Entering Mindfulness of Feelings

Liberation through Feelings.

These are notes from Chapter 11 in Joseph Goldstein’s book, “Mindfulness.”

The purpose of these teaching is freeing the mind from suffering.

It is about liberation

not just:

These might be helpful

But this exploration is about the larger questions of birth, aging, disease, and death

And how we can be free in this great cyclical wheel of existence.

The Buddha begins this section with:

“And how, Bhikkhus, does one in regard to feelings, abide contemplating feelings?”

what is meant by the word feelings which is the English translation of the Pali word vedana?

14 different meanings of feelings in the Webster dictionary.

In Buddhism, feelings is more narrowly defined with a specific meaning

Mindfulness of feeling is one of the master keys that both reveals and unlocks the deepest patterns of our conditioning.

Vedana specifically refers to

With the content of each moment’s experience

            These feelings are both physical and mental phenomena

Feelings and conditioned response

Feelings is used in

Because feelings condition our various responses in the mind and actions in the world.

If we are not mindful:

Pleasant feelings habitually condition desire and clinging

Unpleasant feelings condition dislike and aversion

Neutral feelings condition delusion

            That is, not really knowing what is going on

These same feelings are the vehicle to our freedom.

A trained and untrained mind

Usually in an untrained mind:

We need to be mindful of the original feeling tone.

Many of our actions throughout the day come from trying to avoid negative feelings.

In later chapters we will explore the teaching of the enjoyment of sense pleasure

For now, let’s just say, sense pleasures are transient, they are not a refuge from suffering.

The Buddha:

“Being contacted by that same painful feeling, one harbors no aversion to it…

Being contacted by painful feeling, one does not seek delight in sensual pleasure…

If one feels a pleasant feeling, one feels it detached.

If one feels a painful feeling, one feels it detached.

If one feels a neither-painful-nor pleasant feeling, one feels it detached.

This, bhikkhus, is called a noble disciple who is detached from birth, ageing and death; who is detached from sorrow, pain, displeasure and despair, who is detached from suffering.

This, bhikkhus, is the distinction, the disparity, the difference between the instructed noble disciple and the uninstructed worldling.”

Desirable things do not provoke one’s mind,

Towards the undesired one has no aversion.

There is a difference with

            Just staying with the first dart and feeling it

And then, noticing the distraction and exaggeration that happens with our reactions to the first dart,  we get lost in our reactions.

The difference between the initial unpleasant sensations, and being lost in reactivity, starts to become clear.

Why does our mind cling to the reactivity of patterns of fear and hope.

            Fear that the painful feelings would go on forever

            And hope that they would finally go away.

Why doesn’t the mind just naturally rest in the ease of mindful awareness?

Why don’t we just come back to the sensations of the present moment?

It is possible to retrain the mind

We can see the power and depth of our habituated responses.

It is possible to make an end to suffering by abandoning these tendencies.

Moment-to-moment awareness of feelings.

We may say, How could this be possible, abandoning clinging to desire and aversion?

Buddha says, this is something we can do and that we do it in the moment.

In the moment we say,

When feeling a pleasant feeling, one knows, “I feel a pleasant feeling.”

When feeling an unpleasant feeling, one knows, “I feel an unpleasant feeling.”

When feeling a neutreal feeling, one knows, “I feel a neutral feeling.”

It is a simple, direct, and clear recognition of the feeling aspect of experience.

We don’t need to analyze, judge, compare, or even particularly to understand why these feelings are happening,.

Its simply to know that

This is a mindfulness practice. 

Just noting pleasant, unpleasant, neutral.

Seeing the transient nature of feelings.

Or the practice of:

            I like this, I don’t like this

            Noticing the feelings that preceded these judgments

Seeing the changing nature of feelings

From noticing the quickly changing nature of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral

We can have more direct insight into their impermanent nature

Through seeing how transient the feelings are, changing all the time

We can become less identified with them

            Less attached, less fearful

From Buddha:

Just as many diverse winds

Blow back and forth across the sky,

Easterly winds and westerly winds,

Northerly winds and southerly winds,

Dusty winds and dustless winds,

Sometimes cold, sometimes hot,

Those that are strong and others mild-

Winds of many kinds that blow;

So in the very body here,

Various kinds of feelings arise,

Pleasant ones and painful ones,

And those neither painful nor pleasant.

But when a bhikkhu who is ardent

Does not neglect clear comprehension,

Then that wise one fully understands

Feelings in their entirety.

Having fully understood feelings,

One is taintless in this very life.

Standing in dhamma, with the body’s breakup,

The knowledge-master cannot be reckoned.

Training the mind

Training the mind in observation of different feelings and in non-reactivity

Can we train our minds for dying which can be uncomfortable and unpleasant?  We can learn to be at peace or ease even with uncomfortable feelings.

It is not the objects in our life that are MAKING us annoyed.

Its our reactions to the objects that we can practice with.

            It is our attachment or aversion to the object that is producing our distress

            Not the object itself.

Buddha said:

“Whatever feeling one feels, whether pleasant, unpleasant or neither-painful-nor pleasant,

One abides contemplating

Contemplating thus, one does not cling to anything in this world.  When one does not cling, one is not agitated.  When one is not agitated, one personally attains Nibbana.”