@Tobias:
You are right. I have revised #11 on that post as follows:
“11.Now let us consider the consequences of sankhāra in this life, that we mentioned in #6 above. Suppose a teenager starts associating with bad friends and start drinking alcohol. Initially, he does not even like the taste of it, i.e., he may be generating a dōmanassa vēdanā due to the taste of alcohol. But with the insistence of those friends he continues drinking.”
“Then he makes a habit (gati) of it, begins to perceive the taste as a sōmanassa vēdanā, and starts making sankhāra about drinking. Even while in the middle of some other task, he starts thinking about the next party where he can drink, and what types of drinks there will be and so on.
Now “sankhāra paccayā viññāna” step in the paticca samuppāda leads to making a “new viññāna for drinking”. The more he thinks about such parties and generate those sōmanassa vēdanā, the more viññāna, nāma rupa, etc that he makes for such “drinking events”.
And the stronger that “viññāna for drinking” gets, the more he will be thinking about it (making more sankhāra). Then the habit is strengthened; see, “How Habits are Formed and Broken – A Scientific View”.
I may have made similar mistakes in other posts. Thanks for finding them for me.
You said: “Obviously, an Arahant also tastes the sweetness of sugar. Does that count as a “sukha vedana”? May be this needs to be decided at how a “sukha vedana” is defined.
Is “sukha vedana” defined as “a bodily sensation”? If so, sweetness of sugar would not count as a sukha vedana.”
I am on travel, and don’t have access to my resources. But the more I think, I believe that “sukha/dukha vedana” are felt just by the body (kaya).
As discussed in the Kama Guna post, “sweetness of sugar” is a characteristic of the human bhava. Until an Arahant’s physical human body dies, he/she will feel that somanassa vedana.
It comes via “jivhanca paticca rasanca uppaddati jivha vinnanam“, “tinnan sangati phasso“, “phassa paccaya vedana“.
The somanassa vedana is indeed produced by “samphassa with gati”. The gati in this case are not just with the Arahant, but anyone in human bhava. “Sweetness in sugar” is a “human gati”; see the post on Kama Guna. For the Arahant, that gathi will also go away at Parinibbana; it is there only as long as that last human body is alive.
However, the next step: “vedana paccaya tanha” does not arise in the Arahant. That is the difference.
See: “Difference between Phassa and Samphassa”
We can discuss more if needed. This is an important point.