Tejananda John Wakeman:
Hi,
I've done metta and the other brahmaviharas a lot. I've produced these notes / handouts on them that you may find useful stuff in:
Brahmaviharas NotesRegards, Tejananda
This is very interesting and helpful, thank you! I especially like the distinction between
vedana as non-volitional feeling-tone and emotion as volitional (skilful or unskilful)
samskara. In practice, I have found that trying to change the
vedanas directly is fruitless and frustrating, but working on the prevailing
samskara (volitional emotion, attitude, intent) affects the
vedanas (feeling tones) as a consequence.
I think this is a very useful contribution to the subject of "feeling" and "emotion" being discussed concurrently in one of the AF threads.
It would also be interesting if Tarin or Trent could comment on the relationship between
metta, as described in the above linked document, and "naïveté" and "felicity" in the AF teachings. Tarin has emphasized the importance of distinguishing the "good" feelings from the "felicitous" feelings, which makes me wonder where
metta fits in. I had assumed that
metta belongs in the "good" category because of its association with love and compassion, but here it seems more closely akin to the naïve felicity that the AF people talk about.
Peter