What Is Neutral Feeling (Upekṣā-vedanā) — Bai Xuexiang's Insights from Contemplative Practice (Vipaśyanā-caryā)

Neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā) means giving up, letting go, no longer wanting it—or, put another way, it is no longer there. Feeling here refers to the feeling in feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness (vedanā)—a felt experience, an emotional kind of sensation. Neutral feeling means the emotions are rather dull, or that there are no emotions at all. For example, with regard to food, there is no sense of this being "good" to eat and that being "not good" to eat. In most cases there is only whether something is edible or not edible. Another example: at the separation from or reunion with parents and siblings, there is no change within the mind. There are no emotions such as joy and excitement or a sense of loss. Another example: with regard to the warmth and coldness of human relations, being scolded does not make me angry—or perhaps a feigned anger, or a brief flash of anger. When others praise me, there is no emotion such as smug self-satisfaction. Toward others' scolding or misunderstandings, it is neither disdain, nor tolerance, nor indifference. It is like a knife slashing through the air, or a fist punching into a sponge—no matter what others do, there is simply nothing there!

The essence of neutral feeling is no-self. "I am letting go; I am feeling." Without a self, there is naturally neither letting go nor feeling to speak of, because the subject of neutral feeling has disappeared. 

Assessment: This is exactly how cultivation should be practiced—not spouting theories all day long while one's actual mental conduct stands in stark contradiction to the theory. When one cultivates to the point of no-mind, there is no longer any need to speak of keeping precepts or not; the precepts become superfluous. When there is no-mind, virtue is at its highest; when there is nothing sought, virtue is at its highest. Only when virtue is high can one become a sage or worthy one—there has never been a sage or worthy one of low moral character.