B. Vedana citta

 B

Excellent — you’re diving into the heart of Buddhist phenomenology here. Let’s explore vedanā-citta clearly and precisely.

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Vedana Citta — Feeling and Mind

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Etymology

• Vedanā (वेदना / ဝေဒနာ) → feeling, sensation, or affective tone.
• Citta (चित्त / စိတ်) → mind, consciousness, or moment of awareness.

So vedanā-citta literally means “a mind accompanied by feeling.”

But to understand it properly, we need to place it in its Abhidhamma and experiential contexts.

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1. What is Vedanā?

In Buddhist psychology, vedanā is the affective response that accompanies every moment of consciousness (citta).

Every time a citta arises, it is always accompanied by some kind of feeling:

• Sukha vedanā — pleasant feeling
• Dukkha vedanā — unpleasant feeling
• Upekkhā vedanā — neutral or equanimous feeling

So there is no citta without vedanā. They are inseparable; vedanā is one of the universal mental factors (sabbacittasādhāraṇa cetasikas) — present in every single mind moment.

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2. Vedanā and Citta in Experience

When a sensory or mental object is contacted, the mind processes it through three basic layers:

Stage	Pāli Term	Function
1	Phassa (contact)	The meeting of sense organ, object, and consciousness
2	Vedanā (feeling)	The raw affective tone — pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral
3	Citta / Viññāṇa (consciousness)	The knowing or awareness of the object

Thus, vedanā arises dependent on contact, and citta arises together with vedanā — they co-arise as part of a single cognitive event.

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3. In Dependent Origination (Paṭiccasamuppāda)

Phassa → Vedanā → Taṇhā

Once feeling arises, it often conditions craving (taṇhā) if mindfulness is absent:

• Pleasant feeling → craving to hold on
• Painful feeling → craving to escape
• Neutral feeling → craving through ignorance (indifference)

So, understanding vedanā-citta is key to breaking the cycle of reactivity.

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4. In Meditation

In vipassanā (insight) practice, the Buddha encouraged direct observation of vedanā:

“When feeling a pleasant feeling, know it as pleasant.

When feeling a painful feeling, know it as painful.

When feeling a neutral feeling, know it as neutral.”

— Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (MN 10)

This awareness transforms vedanā-citta from reactive to mindful and non-grasping — turning the same mental process into a path of liberation.

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5. Summary Table

Aspect	Description
Term	Vedanā-citta — mind accompanied by feeling
Nature	Every citta has vedanā as a universal mental factor
Types of feeling	Pleasant, unpleasant, neutral
Role in practice	Source of craving if unobserved; source of insight if mindfully known
Goal	Awareness of vedanā leads to dispassion (virāga) and freedom (vimutti)

Would you like me to show how vedanā-citta differs from saññā-citta (perceptive consciousness) and saṅkhāra-citta (volitional consciousness)? It helps clarify how each layer of the mind functions in the Abhidhamma framework.