Feeling Tones: Understanding Vedana Through Mindfulness
Feeling tone is a core part of mindfulness practice, but one that doesn’t get the attention that it deserves. We may be more familiar with mindfulness of the body, or of our thoughts. But feeling tone awareness is a core part of both Buddhist meditation practice and secular mindfulness practices.
It isn’t as obviously clear to beginners as perhaps mindfulness of the breath, but it is a large part of our experience and thus one to be investigated. In Buddhism, it is part of the Four Establishments of Mindfulness, or the four ways we are called to cultivate mindfulness. As the bridge between contact with experience and response/reaction, tuning into feeling tone can offer great insight.
What is Feeling Tone?
Feeling tone can be understood as the raw hedonic tone of experience. It is the quality of an experience that arises between contact and response. It can be contact at any of the sense-doors (feeling in the body, tasting, smelling, seeing, hearing, or thinking). A feeling tone is either pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. It is part of the flow of experience, and one that is often overlooked.
When you hear a sound, the feeling tone is there and present before you even perceive the sound. I use perceive here in the context of mindfulness, where perception is the recognizing or interpreting of sensory information. Feeling tone is present right at first contact.
So let’s use a few examples to illustrate. Let’s say a bird sings outside. The sound waves travel to your eardrum, making it vibrate. This is known as sense-contact. Right then, feeling tone also arises. For the sake of this example, let’s say the feeling tone is pleasant. Then, experience continues. You recognize the noise as a bird singing. You like the sound, maybe even cling to it.
With a more unpleasant example, we might take the experience of having a pain in the body while meditating. The sensation arises in the body, and the feeling tone is likely unpleasant. You recognize it as pain in your knee, you dislike it, and perhaps you think of adjusting your posture.
Below is a short video introducing feeling tones from my playlist Mindfulness for Beginners that covers this topic for those new to meditation!
Feeling Tone (Vedana) in Buddhism
In Buddhist teachings, feeling tone is often known by it’s Pali term vedana. It is one of the five aggregates, mentioned in the teachings on dependent origination, and an integral part of the Four Establishments of Mindfulness. The first two teachings can perhaps best be understood by beginners in the context of the Four Establishments, so I’m going to focus there for now.
With the Four Establishments, we are instructed to cultivate mindfulness in four ways. The second is mindfulness of feeling tone. The instruction is to practice seeing vedana clearly so we can see the impermanent nature of feeling tone. This helps us recognize what is happening without clinging, and we can break the chain of stimulus and reaction.
Why Work with Feeling Tone?
Whether it is a secular mindfulness practice like MBSR or more traditional Buddhist perspective, practicing with feeling tones has many potential benefits.
Not Getting Lost in Thought
One of the first benefits of feeling tone many people notice is an effect where we don’t get quite so sucked into thoughts. As I have covered in my post Is It Normal to Think During Meditation?, thoughts are normal. Feeling tone doesn’t help us quash thoughts, but it can offer us a way to not get so hooked in.
As we focus on the feeling tone of an experience, including a thought, we have something else to focus on rather than the thought itself. For example, if your mind is wandering in meditation to a difficult situation at work, you might tune into the feeling tone and recognize its unpleasantness rather than getting sucked into the thought fully.
Seeing Reactions and Responses
Tuning into feeling tone can help us see the flow of experience quite clearly. As with the examples at the top, we notice how a sensation at a sense-door leads to vedana, which leads to a mental and/or physical response. This helps build insight and understanding into why we are experiencing the moods and mental states we are experiencing. Instead of wondering why we feel irritated, we grow to see the unpleasant feeling tones we’re experiencing and the different ways aversion arises.
Less Attachment
As we grow to see and understand feeling tone clearly, it can be a powerful way to let go of attachment and craving. We unlink pleasant from good and unpleasant from bad. The unpleasant experiences are simply unpleasant, and we’re able to observe them with less aversion. And the pleasant sensations are simply pleasant, without as much craving arising. This in turn releases us from a significant amount of self-created suffering.
Emotional Regulation
In secular meditation modalities especially, feeling tone serves as a way to help build emotional regulation. MBSR, for example, stress staying with the feeling tone of an experience instead of diving into reactions. This can help us experience the unpleasant sensation without falling into such intense emotions.
Deeper Insights
From a Buddhist perspective, mindfulness of feeling tone can lead to deep insight of the Three Marks of Existence. This is the crux of mindfulness practice, and feeling tones offer us an opportunity to see all three characteristics. This is especially true with practices based on the Four Establishments of Mindfulness such as Anapanasati practice.
