Lal mentioned: “Vedana coming through the other four physical sense inputs are neutral. Any pleasant or unpleasant vedana that we may experience are ALL mind-made, and NOT due to kamma vipaka. They are called “samphassa ja vedana”. They are also called “somanassa/domanassa vedana”. Arahant DO NOT experience those.”
Say an arahant is served some tasty food. Would the arahant think that the food that he is consuming is delicious? On the other hand, if some wicked person wants to test the arahant by serving him rotten food, would the arahant think the food that he just tasted is terrible or even unfit for consumption? Can there be no such thing as a delicious and terrible taste for an arahant? I would be amazed if this were the case because it seems like vipaka (good or bad) is being denied here. Surely, an arahant cannot be a dead log as long as he is still alive and kicking.
I came across a sutta AN 6.41 – A Tree Trunk, where Ven.Sariputta mentioned there is an element of ugliness in ugly things. I would think there is an element of beauty in beautiful things too.
Knowing that ugliness/beauty arises out of causality, likewise delicious and foul-tasting must also arise out of causality. Delicious cannot come from the tasty food alone. Neither can it arise unilaterally from the arahant, nor from both the tasty food and the arahant. Also, delicious cannot arise for no reason. Hence, can I safely deduce that an arahant can definitely find a tasty food delicious and foul-tasting food, foul-tasting?