind and matter (nama and rupa). RupaRupa includes kaya (body) and vedana is felt on kaya. NamaNama includes cittacitta (consciousness) and the dhammasdhammas (mental concomitants) arising on it.

　　Vedana is also a cetasikacetasika (mental concomitant). When the Buddha says, sabbe dhamma vedana samosaranasabbe dhamma vedana samosarana, it means that the experience of all mental concomitants includes and is inseparable from vedana. Hence according to my understanding of the teaching of the Buddha, not only do kayanupassanakayanupassana and vedananupassanavedananupassana involve the awareness of vedana but vedana also forms an integral part of dhammanupassanadhammanupassana and cittanupassanacittanupassana. A meditator whether practising kayanupassana or vedananupassana or cittanupassana or dhammanupassana, continues to be aware of vedana. He realizes the phenomenon of arising (samudayadhammanupassisamudayadhammanupassi) and the phenomenon of passing away (vayadhammanupassivayadhammanupassi) by maintaining awareness of vedana with the understanding of its impermanent nature. Thus he does not allow tanha to arise in response to vedana: He responds neither with tanha of craving towards a pleasant sensation nor with tanha of aversion towards an unpleasant sensation. A meditator maintains upekkha (equanimity) based on understanding of anicca (impermanence).

　　My journey within clearly showed me that a behaviour pattern is formed in the darkness of ignorance where one keeps reacting with craving and aversion, knowingly or unknowingly, towards bodily sensations. Thus, one becomes a slave of one”s behaviour pattern and keeps reacting to sensations at the deepest level. The anusaya kilesaanusaya kilesa are sleeping volcanos, the latent behaviour patterns, of blind reaction to sensations. The Buddha”s discovery helps a meditator to come out of this blind behaviour pattern. Among the many meditation techniques of India and other parts of the world that I have come across or have heard about, there is none that goes to the root cause of the defilements of craving and aversion and eradicates them. In no other technique is the way to eradicate even the latent tendencies of craving, aversion and ignorance so clearly spelled out.

　　"Sukhaya, bhikkhave, vedanaya raganusayo pahatabbo, dukkhaya vedanaya patighanusayo pahatabbo, adukkhamasukhaya vedanaya avijjanusayo pahatabbo."2

　　Eradicate the latent tendency of craving using pleasant sensations (by equanimous observation of the pleasant sensations understanding their changing nature), eradicate latent tendency of aversion using unpleasant sensations and eradicate the latent tendency of ignorance using neutral sensations.

　　I realized this to be a unique contribution of the Buddha to humanity. The question that arises now is what do we call vedana

　　 It is clear from the words of the Buddha that vedana is one of the four aggregates of mind (sanna, sankhara and vinnana being the other three) and that it plays a vital role in liberation from misery. The Buddha gave importance to the vedana that one feels on the body. The vedana that one feels on the body is experienced by the…

《Why Vedana and What is Vedana

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