‘MINDFULNESS OF THE FEELINGS’

“A disciple of the Buddha, mindful,

clearly comprehending, with his mind collected,

he knows the feelings and their origin,

knows whereby they cease and knows the path

that to the ending of feelings lead.

And when the end of feelings he has reached,

such a monk, his thirsting quenched, attains Nibbana." [i]

Mindfulness of feelings is one of the four foundations of mindfulness in Buddhist practice. Its importance lies in its capacity to awaken practitioners to the true nature of feelings and hence the nature of reality thereby enhancing one’s capacity to side-step the chain of dependent origination and seek freedom in the deathless peace of Nirvana.

Mindfulness is a key foundational Buddhist practice (and one of the aspects of the noble eightfold path) which leads to deeper meditative states of concentration or insight. The Buddha says that the four foundations are a means to “purifying beings, overcoming sorrow and distress, eliminating pain and sadness, attaining the right path, and realising nirvana”. [ii] The four foundations of Mindfulness as given in the Sa††ipatthåna Sutta are the body, feelings (vedanå), mental states (citta) and mental objects (dhamma). Therein it states that there are three types of feelings: “pleasant feelings, painful feelings, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant feelings." [iii]

The practice of mindfulness of the feelings (vedanå-sati) is usually preceded by mindfulness of body or breath (ånåpåna-sati). Practicing mindfulness of feelings involves observing the different sensations that arise in the body in a detached manner. In Theravåda Buddhism particularly, this awareness is accompanied by a practice of mentally naming sensations as they arise. For example during seated meditation the practitioner may experience stiffness and he/she is to note, “stiff, stiff”, or “uncomfortable, uncomfortable”. Rather than attempting to avoid the unpleasant sensation by moving, the practitioner is encouraged to remain aware, but continually noting the experience even as it increases in intensity. It is said that if one proceeds patiently with this form of contemplation, the unpleasant feelings will pass away.

In Mahåyåna Buddhism the focus is slightly different. In the Ratnay´ca Sy´tra Íåntideva [iv] advises that when a practitioner practices mindfulness of feelings he braces himself to achieve the cessation of feelings in all beings, rather than just himself. When he conceives a feeling he generates great compassion for all those beings who are attached to feelings; be they pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Whatever feeling he experiences, “he recognises it as transient, as unsatisfactory, as devoid of self.” [v]

The importance of vedanå-sati is that it enables us to perceive the true nature of feelings, i.e., transient, unsatisfactory and devoid of self. The practice increasingly renders groundless our attachment to feelings as our “own”, as the very notion of  an ‘I’ is seen purely as a composite of various phenomena (skhandhas) with no independent inherent existence of its own. We begin to see feelings as a physical body interacting with consciousness, an aggregate of the four elements, (mahabhutas) subject to physical laws of causality on the one hand, and on the other, a flux of successive phases of consciousness arising and passing away in response to external stimuli.

In Buddhist psychology, "feeling" (vedana) should not be confused with emotion which, though arising from the basic feeling, adds to it likes or dislikes of varying intensity, as well as other thought processes. Feeling is said to arise whenever there is the meeting of three factors, sense-organ, object and consciousness. [vi] In the formula of the Dependent Origination (paticca-samuppada), this is expressed by the link: "sense-impression conditions feeling" (phassa-paccaya vedana). When emotions follow, they do so in accordance with the next link of Dependent Origination: "feeling conditions craving" (vedana-paccaya tanha). If the point at which feelings arise and cease is repeatedly seen with clarity, it becomes increasing easier to cease the cause of their production. In this way the ever-revolving round of Dependent Origination (paticca-samuppada) can be stopped at the point of feeling, and then there is no inherent necessity that feeling is followed by craving. It is here that we can encounter feeling as a key factor on the path of liberation, and therefore, the mindfulness of feelings has, in Buddhist tradition, always been highly regarded as an effective aid on that path. [vii]

Certainly the observation and consequent detachment from arising sensations will ultimately starve them of their existence; however there are more direct and effective methods within Tantric traditions (such as the Tibetan practice of chod which literally means to cut off) which work to eradicate the tendency to produce feelings from their very roots. This a much more dynamic and hence effective practice, yet one requiring several years of specialised training.

Thus it can be seen that mindfulness of feelings as one of the four foundations of mindfulness is a highly useful practice in producing a sense of detachment in the practitioners as well as increasing one’s capacity to view the true nature of the self and related phenomena.

REFERENCES:

PRIMARY:

Íåntideva, Ratnay´ca Sy´tra taken from “Self-Protection through Mindfulness”, Bucknell R. & Kang C. (Ed), The Meditative Way, (Richmond, Curzon Press, 1997).

Sa††ipatthåna Sutta taken from Bucknell R. & Kang C (Ed), The Meditative Way, (Richmond, Curzon Press, 1997).

Vedana-Samyutta, Nyanaponika Thera, (trans), (Sri Lanka, Buddhist Publication Society, 1983), www.accesstoinsight.org Retrieved: 11/11/04.