Awareness of Vedanā

~ By Ajahn Jayasāro ~

One of the most fundamental aspects of our physical experience is the presence or absence of warmth. Subjectively, we can classify this experience as feeling hot, cold or neither hot nor cold. We often pay little attention to this phenomenon, especially when we feel neither hot nor cold. Nevertheless, if at any moment we ask ourselves whether we feel hot, cold or neither, we can answer immediately.

Just as the relative warmth of our body is a physical constant, so is ‘vedanā’ a mental constant. Vedanā is usually translated as ‘feeling’ but it is best understood as the moment-to-moment feeling tone of the mind. It may also be subjected to a three-fold classification: pleasant, unpleasant and neutral.

Lack of awareness of vedanā has serious repercussions. Without mindfulness, pleasant feeling conditions greed, unpleasant feeling conditions aversion and neutral feeling conditions heedlessness and all its attendant defilements.

Just as we can ask ourselves whether we are hot, cold or neither, meditators must constantly turn to the minds’ feeling tone: right now is it pleasant, unpleasant or neutral? Only in this way can we protect the mind from craving, attachment and suffering.

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"Food for the Heart", a series of Dhamma teachings handwritten weekly is posted on the Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives page with Ajahn's kind permission.

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For other teachings by Ven. Ajahn Jayasāro, please visit the Panyaprateep Foundation website.