What is Neutral Feeling? — Bai Xuexiang's Insights from Contemplative Practice

Sha, to let go, to relinquish, to no longer want it, or to say it is gone. Upekṣā-vedanā — the "upekṣā" in feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness — is a feeling-sensation, an emotionally tinged kind of experience. Neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā) means one's emotions are rather dull, or that there is no emotion. For example, with regard to food, there is no sense of this being "good" to eat and that being "not good" to eat. In most cases there is only whether something is edible or not edible. Another example: at separation from or reunion with parents, siblings, and family, the mind does not change. There are no emotions such as joy and excitement or a sense of loss. Another example: with regard to the warmth and coldness of human relations, being scolded does not make me angry, or only makes me pretend to be angry, or makes me angry for a moment. When others praise me, there is no emotion such as smugness. Toward others' scolding or misunderstandings, I am neither disdainful, nor merely tolerant, nor indifferent. It is like slashing a knife through the air, or punching a fist into a sponge — no matter what others do, it amounts to nothing!

The essence of neutral feeling is no-self: "I am letting go," "I am feeling." Without a self, there is naturally neither letting go nor feeling. Because the subject of neutral feeling has disappeared. 

Assessment: Cultivation must be practiced exactly like this — not spouting theories all day long while one's actual mental conduct runs completely contrary to the theory. When one cultivates to the point of no-mind, there is no longer any need to talk about precepts or no precepts; the precepts become superfluous. When there is no-mind, virtue is at its highest; when there is nothing sought, virtue is at its highest. Only when virtue is high can one become a sage or worthy one; there has never been a sage or worthy one of low character.