Buddhism in Translations · 37 of 111

II. Sentient Existence: Sensation

§ 32. SENSATION.

Translated from the Majjhima-Nikâya (Sutta 44 or i.30228).

"My lady [Dhammadinnâ], how many sensations are there?"

"Brother Visâkha, there are three sensations; the pleasant sensation, the unpleasant sensation, and the indifferent sensation."

"But what, my lady, is the pleasant sensation, what the unpleasant sensation, and what the indifferent sensation?"

"Brother Visâkha, whatever pleasant or joyous sensation is felt by the body or by the mind, that is pleasant sensation. Brother Visâkha, whatever unpleasant or joyless sensation is felt by the body or by the mind, that is unpleasant sensation. Brother Visâkha, whatever sensation that is neither joyous nor joyless is felt by the body or by the mind, that is indifferent sensation."

Context

Dhammadinna is a bhikkhuni — a Buddhist nun — and she is teaching her former husband Visakha here. Visakha had been a wealthy lay-disciple of the Buddha who became a non-returner; his wife Dhammadinna ordained, became an arahant, and now answers his subtle Abhidharmic questions with an authority the Buddha himself later confirms (the Buddha's verdict on this discourse: 'I would have answered just as Dhammadinna answered'). She is one of the leading women teachers of the early Sangha and her companion text in this anthology is the Therigatha — the Verses of the Elder Nuns — which preserves the awakening-poems of seventy-three of these women. Female teachers in the Pali Canon are not exceptions to be apologized for; they are part of the architecture.Cula-Vedalla Sutta MN 44; cf. Therigatha (Caroline Rhys Davids trans.) for the wider tradition