Dhamma Q&A with Buddhadāsa and monks from Wat Pah Nanachat
Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives C00801
“Some people explain that the kind of tendencies for when we build up defilement or defiled tendencies, that somehow this is connected with the body. Maybe we kind of store them in different parts of the body, or that there is some connection. And then at times these arise as vedanā, as feelings, and then if one is mindful of them, you can kind of come to terms with the vedanā and the supposed underlying defiled causes. But if you don’t, aren’t mindful of it, then you just get caught up in the thing over and over again. Is this Buddha’s thinking or not?”
~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~
When we come to investigate the feelings, or the vedanā, we must investigate them in two aspects. The first aspect as hetu, or cause, the other aspect as phala, or result. So we have to look at them in both ways. Vedanā as cause, the causal aspect of them, are the vedanā that arise from the āyatana, when the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind are stimulated by forms, sounds, odors, tastes, touches, and mental objects, then there arises sense consciousness and contact. Dependent on contact arises the vedanā. These are the vedanā that are arising all the time, arising constantly in our lives. There’s just vedanā after vedanā, endlessly. We must manage this aspect of vedanā with mindfulness and wisdom. Instead of just letting them happen and getting caught up in them, we need to mindfully and wisely understand how they naturally arise and then not get caught up in them. This is the first aspect of vedanā.
The second aspect of vedanā is vedanā as the cause of all actions. All the actions that human beings do can be traced to the vedanā. All karma can be traced to the vedanā, because the vedanā give rise to dhamma-taṇhā, sensual desire, or desire for sensuality and sex, bhava-taṇhā, desire to be and become, and vibhava-taṇhā, the desire or craving to not exist, to destroy, to annihilate. These different kinds of cravings come from vedanā, and then are the source of all karma, of all actions. So all the things people are doing, all the things they are saying, are caused by the vedanā. We can say that this kind of vedanā now dominates the world, or rules the world. It’s the vedanā that rule our worlds because all the things we’re doing arise out of, or are caused, stimulated by the vedanā. So there’re these two aspects of vedanā, both as cause and as result.
When the vedanā happen, and there’s not sufficient mindfulness and wisdom, then sukha-vedanā, pleasant feelings, give rise to rāgânusaya, the tendency towards rāga or lust, and then unpleasant feelings, dukkha-vedanā give rise to paṭighânusaya, the tendency towards ill-will and aversion, and then adukkham-asukhā, the vedanā which are neither positive nor negative, pleasant nor unpleasant. These give rise to avijjānusaya, the tendency towards ignorance, towards not knowing and misunderstanding. So the different vedanā, if they’re not properly understood and managed, then help to build up these tendencies towards defilement, which then further make it easier for more defilements to arise.
(Translator note: I was a bit confused in my translation. Vedanā, when you look at it in terms of its causes, then vedanā arises from contact. So not vedanā as the cause, but the causes of vedanā come from sense activity and contact. When you look at vedanā in terms of its results, then the result or fruit of vedanā is taṇhā or craving, which leads to all our actions.)
One sentence captures the essence of the vedanā: All of life – the entire universe of life – is under the power of the vedanā. All life without exception is under the power of the vedanā. Once the vedanā arise, then the mind starts seeking and searching for these vedanā. The mind begins to search and scramble after the vedanā. This is the meaning of taṇhā or craving. Once the mind starts seeking and searching for vedanā, scrambling after the vedanā, this is taṇhā, which then leads to all of our actions. In fact it’s more or less the same thing, but we have two names for it. First there’s just the vedanā, and then there’s the mind scrambling and searching and seeking after the vedanā. In reality it’s pretty much the same thing, but we can give different names to emphasize the two sides of it. The important thing to notice is how once vedanā arise, the mind begins to scramble and search after them. So we can say that the vedanā carry all beings along. The vedanā are leading the lives of all sentient creatures. So once the vedanā arise, life begins to move according to the direction of the vedanā.
