feeling, 11 Definition(s)

A mental factor that functions to experience pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral objects. See Understanding the Mind.

F Sensation (Pleasing, displeasing or neutral).

One of the Sabbacittasadharana cetasikas.

Feeling;

Vedana is feeling. It feels the object. Due to its arising citta has a feeling. There are three kinds of feeling according to anubhavana bheda or class of feeling. They are sukha or pleasant feeling that is agreeable feeling, dukkha or unpleasant feeling or disagreeable feeling, and adukkhamasukha or neither pleasant nor unpleasant feeling. It is known as upekkha vedana. According to indriya bheda or faculty of feeling, there are five feeling. They are physical pleasant feeling or sukha, mental pleasant feeling or somanassa, physical unpleasant feeling or dukkha, mental unpleasant feeling or domanassa and neither pleasant nor unpleasant feeling or upekkha.

Feeling, in Pali vedana, is another cetasika among the seven universals. Feeling accompanies every citta, there is no moment without feeling.

When we study the Abhidhamma we learn that vedana is not the same as what we mean by feeling in conventional language. Feeling is nama, it experiences something. Feeling never arises alone; it accompanies citta and other cetasikas and it is conditioned by them. Thus, feeling is a conditioned nama. Citta does not feel, it cognizes the object and vedana feels.

Feeling is a cetasika which accompanies each citta. When there is pleasant feeling, it can accompany kusala citta or akusala citta rooted in attachment, but its quality is different in each case.

Vedana is One of the Seven Universals.

vedanā; further s. khandha. - Contemplation of f.: vedanānupassanā; s. satipatthāna.

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'feeling', sensation, is the 2nd of the 5 groups of existence (s. khandha II).

According to its nature, it may be divided into 5 classes:

• (1) bodily agreeable feeling (kāyikā sukhā-vedanā = sukha);

• (2) bodily disagreeable feeling (kāyikā dukkhā-vedanā = dukkhā);

• (3) mentally agreeable feeling (cetasikā sukhā-vedanā = somanassa);

• (4) mentally disagreeable feeling (cetasikā dukkhā-vedanā = domanassa);

• (5) indifferent or neutral (adukkha-m-asukhā vedanā = upekkhā, q.v.).

With regard to the 6 senses, one distinguishes 6 kinds of feeling: feeling associated with seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, bodily impression and mental impression. The textual wording of it is 'feeling arisen through visual contact' (cakkhu-samphassajā vedanā; S. XXII, 55; D. 22), etc.

Feeling is one of the 7 mental factors inseparably associated with all consciousness whatever, s. nāma.

In the formula of the dependent origination (paticcasamuppāda, q.v.), feeling is the condition for the arising of craving (tanhā).

The above-mentioned 5 kinds of feeling are enumerated amongst the 22 faculties (indriya, q.v.). -

See M.59; Contemplation of Feeling (Vedanā Samyutta), by Nyanaponika Thera (WHEEL 303/304).

Vedana is a term of very general import, meaning sentience or reaction, bodily or mental, on contact or im- pression. Sensation is scarcely so loyal a rendering as feeling, for though vedana is often qualified as "born of the contact" in sense-activity, it is always defined generally as consisting of the three species —

1. pleasure (happiness),
2. pain (ill),
3. and neutral feeling

— a hedonistic aspect to which the term 'feeling' is alone adequate. Moreover, it covers representative feeling.

This general psychical aspect of vedana, as distinct from sensations localized bodily — e.g., toothache — is probably emphasized by the term "mental" (cetasikam) in the answer. The Cy. points out that by this expression ( = cittanissitattam) "bodily pleasure is eliminated" (Asl. 139).