Cessation of Vedanā Is Not the Primary Goal of Spiritual Practice

Some people always believe that eliminating sensations is the basis and sign of realizing the truth. In fact, subduing and eliminating sensations primarily relies on profound meditative concentration. Whether one has realized the truth or not, as long as one possesses deep meditative absorption, one can eliminate sensations. Non-Buddhists who attain the four dhyanas and eight samadhis can also achieve this. Some cannot eliminate sensations even with the first dhyana; the sensations within the first dhyana are merely pleasant sensations, feeling comfortable, yet they are still a form of sensation. Eliminating all sensations requires cultivation to the exhaustion of the aggregate of sensation. Only samadhi beyond the fourth dhyana can completely exhaust the aggregate of form; thereafter, one can eliminate the aggregate of sensation, realizing the exhaustion of the aggregate of sensation. Only after that can one eliminate the aggregate of perception and the aggregate of mental formations. Liberation does not require eliminating sensations; one can attain liberation merely by not clinging to sensations. Eliminating sensations is not the primary goal of our practice. The primary goal is to eliminate the erroneous views and wrong views accumulated since beginningless kalpas—namely, the view of self that regards the five aggregates as "I." When the view of self is eliminated and one is no longer bound by it, preliminary liberation is attained, and subsequent practice proceeds along the correct path.