"There are, O monks, these three feelings: pleasant feelings, painful feelings, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant feelings."

Be it a pleasant feeling, be it a painful feeling, be it neutral, one's own or others', feelings of all kinds[1] — he knows them all as ill, deceitful, evanescent. Seeing how they impinge again, again, and disappear,[2] he wins detachment from the feelings, passion-free.

Notes

1.

On "feelings of all kinds," see SN 36.22.

2.

Phussa phussa vayam disva, The Comy. explains differently, paraphrasing these words by ñanena phusitva phusitva, "repeatedly experiencing (them) by way of the knowledge (of rise and fall)." These verses occur also in Sutta Nipata, v. 739, with one additional line.

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Translated from the Pali by Nyanaponika Thera. From Access to Insight (BCBS Edition). Licensed under free distribution only (see source for the specific license) — for free distribution only. Never sold.