Gives Freedom of Choice
With the insight of feeling tone, we have a little bit more choice in how we respond. Instead of just being dragged along by experience, we can choose to stay with feeling tone, switch to a compassion practice if it is very unpleasant, or truly observe the mental reactions. Feeling tone is really the bridge between contact and the mental responses, so focusing here gives us some more choice in how we respond.
Cultivating Mindfulness of Feeling Tone
In Meditation
There are many ways we can cultivate mindfulness of feeling tone in meditation. The first things that come to mind are an Anapanasati practice as mentioned earlier, and direct investigation of the vedana of experience. Just as you might choose to do a breath meditation, you can choose to focus specifically on feeling tone in your sit.
Whatever the practice, mindfulness of feeling tone means tuning into the feeling tones from moment to moment. We might label or note them, and allow them to arise and pass. You also might notice what they give rise to, such as clinging or craving. Below is a meditation looking at feeling tone in the body from my free 30 Day Meditation Challenge.
One of my favorite introductory ways to investigate feeling tone is through a feeling tone body scan. I cover this more on my page about body scans, but the idea is simple. You move through the body bit by bit, focusing on the feeling tone in each part of the body rather than the raw sensation.
Finally, I’ll offer a bit of a different practice. There are many types of moving meditation, but walking meditation is one of my go-to’s. Feeling tone awareness lends itself well to walking meditation in my experience, as there can be new and interesting sensations when compared to sitting meditation. Below is a short walking meditation looking at feeling tone.
In Daily Life
One of my passions in regards to these teachings is bringing them off the cushion and into everyday life. We live our lives in an active world, interacting with others. As such, we can learn to cultivate mindfulness of feeling tone in our daily lives. I cover some tips for practicing mindfulness in everyday life here if you’re interested in more tips and I also have an online course specifically focusing on daily life, but for now I’m going to focus on feeling tone.
There are several places that I’ve found good jumping-off points for investigating feeling tone. The first is in eating and rinking. When you take a sip of water or a bite of your food, tune into the feeling tone. You might start by recognizing the contact (the moment of taste, the smell entering the nose, or feeling the temperature/texture), then seeing the feeling tone that arises. Food often produces strong feeling tones, making it a great way to get started.
Another great place to look at feeling tone in daily life is in quiet moments. It may be while waiting in line at the store, standing in the shower, or whatever other moments you have where there is no clear task at hand. In these moments, tune into the experiences arising and their feeling tones. Don’t forget neutral ones!
Misunderstandings About Feeling Tone
The concept of feeling tones can be confusing or overwhelming at first, and I’ve seen a few common misconceptions arise in my students that I want to address here.
Feeling Tone and Emotions
When we use the word feeling like this, people sometimes want to equate or relate it to emotions. Feeling tones are not emotions. In fact, feeling tones specifically arise before emotional responses. We must be careful to not equate the two. Emotions are a combination of thoughts/mental states and physical sensations. They arise after feeling tone and in response to contact.
Pleasant, Unpleasant, Good, Bad
We might have the tendency to equate pleasant feeling tone with good and unpleasant with bad. This language or view must eventually be dropped. As long as we see feeling tone like this, we are feeding craving and aversion. We can work to acknowledge pleasant as pleasant and unpleasant as unpleasant. The liking and disliking, or labeling as good and bad is not feeling tone; this is mental response.
Neutral Experiences
Pleasant and unpleasant experiences tend to grab our attention, while neutral ones slip by us. Even now reading this, you surely have plenty of neutral feeling tones happening. You might have the neutral sensations of your body sitting where it is, neutral sounds arising and passing, or a neutral taste in your mouth. Don’t let the neutral feeling tones slip by.
Just as craving may arise from pleasantness or aversion from unpleasantness, neutral sensations can give rise to many things. You may feel bored or uninterested by the neutral sensations. Pay attention to the neutral, and whatever response arises.
Just a Stepping Stone
When I was first introduced to feeling tone practice, I saw it as what I would call a stepping stone. It was a means to work with mindfulness of thoughts, bridging the gap between contact and mental activity. Although this is true and feeling tone can be understood in this way, it is quite limiting.
Instead of just seeing feeling tone as a stepping stone toward mindfulness of thoughts, make it its own practice. See what feeling tone itself has to teach you, and how you might develop insight from it. You can use it as a bridge into the thinking mind and mental states, but don’t do it a disservice by only seeing it this way.
Getting Started with Mindfulness and Feeling Tone
If you’re interested in mindfulness in general and specifically feeling tone, my first recommendation is to begin practicing with it. Make mindfulness of feeling tone a part of your practice. You can also reach out to me for support. I’m here to answer any questions. Just email me at Matthew@TheMindfulCounselor.me or reach out for a free consultation.
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