SN 36.1PTS SN 4.2041 min read

Immersion

Samādhisutta

There are three feelings, and a meditator practicing immersion can understand them.

Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · Pāli: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka · Public domain (CC0) via SuttaCentral

0.1Saṁyutta Nikāya 36.1Linked Discourses 36.1
0.21. Sagāthāvagga1. With Verses

0.3SamādhisuttaImmersion

1.1“Tisso imā, bhikkhave, vedanā.“Mendicants, there are these three feelings.¹1.2Katamā tisso?What three?

1.3Sukhā vedanā, dukkhā vedanā, adukkhamasukhā vedanā—Pleasant, painful, and neutral feeling.1.4imā kho, bhikkhave, tisso vedanāti.These are the three feelings.

2.1Samāhito sampajāno,Stilled, aware,²2.2sato buddhassa sāvako;a mindful disciple of the Buddha2.3Vedanā ca pajānāti,understands feelings,2.4vedanānañca sambhavaṁ.the cause of feelings,
3.1Yattha cetā nirujjhanti,where they cease,3.2maggañca khayagāminaṁ;and the path that leads to their ending.3.3Vedanānaṁ khayā bhikkhu,With the ending of feelings, a mendicant3.4nicchāto parinibbuto”ti.is hungerless, quenched.”³

3.5Paṭhamaṁ.

Translator’s notes

“Feeling” (vedanā) is the affective or hedonic tone of experience. Each sense can trigger a response of pleasure, pain, or neither-pleasure-nor-pain. It is from the root vid (“know”), and is close in meaning to “experience”. For history, see note at SN 12.1:2.8.
↩ sn36.1:1.1
The text is not explicit as to who speaks these verses. Nor, for that matter, does it say who spoke the prose; the context is elided, presumably because the editors thought it was obvious that it is the Buddha speaking. The same is true of the verses. Indeed, Iti 52 is otherwise identical to this discourse, except it indicates that the Buddha spoke both verse and prose. Whether the verses were added later is a separate matter, but clearly the text presents them as the Buddha’s words.
↩ sn36.1:2.1
By treating the feelings according to the four noble truths, the Buddha is implicitly situating all feelings as suffering.
↩ sn36.1:3.4