The Mental Factor of Feeling (vedanā-caitasika) of the Six Consciousnesses

The feeling (vedanā) in the feeling mental factor refers to the receiving and accepting of the six consciousnesses themselves. Receiving and accepting means taking in sense objects; after taking in the sense objects, the consciousnesses then discern them, and only after discerning do the six consciousnesses develop emotional feelings of suffering, pleasure, or neither-suffering-nor-pleasure. The feeling that occurs before the emotional feeling arises is the feeling of receiving and accepting the sense object. For example, after the eye consciousness contacts material sense objects, the eye consciousness receives and accepts them; after accepting them comes the perception (saṃjñā) of discerning and knowing, and then the grasping kind of perception arises, because only with knowing and grasping do feelings of suffering and pleasure arise. If there is no knowing, there is no emotional feeling of suffering or pleasure; if there is no grasping, no feeling of suffering or pleasure appears either. Therefore, the scope of the feeling mental factor is somewhat broader than the aggregate of feeling among the five aggregates. The aggregate of feeling is primarily concerned with emotional feelings, encompassing the three kinds of feelings accompanied by emotion: suffering, pleasure, and neither-suffering-nor-pleasure. As for the feeling mental factor of the seventh and eighth consciousnesses, it differs somewhat from that of the six consciousnesses: the seventh and eighth consciousnesses have only neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā), without feelings of suffering or pleasure, and without any emotional coloring. The five universally present mental factors of the eight consciousnesses each have many subtle differences.