When contact is made with the senses…
Someone speaks harshly to you, accuses you of something, bad news is heard, one is putting pressure on you to complete a task quickly, physical pain makes contact with the body, someone punches the body, one sees a beautiful sight….
It is like striking a gong – the strike is the contact and the sound the gong makes is the reaction in the mind. The problem is no longer the contact.
Sometimes the sound can continue reverberating for minutes, hours, days and weeks from a single strike.
The mind should be training to not ruminate on prior contact. To the point of the mind being a broken gong. No reverberations. Leave it at the contact. It is nothing more than that.
The contact is observed but there is no reaction in the mind.
There is no you – de-personalise the contact. An unpleasant sound has made contact with the ear.
Sources
- Dhammatalks.org Thanissarano – