The Depth of Feeling Tone
Part 2 in a 2-part series on vedanā
In the first essay on feeling tone (vedanā), it was noted that this simple quality packs tremendous power for our practice and also offers more subtlety than might be expected. Let’s continue delving into the world of feeling tone – the aspect of experience that is pleasant, unpleasant, or neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant.
As we contemplate feeling tone with mindfulness, we discover that within a category of feeling tone, some experiences are “sensual,” pertaining to the five physical senses, while others are “spiritual,” pertaining to the heart or mind. “Sensual” (sāmisa, which relates to the word for “bait”) could also be translated as “of the flesh” or “carnal.” In the case of pleasant vedanā, it includes such experiences as a beautiful sunset or a delicious meal. “Spiritual” (nirāmisa; also “non-sensual” or “not-of-the-flesh”) pleasant feeling encompasses mettā (goodwill), generosity, concentration, and other non-material experiences.
The same distinction holds with painful and neutral feeling tone. Unpleasant sensual experiences are easily understood in physical pain, grating sounds, and repulsive tastes. Unpleasant non-sensual feelings include the healthy distress of having acted unethically and the acute longing for Awakening that can accompany some stages of the path. Neutral carnal feelings abound, such as the touch of clothing against the skin (most of the time), while neutral non-carnal feeling includes the equanimity of the mind in meditation.
All of these forms of vedanā pervade a normal human life. Learning to distinguish them helps our practice because the sensual ones carry the potential to feed greed, hatred, and delusion when not seen with mindfulness. That is, a scrumptious piece of chocolate strengthens the quality of greed in the mind when it is delighted in without awareness. But interestingly, genuine generosity does not strengthen greed despite being highly pleasant. We can learn to treat sensual feeling tones with care such that they do not harm the heart, and to cultivate the qualities that bring non-sensual feeling.
As we get familiar with feeling tone in all forms, we will be able to tolerate more experiences without getting “pushed” by the tendency to seek the pleasant and avoid the unpleasant. We can sit through knee pain without getting wrapped up in fear or aversion. We can enjoy a lively conversation without falling into habitual speech patterns. We can eat just one cookie. As we gain more choice in our responses, it is natural to incline toward the ease and lightness of ethical mindstates, choosing the wholesome instead of the pleasant. This is a major shift in practice.
The key to working with vedanā is noticing its inconstancy or impermanence (anicca). Feeling tone changes from moment to moment, flickering across the pleasant-unpleasant spectrum with little control on our part. It even changes relative to the same object depending on other conditions present: The first piece of pie is pleasant, but the third piece in rapid succession is getting quite unpleasant. Or consider that activities you found boring as a child are now interesting as an adult. Clearly, feeing tone is in the mind, not the object, and it depends on many conditions.
We can also notice that changes in feeling tone carry a feeling tone. The ending of something pleasant is experienced as unpleasant, and vice versa. (Showing again that an “ending” is not inherently pleasant or unpleasant, but its vedanā depends on concurrent conditions). Neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant feeling might seem like the constant backdrop on which other feeling tones occur, but the Buddha encourages us to look more carefully and to notice that even neutral feeling is inconstant (SN 36.5).
What is impermanent is unreliable as a source of happiness. We will not be able to arrange our life to have only pleasant feeling tone and keep it that way. Even the Buddha reported having severe back pain as he got older. We will need to look elsewhere for lasting contentment. Because the strategy of trying to gain the pleasant and banish the unpleasant runs deep in the heart, it can take a while to fully accept that our lifelong strategy will not work.
Please contemplate this. The Buddha’s chief discipline Sāriputta awakened while contemplating feeling tone. But note also that the Buddha's followers were referred to as "the happy ones." Do you know the happiness that does not rely on pleasant feeling tone?
Because feeling tone is present in all experiences, it plays a role in the deeper development of the mind also. Even when the mind is very stable and subtle, such as during jhāna, there is feeling tone, at first pleasant and then becoming neutral. It is said that when the mind becomes refined in meditation, neutral is more pleasant than pleasant. This is seen to be true in experience. (But recalling that all feeling tone is anicca, we cannot even aim to have only neutral feeling).
Nibbāna is the cessation of feeling tone (and also perception). Once it has been touched, this radically different reference point helps the mind relate more skillfully to the ongoing feeling tones it continues to encounter.
Perhaps you are inspired to look at vedanā more carefully. So simple, so subtle, so powerful.
