This is a good place for me to mention the concept of vedena, which is a Pali word that relates to the degree of pleasantness, unpleasantness or neutrality of a sensation. If one pays too much exclusive attention to sensations that are either pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, while ignoring the other sensations going on at that time, then one is likely to be missing many opportunities for insight. Preoccupation 45
The Seven Factors of Enlightenment
with pleasant sensations can cause one to become a vapid bliss-junkie.
Preoccupation with unpleasant sensations can cause one to become dark and depressed. Preoccupation with neutral sensations can cause one to become dull and emotionally flat. (Thanks to the esteemed Christopher Titmuss for the inspiration for this paragraph). Our experience tends to be a complex mixture of many flavors of sensations.
They are all quite worthy of investigation.
The take-home message here is that rapture and raptures are to be understood as they are and related to wisely, accepting all sensations that make them up, be they pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Learn when to put the breaks on practice if the difficult raptures are teaching you their important lessons a bit too fast for you to keep it together, and learn how to open to the wonderful joy and bliss which spiritual practice may sometimes produce.
TRANQUILITY
Joy, bliss and rapture can produce tranqu ility . We can associate being peaceful with tranquility. Focusing on tranquility and a more spacious and silent perspective in the face of difficult raptures can help you ride them out, and just sitting silently and observing reality do its thing can be very powerful practice. There are actually whole schools of spiritual practice dedicated to this. Thus, tranquility is a really good thing in meditation. We may think of great spiritual masters being internally tranquil, and while it may or may not be true, there are reasons why we associate tranquility with spirituality. A mind that is not tranquil will have a harder time concentrating and being balanced. It is just as simple as that. Being kind and moral can help with tranquility, as this lessens the harsh thought patterns in our minds.
This does not mean that non-tranquil moments are not “spiritual”
or that we must adopt some sort of restrained and artificial flatness.
Remember, all types of sensations, mind states and actions are valid phenomena for investigation and real expressions of what is going on.
