Feelings (part 2)

Domanassa, unhappy feeling, arises only with cittas of the jāti which is akusala; it always arises with dosa-mūla-citta, citta rooted in aversion, and it does not arise with lobha-mū la-citta, citta rooted in attachment, nor with moha-mūla-citta, citta rooted in ignorance. When we see someone else suffer, we have compassion and want to help him. However, kusala cittas and akusala cittas arise closely one after the other. We may be sad because of someone else’s suffering and then akusala citta rooted in dosa, aversion, arises. This is accompanied by unhappy feeling. At such a moment there is no compassion, but we may not notice this. Upekkhā, indifferent feeling, is different from somanassa and from domanassa; it is neither happy nor unhappy. Upekkhā can arise with cittas of all four jātis, but it does not arise with every citta. Indifferent feeling can accompany lobha-mū la-citta.When we walk or when we get hold of different things we use in our daily life, such as a pen or a book, there is bound to be clinging even when we do not feel particularly glad. We cling to life and we want to go on living and receiving sense-impressions. Seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting which are vip ākacittas experiencing a pleasant or unpleasant object, are always accompanied by indifferent feeling. Often it is not known whether the object experienced by these cittas was pleasant or unpleasant, they fall away immediately. When a pleasant or unpleasant tangible object is experienced through the bodysense, the body-consciousness, which is vipākacitta, is not accompanied by indifferent feeling but by pleasant bodily feeling or by painful bodily feeling. The impact of tangible object on the bodysense is more intense than the impact of the other sense objects on the corresponding senses. Pleasant bodily feeling and painful bodily feeling are nāma. We can call them “bodily feeling” because they are conditioned by impact on the bodysense. When, for example, temperature which is just the right amount of heat or cold impinges on the bodysense the body-consciousness which experiences it is accompanied by pleasant bodiIy feeling. Body-consciousness is vipākacitta and in this case kusala vipākacitta. When it experiences a pleasant object, it is the result of kusala kamma, a wholesome deed, and when it experiences an unpleasant object, it is the result of akusala kamma, an unwholesome deed. We attach great importance to feeling, we let ourselves be carried away by the feelings which arise on account of pleasant or unpleasant objects we experience through the senses. The Buddha classified feeling as a separate khandha because people cling very much to feeling. We are enslaved to our feelings, but they are only realities which arise because of the appropriate conditions and do not last.