Part 2 in a 2-part series on vedanā
In the first essay on feeling tone (vedanā), it was noted that this simple quality packs tremendous power for our practice and also offers more subtlety than might be expected. Let’s continue delving into the world of feeling tone – the aspect of experience that is pleasant, unpleasant, or neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant.
As we contemplate feeling tone with mindfulness, we discover that within a category of feeling tone, some experiences are “sensual,” pertaining to the five physical senses, while others are “spiritual,” pertaining to the heart or mind. “Sensual” (sāmisa, which relates to the word for “bait”) could also be translated as “of the flesh” or “carnal.” In the case of pleasant vedanā, it includes such experiences as a beautiful sunset or a delicious meal. “Spiritual” (nirāmisa; also “non-sensual” or “not-of-the-flesh”) pleasant feeling encompasses mettā (goodwill), generosity, concentration, and other non-material experiences.
The same distinction holds with painful and neutral feeling tone. Unpleasant sensual experiences are easily understood in physical pain, grating sounds, and repulsive tastes. Unpleasant non-sensual feelings include the healthy distress of having acted unethically and the acute longing for Awakening that can accompany some stages of the path. Neutral carnal feelings abound, such as the touch of clothing against the skin (most of the time), while neutral non-carnal feeling includes the equanimity of the mind in meditation.
All of these forms of vedanā pervade a normal human life. Learning to distinguish them helps our practice because the sensual ones carry the potential to feed greed, hatred, and delusion when not seen with mindfulness. That is, a scrumptious piece of chocolate strengthens the quality of greed in the mind when it is delighted in without awareness. But interestingly, genuine generosity does not strengthen greed despite being highly pleasant. We can learn to treat sensual feeling tones with care such that they do not harm the heart, and to cultivate the qualities that bring non-sensual feeling.
As we get familiar with feeling tone in all forms, we will be able to tolerate more experiences without getting “pushed” by the tendency to seek the pleasant and avoid the unpleasant. We can sit through knee pain without getting wrapped up in fear or aversion. We can enjoy a lively conversation without falling into habitual speech patterns. We can eat just one cookie. As we gain more choice in our responses, it is natural to incline toward the ease and lightness of ethical mindstates, choosing the wholesome instead of the pleasant. This is a major shift in practice.
The key to working with vedanā is noticing its inconstancy or impermanence (anicca). Feeling tone changes from moment to moment, flickering across the pleasant-unpleasant spectrum with little control on our part. It even changes relative to the same object depending on other conditions present: The first piece of pie is pleasant, but the third piece in rapid succession is getting quite unpleasant. Or consider that activities you found boring as a child are now interesting as an adult. Clearly, feeing tone is in the mind, not the object, and it depends on many conditions.
We can also notice that changes in feeling tone carry a feeling tone. The ending of something pleasant is experienced as unpleasant, and vice versa. (Showing again that an “ending” is not inherently pleasant or unpleasant, but its vedanā depends on concurrent conditions). Neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant feeling might seem like the constant backdrop on which other feeling tones occur, but the Buddha encourages us to look more carefully and to notice that even neutral feeling is inconstant (SN 36.5).
What is impermanent is unreliable as a source of happiness. We will not be able to arrange our life to have only pleasant feeling tone and keep it that way. Even the Buddha reported having severe back pain as he got older. We will need to look elsewhere for lasting contentment. Because the strategy of trying to gain the pleasant and banish the unpleasant runs deep in the heart, it can take a while to fully accept that our lifelong strategy will not work.
Please contemplate this. The Buddha’s chief discipline Sāriputta awakened while contemplating feeling tone. But note also that the Buddha's followers were referred to as "the happy ones." Do you know the happiness that does not rely on pleasant feeling tone?
Because feeling tone is present in all experiences, it plays a role in the deeper development of the mind also. Even when the mind is very stable and subtle, such as during jhāna, there is feeling tone, at first pleasant and then becoming neutral. It is said that when the mind becomes refined in meditation, neutral is more pleasant than pleasant. This is seen to be true in experience. (But recalling that all feeling tone is anicca, we cannot even aim to have only neutral feeling).
Nibbāna is the cessation of feeling tone (and also perception). Once it has been touched, this radically different reference point helps the mind relate more skillfully to the ongoing feeling tones it continues to encounter.
Perhaps you are inspired to look at vedanā more carefully. So simple, so subtle, so powerful.
