How to Feel

In How to Feel, Maria Heim translates and curates key passages from the Pali Canon to show how early Buddhist teachings center on feeling (vedana) and offer practical methods for observing emotions.

The book argues that Buddhism does not seek to eliminate feeling but to cultivate meta-awareness that restructures habitual reactivity and brings freedom.

Heim highlights the pragmatic, context-sensitive taxonomy of feelings in the canon and explains practices like noticing valence, the brahma viharas, and the progressive 'upward spiral' from ethical conduct to concentration.

Combining scholarly clarity with accessible translations, the book is intended both as a study of Buddhist emotion theory and as a manual for first-person introspection.

It situates ancient categories alongside contemporary psychological insights to suggest alternative frameworks for relating to emotions.