Mondays, April 1st – May 13th (skip April 29th), 2024 | 9:30am-11:30am ET
Vedanā refers to the immediate feeling tone of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral that arises in every moment of contact. The Buddha emphasized the importance of being mindful of vedanā, as it is a key link in Dependent Arising and the generation of suffering or liberation.
And yet, as poet Tom Hennen wrote: “But usually [these moments] just pass, mostly unnoticed, unless they are wildly nice, like autumn ones full of red maple trees and hazy sunlight, or if they are grimly awful ones in a winter blizzard that kills the lost traveler and bunches of cattle.”
In this course we will investigate our personal experience of vedanā, the role it plays in fueling craving and aversion, and the deeply ethical implications it has for our views, biases, and motivations for harm.