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Dharmette: Feeling Tone (Vedana), the 2nd Foundation of Mindfulness

Welcome to yourself. Welcome to this moment of being present, being human, and being alive.

The topic of this week is vedanā^[1], translated as feeling tone, valence, or hedonic tone. It is a very important teaching in Buddhism, and I would say that it is a very perceptive teaching about how being human operates, how our perceptions operate, and how being in the world operates. There is so much to discuss about it, so I am delighted to be sharing the next five days exploring this.

The Four Foundations of Mindfulness

Let me start by saying that in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness teachings in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta^[2]—translated as the four establishments of mindfulness—this is a very basic and one of the most important teachings. It's where many of the instructions are pulled out of.

The first foundation is the body. There are six different ways in the Satipaṭṭhāna to explore the body: breathing, posture, activities, etc. The second foundation of mindfulness is vedanā. The third one being mind: ordinary states of mind, higher states of mind. And the fourth one being dhammas^[3], or mental objects, translated as hindrances, aggregates, sense spheres, awakening factors, and noble truths. There is a lot in that last one.

But vedanā, feeling tone, this seemingly simple teaching, is the shortest foundation. If you read the whole sutta, this section is the shortest. It seemingly is the most simple, and yet it is profound. It's so profound that it has its own foundation. It hasn't been tucked in with the body or the mind or with the other foundations. It has a whole foundation all to itself. It's that important.

In the Ānāpānasati Saṃyutta^[4], the Buddha compares the four satipaṭṭhānas, the four foundations, to four chariots coming from four directions, each scattering a heap of dust at the intersection. You can think of the heap of dust at the intersection as the delusions—greed, hatred, and delusion. Each of these four foundations, if you ride them alone, will take you all the way to awakening. And yet, even though each is effective on its own, together they're most effective. Practicing all of them together is why, for example, we don't just practice mindfulness of the body and breathing; we also practice mindfulness of mind and being aware of aggregates, hindrances, etc., as many of you have been covering with Gil^[5] over the weeks.

So vedanā, feeling tone, is also a very important one. Practicing it alone can take you all the way, and practicing together with others especially. Today we'll spend time with this one as an introduction. Just to share with you how it shows up in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, reading from the translation by Bhikkhu Anālayo^[6]:

"And how, practitioners, does one in regard to feeling tone abide contemplating feeling tone?"

I'm changing some words because the word used here is "feelings," but vedanā doesn't exactly mean feelings. For us, the word feelings is a little overloaded. We confuse it with emotions; it's too complicated. We think feelings, you know, break into song. Whereas feeling tone is so basic: pleasant, unpleasant, neither pleasant nor unpleasant. It's very, very simple; it's a foundational teaching.

Actually, I'll use the word vedanā, if that's okay with you, because the word itself really captures it. Whereas feelings, hedonic tone, or valence, they come around it. But the definition is the perception of pleasant, unpleasant, neither pleasant nor unpleasant, or neutral, as we call it. To read this paragraph from the first satipaṭṭhāna:

"And how, practitioners, does one in regard to vedanā abide contemplating vedanā? Here, when feeling a pleasant vedanā, one knows, 'I feel a pleasant vedanā.' When feeling an unpleasant vedanā, one knows, 'I feel an unpleasant vedanā.' When feeling a neutral vedanā, one knows, 'I feel a neutral vedanā.'"

This feeling tone, vedanā, again, is not emotions. It's not feelings. It's so much simpler. It's just this valence associated with every moment of perception. Every moment of perception has feeling tone associated with it. It's actually quite profound.

When you start practicing with this, and when your mind becomes used to noticing it throughout the day, you'll notice how everything that shows up in your sphere of experience is perceived either as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. In fact, if we're not really trained, we don't even notice the pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. We're all the way into reactivity: "I don't like it, make it go away," or "I want more of this." We never notice the beginnings. We never notice that subtle pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral that the mind perceived the object to be.

When I talk about objects, it's sensation. So just as you're sitting, whatever sensation shows up—maybe it's the breath, maybe it's the sensation of your bottom on the chair or the cushion—just pause for a moment. Pleasant, unpleasant, or neither? Just becoming aware.

Biology, Complexity, and Perception

As a basic building block of experience, there's even something similar in single-celled organisms, where all they do is notice and move towards or move away from external stimuli. Single-celled organisms have this basic, "Oh, pleasant, moving towards. Oh, unpleasant, moving away from." Except that for us human beings, we're so much more complicated. It's not just about survival and noticing pleasant and unpleasant, there are so many associations. Really, our perspective, as you will see in your own exploration, shapes how we perceive something to be pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral.

As I trust you will notice this week, vedanā, this feeling tone, is not inherent in the object. It's not that a particular sound is pleasant or unpleasant; my perception makes it so.

Worldly and Unworldly Vedanā

There are two different types of vedanā mentioned in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. It is translated differently by different translators. Bhikkhu Bodhi^[7] translates it as worldly and unworldly. Basically, there are three worldly and three unworldly.

The worldly is also translated by other translators—actually Gil likes to translate it as "of the flesh." It's what you sense physically in your experience: sounds are pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Or thoughts, especially thoughts; notice thoughts are pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. So that's the worldly, or of the flesh, or what I prefer is "hedonic."

And then there is the unworldly, with Bodhi's translation, or "not of the flesh," with Gil's translation. How I like to relate to it is "eudaimonic." Eudaimonic relates to these internal states. When you sit and you practice, these are born from within, born of the mind, not of the experiences. When you're sitting in meditation and there's a sense of delight or calm arises—oh, pleasant vedanā. That is the category of unworldly, not of the flesh, eudaimonic. It's what arises in meditation.

The question always comes up, "Okay, there's plenty of pleasant in meditation, what's the unpleasant?" The sutta says that has to do with wanting to practice but not being able to, not having the circumstances. That's the frustrated desire for practice that can give rise to unpleasant unworldly, or eudaimonic, vedanā. I think there's more there, but I'll just leave it at that. I don't want to go into overtime.

The Invitation for Today

My invitation for today is to notice vedanā. Again, do not make it forceful, but as you're going through your day and you are thinking about something... what's the valence of it? Is it pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral? "Oh, unpleasant. Wow, no wonder why I'm feeling so tired." You can start to see all these valences, all these feeling tones everywhere in your field of experience. You'll start to notice more and more things about it today.

So that's the invitation. Again, do not go out and look for it, but just be curious about it as it comes to you, to notice that every experience has vedanā affiliated with it. It's astounding when you start to see it. It's both fun and wild and eye-opening.

If you start to notice things that you've never noticed before, and if you'd like to share them, you're welcome to share them. You can send me an email through my website, which is nikkimirghafori.com^[8]. On the contact page, you can send me an email if you wish to share your observations today. Tomorrow I will share a handful with the sangha^[9] because the chat is a little unwieldy for me to keep track of in real-time. If an observation comes up for you that you'd like to share with the sangha today, like, "Wow, I didn't notice that," that would be lovely.

Let's practice together. I so look forward to spending this week together, dear ones. Blessings to all of you. Wishing you freedom, goodness, and ease. Take good care.