Definition, Practice, and Psychology of Vedanā
Product details
- ISBN 9780367362836
- Weight: 460g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 17 Sep 2019
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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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.
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.
