The Neutral Feeling of the Manas

Neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā) is a feeling that does not experience pain or pleasure. Saying that the manas has neutral feeling has some validity, for the manas is neutral with respect to bodily contact and does not directly experience the realms of the six sense objects. No matter how painful the physical body may be, the manas does not feel the pain; it is the body consciousness and the mind consciousness that feel pain. When there is no body consciousness and mind consciousness, the physical body does not feel pain. For example, during surgery, if the body consciousness and mind consciousness are present, the person is awake and will certainly feel intense pain. In order to eliminate the sensation of pain, anesthetics are administered, causing the body consciousness to cease first, and then the mind consciousness to cease; in this way, when the operation is performed, the physical body does not feel pain.

When one has a toothache, after falling asleep the six consciousnesses cease and the pain is no longer felt, but the inflammation in the tooth still exists, and upon waking the pain continues; sometimes one can even be awakened by the pain in the middle of the night. Why can one be awakened by pain in the middle of the night? When one is in a coma, although the body is in terrible condition, one does not feel pain, but upon waking the pain becomes unbearable. When undergoing retribution in the hells, one does not feel pain only after fainting from the agony, but the power of karma will not let the sinner remain unconscious; when the karmic wind blows, the sinner revives and continues to undergo retribution. In meditative concentration (samādhi), the sensation of pain also diminishes or disappears, because the six consciousnesses either cease or become faint.

Therefore, the sensation of pain is a feeling experienced jointly by the body consciousness and the mind consciousness; the manas does not have such a feeling. Even if it did, the mind consciousness would not know of it and could not observe it. Sentient beings take the feelings of the six consciousnesses as their feelings. When the six consciousnesses cease or become faint, whatever feelings and mental states the manas may have, the mind consciousness does not know them; not knowing them, it assumes that the manas has no feelings and no mental activities, or it says that the manas is very simple and of shallow wisdom.

When the functions and activities of the manas become powerful enough to replace the six consciousnesses, all feelings belong to the manas; but by that time, the manas's cultivation of meditative concentration and wisdom is already extremely superior, and it is almost entirely neutral feeling, with no emotional fluctuations. The manas of ordinary sentient beings still has feelings of pain and pleasure, not merely neutral feeling; it has psychological feelings similar to those of the mind consciousness—feeling wronged, oppressed, depressed, resentful, joyful, happy, excited—with great emotional fluctuations; only then do emotions such as towering rage, dancing with glee, and joy showing on the face appear.