Please provide sources from the original text or your own experiences and understandings of how to make progress in overcoming background negative feelings? For years I have been greatly harmed by harboring these feelings in the back of my mind which has not only created great suffering but altered the course of my life. Doing some mindfulness work made me realize that these feelings are there in my mind due to past experiences, and are harming me more than anything else in my life. How can I overcome, even slightly, this kind of mindset?

Sallatha Sutta says: "Now, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones, when touched with a feeling of pain, does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. **So he feels one pain: physical, but not mental.** But according to SN 41.6 With Kāmabhū (On the Cessation of Perception & Feeling) : > Perceptions & feelings are mental; Do you think the use of the physical-mental dichotomy is misleading for those familiar with SN41.6? Or make us think about anything in particular? It just seems like if you cross the two discourses the problem arises...

Why is it that when we feel pleasant and positive feelings, the state of heart-mind is evanescent while when we are feeling down and unpleasant feelings that state of heart-mind feels like everlasting? The default state seems unpleasant then we practice mindfulness and meditation, the pleasant state is attained for some time, as soon as it comes the mind tries to grab hold of it, it's gone. My question is about why the time for which they last the way it is?

I am familiar with the simile of the two arrows, i.e. an unenlightened being experiencing physical pain (first arrow that hits) will grasp for the release from that pain and thus be hit by a second arrow. Since feelings are conditioned (anicca) like the body, there must be a "first arrow" made of feelings/vedana. So i guess, even the buddha himself had to experience sadness. But there was no grasping towards the a different state of feeling. That also goes for painful mind objects like "the concept of your mother's death", which might give rise to suffering. In the past I thought that an arahant has to be free from bad feelings, but i guess now that this is not the case at all. This did not come out as a question, which this site is for. Anyways, what do you think?

In relation to the question: "*Is there is no benefit and there is no intrinsic positive nature in a pleasant sensation?*", I read the following quote from SN 36.5 on the internet: > A mendicant who sees pleasure as pain, one who has seen the pleasant as painful, who sees the pain in happiness, Yo sukhaṃ dukkhato adda, > > and suffering as a dart, the painful as a dart, views the painful feeling as a thorn, dukkhamaddakkhi sallato; > > and that peaceful, neutral feeling adukkhamasukhaṃ santaṃ, > > as impermanent, addakkhi naṃ aniccato. > > sees rightly; sa ve sammaddaso bhikkhu, > > they completely understand feelings. parijānāti vedanā; > > Completely understanding feelings, So vedanā pariññāya, > > they’re without defilements in this very life. diṭṭhe dhamme anāsavo; Not necessarily adhering to the literal translations above: 1. What is the meaning of the Pali in verse above from Datthabba Sutta? 2. Does the Datthabba Sutta support the idea: '*there is no benefit and there is no intrinsic positive nature in a pleasant sensation*'? 3. How does the above verse in the Datthabba Sutta reconcile with the Pali verse: "*Nibbanam paramam sukham: Nibbana is the supreme happines*s"? 4. Are any of the translations above of the three Western monks accurate so to inspire faith in these ordained Westerners?

I read the following in the internet: > All feelings are categorically classed as unpleasant in the > Dhamma...'Three feelings have been spoken of by the Blessed One: a > feeling of pleasure, a feeling of pain & a feeling of neither pleasure > nor pain.,,,Now in what connection was this stated by the Blessed One: > "Whatever is felt comes under stress (yaṃ kiñci vedayitaṃ taṃ dukkhasmin)" > Why are pleasant feelings "stressful" & "unpleasant"? If all feelings are unpleasant, why are some feelings called "pleasant"?