[Johnny_Lim]

Pleasing and agreeable things in this world that has Kāma Guṇa can evoke Sāmisa Vedanā in a person but never Kāma assāda, right? So, if a person who experiences Kāma assāda, does it imply that this person has already executed the samphassa-jā-vedanā process?

[Lal]

“Pleasing and agreeable things in this world that has Kāma Guṇa can evoke Sāmisa Vedanā in a person but never Kāma assāda, right?”

Yes.

“So, if a person who experiences Kāma assāda, does it imply that this person has already executed the samphassa-jā-vedanā process?”

No. Kāma assāda are, by definition, samphassa-jā-vedanā.

The Buddha would also taste honey as sweet. The sweetness of honey is a Kāma Guṇa.
– An average person may attach to the taste of honey and may generate greedy thoughts about tasting more honey. That is due to samphassa (“san” + “phassa”) or “contact with “san” or defilement (greed in this case)”
– But the Buddha (or any Arahant or an Anāgāmi) would not generate “samphassa-jā-vedanā” for eating honey.

[Johnny_Lim]

Hi Lal,

When an Arahant tastes a delicious meal, will he/she feel that a delicious meal has been eaten? Do words like beautiful, melodious, fragrant, delicious, soothing etc. even exist in an Arahant’s mind? You mentioned the sweetness of honey is a Kāma Guṇa. What about one’s opinion on honey? It is a subjective thing. Another example would be the acquired smell and taste of durian.

Thanks.

[Lal]

Hi Johnny,

You wrote: “When an Arahant tastes a delicious meal, will he/she feel that a delicious meal has been eaten?”

I have confirmed that many times. Yes, An Arahant would taste that meal to be tasty.
– But he/she will not attach to that taste. No taṇhā or upādāna will be generated in the mind of an Arahant.

Please read the relevant posts and cite the bullet numbers if I had said anything different.
“Kāma Guṇa – Origin of Attachment (Tanhā)”

“Kāma Guna, Kāma, Kāma Rāga, Kāmaccandha“

[Johnny_Lim]

I have been thinking about this and here are some thoughts…

I think there is no straightforward answer as to whether a person will absolutely find a delicious meal (as commonly agreed by most people), to be well, delicious. Whatever we experienced is influenced by 3 factors: the vipaka of past kamma that takes place in present life; present volitions (body, verbal, mental); our external environment (people, things, event). Any effect experienced by the person is never coming solely from one factor alone for no one single factor has the absolute determining power to dictate the result. It’s somewhat like a vector summation of the 3 factors that gives a resultant effect that is to be experienced. The Kāma Guṇa of a food happens to be our external environment, which is just a physical attribute. One can taste the flavour of the food but whether the flavour is palatable to the person is highly subjective. We find certain food delicious not because we want to think it that way. Thinking that the food is delicious is really just concluding the net result of what is experienced through the causal relationship among the 3 factors mentioned above. I would also think if an Arahant has some issues with spicy food (maybe his stomach cannot take spicy food), he might not find spicy food particularly tasty even when his fellow monks have a different opinion from his.

[Author]

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