Overview

This book examines the importance of the topic of ‘feeling tone’ (vedanā) as it appears in early Buddhist texts and practice, and also within contemporary, secular, mindfulness-based interventions. The volume aims to highlight the crucial nature of the ‘feeling tone’ or ‘taste of experience’ in determining mental reactivity, behaviour, character, and ethics. In the history of Buddhism, and in its reception in contemporary discourse, vedanā has often been a much-neglected topic, with greater emphasis being accorded to other meditational focuses, such as body and mind. However, ‘feeling tone’ (vedanā) can be seen as a crucial pivotal point in understanding the cognitive process, both in contemporary mindfulness and meditation practice within more traditional forms of Buddhism. The taste of experience, it is claimed, comes as pleasant, unpleasant, and neither pleasant nor unpleasant – and these ‘tones’ or ‘tastes’ inevitably follow from humans being embodied sensory beings. That experience comes in this way is unavoidable, but what follows can be seen in terms of reactivity or responsiveness. This book was originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Buddhism.

Full Product Details

Author:   John Peacock (Independent Scholar, UK) ,  Martine Batchelor (Independent Scholar, France)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.453kg
ISBN:  

9780367362836

ISBN 10:   036736283
Pages:   192
Publication Date:   17 September 2019
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Introduction – Vedanā: What Is in a ‘Feeling?’ 1. Hedonic Hotspots, Hedonic Potholes: Vedanā Revisited 2. Defining Vedanā: Through the Looking Glass 3. Why Be Mindful of Feelings? 4. Vedanā or Feeling Tone: A Practical and Contemporary Meditative Exploration 5. The ‘Sensation of Doubt’ in East Asian Zen Buddhism and Some Parallels with Pāli Accounts of Meditation Practice 6. Feelings Bound and Freed: Wandering and Wonder on Buddhist Pathways 7. Vedanā and the Wisdom of Impermanence: We are Precipitants within the Experiments of the Universe 8. Feeling is Believing: The Convergence of Buddhist Theory and Modern Scientific Evidence Supporting How Self Is Formed and Perpetuated Through Feeling Tone (Vedanā) 9. Serious Illness, Overwhelmingly Unpleasant Feeling Tone of Life, and How Even Incipient Mindfulness Training May Sometimes Help 10. Vedana of Bias: Latent Likes and Dislikes Fuelling Barriers to Human Connection 11. Vedanā, Ethics and Character: A Prolegomena

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Author Information

John Peacock is a meditation teacher, scholar, and retired co-director of the master’s degree in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy at the University of Oxford, UK. Martine Batchelor is a former Buddhist nun, a meditation teacher, and author of a number of works on Buddhism. She is based in France.

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