2021-07-05-Vedanā (1 of 5) Introduction to Feeling Tones

Insight Meditation Center15min

Gil Fronsdal

00:02

On this Monday, we have a new topic for the week. In some ways it is a continuation from a couple of weeks ago when we did the first foundation of mindfulness – mindfulness of the body. This week, I would like to talk about the second foundation of mindfulness, feelings, in the usual English translation – feeling tones. The Pali word is vedanā, and it is sometimes thought to be one of the central practice topics for the teachings of the Buddha. It is phenomenally important. It is like the linchpin or the foundation for so much of the Buddha Dharma or for practice. So it is a very important topic and gets a whole foundation to itself.

Gil Fronsdal

01:21

Now the word in Pali is vedanā. It is, I believe, a cognate, related – in the way Indo- European languages relate to each other – to the English word "witness." Or it could be related to wit – someone who is clever. They have wit. And in Norwegian, the word "vite," probably similar, means "to know." The Pali version is "vid." The root word is "vid," which means "to know," or it could also mean, in Pali, "to experience."

Gil Fronsdal

02:09

So vedanā refers to what is known, what is experienced, what is felt. But felt as sensations, as feelings. We are focusing here on sensations in the body. So on sensations that are known, and that are felt. Exactly where the line is – between knowing something and feeling sensations – is not very clear, because these arise together and are closely connected. But we are talking about a way of knowing. As a way of knowing, it is a subjective way of knowing. It is what we know subjectively.

Gil Fronsdal

02:58

I want to give an analogy that can highlight (or point out) the way in which this is so important. Maybe you are responsible for a workplace, maybe a factory, maybe a warehouse, maybe a corporate building – someplace where many people come to work. Many visitors come to this place as well. People come from all over the world. And it is covid times. So you want to make sure that you keep people at your workplace healthy.

Gil Fronsdal

03:40

People are coming from all over. They are flying in and, there is no way of controlling who shows up. How are you going to keep your employees – people working with you – safe? Then you realize that the only way into the workplace is through the front door. No matter where everyone is coming from, everyone has to go through that front door.

Gil Fronsdal

04:12

So what you need to do is set up a welcoming station where you take people's temperature, give them a covid test, whatever it takes in order to make sure that they are safe to come into the building. If they are safe, then you allow them in. If they are not safe, then they cannot come in. That way you keep all the people covid-safe in your building.

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