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Bhikkhu Analayo is a German born Buddhist monk trained and ordained in Sri Lanka. In addition to being a meditation practitioner and teacher, he is one of the most influential scholars in Buddhist academia in the last few years. He published numerous articles and books about an area of study called Early Buddhism. In fact, during the few centuries following the Buddha’s death, his teaching was transmitted orally, therefore, in its journey from India to China, Sri Lanka and Tibet, Buddhist texts and practices had different lines of transmissions in different languages and interpretations, which resulted in the emergence of different schools of thought. Early Buddhism is an academic research area where these different texts are compared in order to isolate what is the common core between them, supposing that what is most common is the closest to what the Buddha really taught. As simple as it might sound, this was not possible due to the language barrier, as the texts are preserved in different ancient languages, namely Pali, Chinese and Tibetan. The contribution of Bhikkhu Analayo is that he learned all of these languages and was able to perform a cross examination of these texts, which is the concept behind all his academic research.

In the case of this small volume, he tackles the concept of feeling in Early Buddhist thought, by providing multiple essays examining Buddhist texts in Pali, and comparing them to the Chinese and Tibetan counterparts. Then he comes out with a conclusion that highlights the most essential understanding and the kind of practical training that should be followed.

Feeling, or Vedana as it is called in Pali, is pivotal in the Buddhist understanding of the human experience. According to Buddhist analysis, our experience of the world is a series of fragmented events that rises, lasts for a while then ceases, giving place to another event. It starts with a stimulus and ends up with a response. Although these events are somehow fragmented, they can be dependent on each other. The most obvious link is that of habituation, as when we react with anger towards something we are more likely to react identically to a similar stimulus. If those events are examined closely, which is one of the aims of meditation practice, what comes out is not a monolithic event, but a series of elements that constitute what we are deluded into thinking its one experience. Every event from its rise to its disappearance can be thus broken down into a chain of elements called the twelve links of depending arising that goes as follows: ignorance, volitional formations, consciousness, name and form, six sense spheres, contact, Vedana, craving, clinging, becoming, birth, aging and death.

Each one of these links is a subject of investigation on its own in the Buddhist practice, but the focus of this little volume is restricted to the link of feeling. Due to its position after contact and before craving, it is a perfect tool to investigate the nature of human experience. On occasions of bodily pain or intense pleasure, it is easy to be aware of feeling, however, there is no experience that exists on its own without feelings, the mental formations are also accompanied by feelings that we are most of the time unaware of.

The emphasis on feeling in the Buddhist texts in this volume shows that the meditation on feeling tone is an excellent tool to unlock the subjective experience, break it down and have an insight of its true nature. As a result, it enables the breaking of the ever-continuous chain of dependent arising that leads to continuous suffering and rebirth. Certain aspects of feeling are an easy target and can be practiced not only during sitting meditation but in everyday life.

Like all other aspects of human experience feelings are impermanent, but their impermanence is easy to spot, therefore, the mindfulness of their ever-changing nature from pleasant, to unpleasant and neutral is a basic yet effective exercise. Feelings can be broken down to mental feelings and bodily feelings, present feelings can be transposed to past and future feelings which occur with the same process. Moreover, when observed carefully, it is clear that feeling is conditioned to some sort of contact. This contact can be with a mental object, such as the mind coming into contact with some idea which provokes pleasure or displeasure; or a physical contact, which can be as simple as physical stimulus like cold and heat. On the other hand, feelings are the main drive for craving, as the pursuit of pleasure and aversion to displeasure is also an automatic reaction of the untrained mind. Even in the case of neutral feelings, they are perceived with an undertone of discomfort and a haste towards another stimulus that can replace them with a more pleasurable feeling.

Another interesting aspect of insight that contemplation of feeling can allow meditators, is the disengagement from feeling. We can experience feelings without completely identifying with them. Simply noting their presence and acknowledging their nature is an alternative to being completely carried away and overwhelmed by their strength. This practice aims to replace the automatic response with a much more reflected and learned one. Even if the stimulus is painful, the unwise reaction most of the time adds layers of suffering to it, which can be avoided through proper training and understanding, bringing us back to the importance of the share of self inflicted pain in the totality of the pain we really suffer due to external stimuli. Not identifying with feelings reduces the suffering which comes with the painful feelings, but also the unsatisfactoriness that comes with knowing that pleasurable feelings will change soon.

In the end, the purpose is to break the components of experience and understand how they depend on each other, therefore allowing the practitioner to stop the chain reaction that leads to continuous repetition of the same habits. This breaking apart also leads to insight into the real nature of the human experience and how if kept to itself it will lead only to perpetual bondage. Through this understanding one gains a certain degree of independence not only from the stimuli itself, but from his own way of reacting to it, progressing towards disenchantment, and letting go of all conditions which lead to suffering.