Exercise 11: Identifying Feelings

Whenever the practitioner has a pleasant feeling, he is aware, 'I am experiencing apleasant feeling.' Whenever he has a painful feeling, he is aware, 'I am experiencing a painful feeling.' Whenever he experiences a feeling which is neither pleasant nor painful, he is aware, 'I am experiencing a neutral feeling.'

There are three sorts of feelings: pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. The teaching of this exercise is to identify and be in touch with these feelings as they arise, endure, and fade away.

When there is an unpleasant feeling, the practitioner is not in a hurry to chase it away. She comes back to her conscious breathing and observes, "Breathing in. I know that an unpleasant feeling has arisen within me. Breathing out, I know that this unpleasant feeling is present in me." Whenever there is a pleasant or a neutral feeling, she practices mindful observation in accordance with that feeling. She knows that her feeling is her, and that for the moment she is that feeling. She is neither drowned in nor terrorized by that feeling, nor does she reject it. This is the most effective way to be in contact with feelings. If we call a pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral feeling by its name, we identify it clearly and recognize it more deeply. Our attitude of not clinging to or rejecting our feelings is the attitude of letting go (Pali: upekkha, Sanskrit: upeksha) and is an important part of meditation practice. Letting go is one of the Four Unlimited Minds (Sanskrit: Brahmauihara), which are love, compassion. joy, and letting go.

A person is comprised of the Five Aggregates (Sanskrit: skandhas, Pali: khandas) - form (the body), feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. Each aggregate is a river. Our body is a river in which every cell is a drop of water, and all of them are in constant transformation and movement. There is also a river of feelings in us, in which every feeling is a drop of water. Each of these feelings - pleasant, unpleasant, neutral - relies on all other feelings to be born, mature, and disappear. To observe the feelings is to sit on the bank of the river of feelings and identify each feeling as it is arises, matures, and disappears.

Our feelings usually play an important part in directing our thoughts and our mind. Our thoughts arise and become linked to each other around the feelings which are present. When we are mindful of our feeling, the situation begins to change. The feeling is no longer the only thing present in us, and it is transformed under the light of our awareness. Therefore, it no longer sweeps us along the way it did before there was mindfulness of the feeling. If we continue to observe the feeling mindfully, we will be able to see its substance and its roots. This empowers the observer. When we are able to see the nature of something, we are able to transcend it and not be led astray or corrupted by it anymore.

~From Transformation and Healing by Thich Nhat Hanh