Vedanā, craving, clinging vs. attachment
The first three parts of Seeing That Frees use these terms vedanā, craving, and clinging. I haven't seen a comparable three-way distinction in the other books that I've read, but these concepts does correlate with another one I've read about before: Attachment. I think these are getting at the same thing.
It's worth reviewing the three terms from Seeing That Frees:
- Vedanā — I think of this as a judgment of experience, "pleasant, unpleasant, or neither." One of the three. A little XML tag.
- Craving — this movement or arising of "I want to eat that cake" for example.
- Clinging — this sense of "I'm feeling this thing or having this experience and I am desperate for it to continue."
Attachment seems to cover both (2) and (3). It's unclear to me if vedanā in this sense makes sense absent the other two. Maybe it does! Meditation lessens craving and clinging, but so far at least I haven't "lost" liking/disliking. So maybe vedanā makes sense separate from clinging/craving.