The Nature of Feeling and Three Ways to Discern Anicca (Seeing Is Believing)
At the beginning of sitting, no extraordinary feeling arises yet. There is merely the feeling of sitting comfortably. This is a pseudo-pleasant feeling, not a real one. After half an hour or an hour, the body becomes painful, with aches and discomfort. This is the arising of unpleasant feeling with a suffering nature. It is also a pseudo-unpleasant feeling.
The yogi experiences it as suffering because there is not yet discernment of rising and falling. After some time, the pain becomes unbearable. Therefore, the yogi does not focus attention on it, but instead returns attention to the nostril, focusing on the breath again. As a result, the painful feeling becomes bearable.
According to the texts, this is called domanassa-upekkhā (equanimity toward displeasure). In truth, feelings are impermanent (anicca). When one has not yet discerned their nature, they become unbearable and lead to displeasure and sadness, causing suffering of mind and body.
Therefore, the yogi sends the mind back to the nostril and practices ānāpāna again, or contemplates the rising and falling of the in-breath and out-breath. This is called pseudo-indifferent feeling (upekkhā).
After overcoming the three pseudo-feelings, the yogi will encounter the true feelings: pleasant, painful, and neither painful nor pleasant. This requires the help of a teacher; otherwise, one cannot clearly see it. Feeling never exists as a solid lump or substance. If the yogi does not see impermanence (anicca), the yogi will say, “I am not seeing it.”
To give an example, it is like nadisota-viya, a river flowing continuously. To the eye, it appears unbroken, without gaps. However, if one fixes attention on a single point, one sees the water flowing away one by one, successively. Through the connection of cause and effect, the old water passes away and new water arrives. In the same way, mind-and-form phenomena proceed so rapidly that they appear like a solid mass.
Another example is dīpajāla-viya, the flame of an oil lamp. It appears as a single, continuous flame. In reality, the flame burns moment by moment through the substitution of fuel, as the oil is consumed. In the world, apart from the Nibbāna element, there is nothing stable. Even path and fruition knowledges eventually cease.
Three Ways to Discern Impermanence (Anicca) in Feeling
There are three ways to discern impermanence in feeling:
- The Same Kind of Feeling with Different Strengths
Within one type of feeling, its strength varies—from extreme pain, to moderate pain, to slight pain. If one observes carefully and intensely, one can discern these differences in strength. This is discerning impermanence.
- The Same Kind and Strength at Different Places
This refers to the same type of feeling arising at different locations. For example, an itch arises on the face; after it disappears there, a new itch arises on the head. This, too, is discerning impermanence.
- The Same Kind and Strength at the Same Place but at Different Times
For example, an itch arises continuously on the face for some time. When the whole process is known, one sees that knowing occurs successively—itching known by one mind moment, then itching known by another mind moment, with gaps in between. This, too, is discerning impermanence.
The moments of knowing do not occur at the same time; they arise in many separate moments. It is like second by second—now arising and now passing away. They arise instantly and pass away instantly. If one does not see this through these three ways, it means one is not paying attention to them.
I will now speak about the true feelings after the pseudo-feelings.
By following and observing the arising phenomena of impermanence (anicca), one can discern many of them. At that stage, the yogi does not see feelings as solid entities, but only as transparent processes of rising and falling. When this occurs, the blood of the heart becomes clear. As it becomes bright, one of the ten corruptions of insight (vipassanūpakkilesa)—light—arises.
The body becomes light, as if shrinking into a small, bright form. The mind and body experience happiness. This is genuine happiness. Some mistake this happiness for Nibbāna, believing it to be true happiness. However, Nibbāna is not feeling (vedanā); therefore, it cannot be happiness in the ordinary sense.
[The Buddha mentioned to the brahmin Māgandiya: “Nibbānaṃ paramaṃ sukhaṃ”—Nibbāna is the supreme bliss. This must be understood in a metaphorical sense (Māgandiya Sutta, Majjhima Nikāya, Sutta No. 75).]
Do not forget the practice by indulging in this happiness. It is not true Nibbāna yet, but only a pseudo-Nibbāna. The yogi must observe the impermanence of this pleasant feeling and follow it to its end. Do not take pleasure in it. Contemplate continuously to see its vanishing.
When the time of true bliss approaches, the yogi may be able to remain without food. In this way, disenchantment (nibbidā) toward impermanence arises. The body becomes weaker, and the face appears older. Therefore, changes appear on the face of a yogi near the realization of the Dhamma.
Once, when I went to a place to teach, a senior monk asked me, “Are there any changes in the faces of your students?” I immediately replied, “The faces are just these faces.” He then said to me, “It doesn’t mean that.” At that moment, I understood what he meant.
I said, “Do you refer to nibbidā-ñāṇa?” He replied, “Yes.”
When the yogi arrives at this insight knowledge, the temples and eye areas appear sunken, like those of an aged person. Near the time of realization, the yogi appears like a dead person, with no desire for anything. There is wearisome disenchantment, free from desire and clinging. With no desire toward the khandhas, the yogi appears like a sick person. The face changes when the yogi reaches this knowledge.
At this stage, the yogi encounters the true suffering of dukkha. In the yogi’s mind, it feels good that this suffering is coming to an end. Therefore, the yogi continues contemplation with equanimity toward dukkha.
The yogi cannot turn away from the Dhamma process. The process of impermanence (anicca) reveals its nature clearly to the yogi, without any need to deliberately search for it. During sleep it is also seen; during eating it is the same. The yogi may be unable to sleep or eat. Ordinary people sleep without seeing it.
With ñāṇa-hetu (the root of non-delusion), bhavaṅga-cittas cannot intervene—no defilements arise in between. A sleepy or torpid mind cannot enter this state, and there is no desire to eat. The yogi’s mind abides in rapture (pīti). There is no wish to speak, and worldly matters become wearisome and even repulsive.
Contemplating impermanence and separation matures into contemplation with equanimity (upekkhā), specifically equanimity toward formations (saṅkhārupekkhā). Here, impermanence reveals itself forcefully.
Mogok Sayadaw also taught that if one does not want to observe it, it will naturally come to cessation. Knowledge itself makes the conclusion. It is not correct to deliberately intend one’s own cessation.
I have asked yogis who have had these experiences. It appears that knowledge (ñāṇa) itself asks, “Do you still want to see it?” The yogi replies through ñāṇa: “Enough is enough; there is no desire to see it.” After that, impermanence comes to cessation as a brief blip.
The ending of desire may occur either through resting or through a change of object (ārammaṇa). Only upon arriving at equanimity toward formations is there true equanimity. After cessation, there are no feelings anymore.
When feelings are contemplated to their end, with the cessation of feeling and craving ceases (vedanā-nirodha, taṇhā-nirodha). With the cessation of craving, Nibbāna arises (taṇhā-nirodhā Nibbānaṃ).
With the arising of Nibbāna, path and fruition knowledges appear (magga-ñāṇa and phala-ñāṇa). Nibbāna is not a kind of happiness that belongs to feeling (vedayita-sukha). It is not a pleasant feeling that becomes the best or highest experience. Experiences of pleasant feeling or pleasure are quite limited.
For example, if one likes pork, one must search for money to buy it, and then expend effort cooking it. This is very tiring. Such happiness exists only in speech; in reality, it is suffering.
(Human sensual pleasures are momentary, like a drop of honey on the tip of a razor blade. To enjoy these low and ignoble pleasures, humans must exert great effort, whether in skillful or unskillful ways. All such efforts are saṅkhāra-dukkha. Suffering is extensive and without limit.)
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