“The definition of ‘feeling tone’ [Vedana] in Buddhism is deceptively simple: It is the quality of a given experience of being pleasant, unpleasant, or neither-unpleasant-nor-pleasant. When we first hear it, we may almost shrug. So what?… Vedanā is so close, we often don’t distinguish it. And yet it drives so much of our behavior. Without the light of awareness, we blindly seek the pleasant and move away from or avoid the unpleasant, much like an amoeba swims toward food and shrinks from acid or high heat.”
~ Kim Allen