There must be some reason, to use vedayita and not vedana.
my intuition says that its not cessation of feeling. but cessation of feeling object. what do you say ?
From DPD digital pali dictionary:
vedayita nt. which is felt; felt experience; feeling; lit. felt [√vid + *aya + ita] ✓
vedanā 1 fem. (pleasant, unpleasant or neutral) felt experience; feeling; sensation; second of the five aggregates; lit. causing to know [√vid + *anā] ✓
I don't know but I can guess, based on my general understanding...
I think saññā-vedayita should be taken as one compound word that means "the feelings caused by the associations".
This follows the Mahayana understanding of samjna (Pali saññā) as "association" or "recognition through interpretation of signs", as explained in the following passages:
"Its [saññā - AV] function is to make a sign as a condition for perceiving again that "this is the same," or its function is recognizing what has been previously perceived. It becomes manifest as the interpreting of the object...by way of the features that had been apprehended. Its proximate cause is the object as it appears. Its procedure is compared to a carpenter's recognition of certain kinds of wood by the mark he has made on each" ~ Bhikkhu Bodhi
"[saññā] has the characteristic of noting and the function of recognizing what has been previously noted. There is no such thing as perception ... without the characteristic of noting. All perceptions have the characteristic of noting. ... Its manifestation is the action of interpreting by means of the sign as apprehended." ~ Buddhaghosa
"Perception consists of the grasping of distinguishing features." ~ Mipham Rinpoche
"What is the absolutely specific characteristic of saṃjñā? It is to know by association. It is to see, hear, specify, and to know by way of taking up the defining characteristics and distinguishing them." ~ Abhidharma-samuccaya
And, as I pointed out many times on this site, nirodha is not mere passive "cessation" but an active "arrest" or "prevention".
This would make the 9th attainment an "arrest of feelings that would be caused by the recognitions and associations".
So I think what happens here is, we learn to suspend interpreting the signs into their meanings, cutting off the entire chain of secondary associations and the tertiary emotional reactions.
(The 8th and 9th attainments sound very similar to the states of mind described in the greek tradition of Pyrrhonism, epoché and ataraxia. Not at all surprising, given that Pyrrho of Elis traveled to India with Alexander the Great and his philosophy is basically a Greek reinterpretation of Buddhism.)
