20 excerpts, 1:23:44 total duration
10. “I keep getting overwhelmed by a variety of intense and unpleasant bodily sensations. I have been trying to keep my focus on more neutral places in the body, but I still find that keeping the concentration anywhere in the body amplifies the unpleasant feelings, and I can’t settle into a place of ease.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Pain] [Mindfulness of body] [Neutral feeling] // [Aversion] [Restlessness and worry] [Fear] [Self-identity view] [Body/form] [Mindfulness of breathing] [Posture/Walking] [Chanting] [Goodwill]
Quote: “The energy we invest in it is where the suffering actually lies. In the end, a body is just a body.” [Suffering]
23. “Do neutral feelings equal equanimity?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Neutral feeling] [Equanimity] // [Divine Abidings] [Factors of Awakening]
14. “How do the Thais, and especially Buddhist practitioners, perceive the flooding disasters in Thailand? Is it just an unfortunate chain of effects due to bad weather, and that is how it is, so neutral, no feelings?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Disasters] [Culture/Thailand] [Perception] [Weather] [Neutral feeling] // [Commerce/economics] [Lodging] [Compassion]
2. “Do you have any thoughts about how to discern neutral feeling?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Neutral feeling] [Feeling] // [Delusion] [Mindfulness] [Patience] [Restlessness and worry]
Sutta: AN 7.61.
1. “Is there another place in the suttas (besides MN 44.24) where neutral feeling is pleasant when conjoined with mindfulness?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Sutta] [Neutral feeling] [Happiness] [Mindfulness]
4. “How is it that knowledge makes neutral feeling pleasant (MN 44.24)?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Neutral feeling] [Happiness]
3. “Can you talk about neither-painful-nor-pleasant feelings and the benefits of being with this boringness?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Neutral feeling ] [Mindfulness of feeling] // [Pain] [Feeling] [Unwholesome Roots]
Sutta: MN 44.25: The tendencies underlying feelings.
9. “How does one work with the vedanā and neutral sensations?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mindfulness of feeling] [Feeling] [Neutral feeling] // [Happiness] [Pain] [Unwholesome Roots] [Delusion] [Mindfulness] [Continuity of mindfulness]
21. “When it says neither pleasant nor unpleasant, is this neutral?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Neutral feeling] [Jhāna] // [Mindfulness] [Pāṭimokkha]
9. “The Buddha said that vedana is either pleasant, unpleasant, or neither. Contemplating papañca, I noticed that it felt comfortable – familiar and unthreatening. Would a better way to ‘neither pleasant nor unpleasant’ be ‘comfortable’ rather than ‘neutral?’” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Proliferation] [Neutral feeling]
1. Question about neutral feeling and awareness. Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Feeling] [Neutral feeling] [Delusion] [Mindfulness] // [Unwholesome Roots]
Sutta: MN 44.22: Discussion of the three kinds of feeling.
2. “In what ways is neutral feeling delusion?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno, Kondannyo Bhikkhu, Ajahn Jotipālo and Ajahn Kaccāna. [Neutral feeling] [Delusion] // [Proliferation] [Self-identity view]
Reference: My Stoke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor (commercial).
11. Comment: I’m improving my skill at seeing the greed or aversion when there are pleasant or unpleasant feelings, but I often don’t see the neutral feeling state so clearly. [Mindfulness of feeling] [Feeling] [Unwholesome Roots] [Neutral feeling] [Delusion] // [Mindfulness of body] [Restlessness and worry] [Fear] [Present moment awareness]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno.
Sutta: SN 35.116: “That whereby one is a conceiver of the world, a perceiver of the world, that is the world.” [Nature of the cosmos] [Proliferation] [Perception]
7. “People associate Nibbāna with a neutral state. Experiencing pīti and sukha is a pleasant state, so why should I meditate to attain this ultimate goal when it’s a state of non-feeling?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Neutral feeling] [Rapture] [Happiness] [Nibbāna] // [Middle Path]