All the movements and actions of human beings are dominated by the vedanā. These attempts to explore the solar system – the trips to the moon and the planets and all these things – sending all this technology out into space is solely for the sake of the vedanā. Even when we ordain as monks, we ordain in order to get certain kinds of vedanā. We hope that by being monks we’ll get the kind of vedanā that we want, that we appreciate, that satisfy us. All aspects of life are moving after the vedanā, are set in motion by the vedanā.
You ought to be very careful to get to know these very dangerous things, the vedanā. People do good or make merit because of the vedanā. They do bad, they do evil things, because of the vedanā. And people do things which are neither good nor bad, meritorious or sinful, because of the vedanā. Whether it’s considered good or merit, whether it’s bad or evil, or whether it’s neither one or the other, it just depends on the vedanā that people are feeling.
Children go to school because of a certain kind of vedanā that they dream of, that they desire. And then graduating from school, a person works in order to get a certain kind of vedanā that they desire or seek. People get married in hope of certain vedanā. People then run their houses, their homes, take care of them, in order to get a certain kind of vedanā. All stages of life are dominated by the vedanā. The life of the puthujjana, the ordinary thick one, is just dominated by the vedanā like this. But the Noble Ones, the ariya, the phra ariya jao, have gotten control of the vedanā. They’ve seen through the vedanā, and the vedanā can no longer dominate them. They in a sense conquer the vedanā by practicing vedanānupassanā, the satipaṭṭhāna, the Foundation of Mindfulness, which is contemplation of the vedanā. Through contemplating these positive and negative feelings deeply, then one gets free of their power. If one totally conquers the vedanā, then there is Nibbāna. When the vedanā have no more power to dominate and concoct the mind, then there is Nibbāna.
As we’ve said, the vedanā rule every form of life. Plants seek a certain kind of vedanā, and the animals, like the dogs, seek vedanā as well. Human beings are spending their whole lives chasing after vedanā. And even the devas – the celestial beings, if they exist – they desire, they seek the vedanā. On all levels of life, the mind on that particular level is dominated and ruled by the vedanā. If we just carry on in the normal way, then we end up slaves to the vedanā. But by conquering the vedanā, one is freed. One only can find freedom by conquering these vedanā.
You’ve all probably heard these things before, but don’t yet understand them, that vedanā is the condition for taṇhā, craving. And taṇhā is the condition for upādāna, attachment. And then because of attachment there is dukkha. If we can conquer feeling, conquer vedanā, then at the same time we conquer craving, attachment, and dukkha. So if we understand this and then can practice it, then we can free ourselves from all dukkha by conquering the vedanā.
Vedanā is the cause of selfishness. Vedanā concocts attachment, ego, and selfishness, and then this selfishness is the cause of all kinds of problems for others and for ourselves. As soon as selfishness arises in the mind we behave in all kinds of harmful ways, harming not only others but ourselves as well. And all of this destructiveness and harmfulness is caused by the vedanā. The crimes in our world – the wars, the rape, the lies, the deceit, the corruption, the pollution, the destruction of the forests and environments – all of this is because of selfishness, which happens because we’re ignorant. The vedanā arise and we don’t understand them, so we behave very stupidly because of this lack of true understanding of the vedanā.
Positive vedanā give rise to certain kinds of selfishness, and then negative vedanā give rise to other kinds of selfishness. For example, certain kinds of feelings cause men and women to love each other, husbands and wives love each other, but because of other vedanā then we have husbands and wives beating each other up, and even killing each other. Because of the vedanā parents love their children and children love their parents, but we also have children who kill their parents because of selfishness, which comes from not understanding the vedanā. Because we’re ignorant of the vedanā, all these forms of selfishness can occur and then in turn cause all the problems in this world.
The vedanā can make us friends and the vedanā can make us enemies. Please get to understand these vedanā very carefully. So this is vedanā in terms of its causes and its results.
(From Dhamma Questions and Answers with Buddhadāsa and monks from Wat Pah Nanachat as translated from the Thai by Santikaro)
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Dhamma Questions & Responses sessions were offered by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu in 1990-1991 to foreign meditators attending Suan Mokkh International Dharma Hermitage courses.
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