Feelings (part 1)

We think of ourselves as having happy feeling or unhappy feeling. We take feeling for something lasting and we take it for my feeling. In reality feeling is a cetasika accompanying each and every citta. It arises with the citta it accompanies and then it falls away immediately. Feeling experiences the same object as the citta it accompanies, but it is different from citta that is the leader in cognizing an object. Feeling experiences the object in its own way, it experiences the flavour of the object. There is no moment without feeling. Feelings are manifold and they can be classified in different ways. When there is not pleasant feeling or unpleasant feeling, there is indifferent feeling. When mental feelings and bodily feelings are taken into account, feelings can be classified as fivefold:

• pleasant bodily feeling (sukha)

• painful bodily feeling (dukkha)

• happy feeling (somanassa)

• unhappy feeling (domanassa)

• indifferent feeling (upekkhā)

Feeling is different as it accompanies cittas of the four jātis (classes) of kusala, akusala, vipāka or kiriya. Somanassa, happy feeling, can arise with cittas of all four jatis: with kusala citta, akusala citta, vipākacitta and kiriyacitta. It is important to know of which jāti feeling is, otherwise we are misled by our feelings. When we have happy feeling, we may believe that this is kusala, but most of the time it accompanies akuala citta rooted in lobha, attachment. When somanassa accompanies lobha-mūla-citta (citta rooted in attachment), somanassa is also akusala. There can be pleasant feeling when one likes a pleasant visible object, a beautiful sound, a fragrant odour, a delicious taste, a soft touch or an agreeable thought. When we enjoy delicious food with pleasant feeling, that feeling is different from pleasant feeling arising when we appreciate someone else’s kusala. In the latter case it is more refined and calm. There are many sobhana cetasikas accompanying kusala citta: calm, evenmindedness, confidence in kusala, mindfulness. They all condition the pleasant feeling that is kusala. Somanassa can accompany kusala citta, but it does not accompany each kusala citta. When we perform dāna (generosity), observe sīla ( morality) or apply ourselves to mental development, there can be somanassa or upekkhā, indifferent feeling, with the kusala citta. When we give a present to someone else with pleasant feeling, we may think that there is one kind of feeling which lasts, but in reality there are different moments of feeling accompanying different cittas. There can be a moment of pure generosity accompanied by pleasant feeling, but many moments of attachment are bound to arise after the kusala cittas have fallen away. We may be attached to the person we give to or to the thing we give, or we may expect something in return; we want to be liked by the person who receives our gift. Such moments of attachment may be accompanied by somanassa. Somanassa which is kusala and somanassa which accompanies lobha are different kinds of somanassa arising closely one after the other, and it is difficult to distinguish one from the other. It seems that there is one kind of somanassa and that it lasts. In reality there are many different moments of somanassa.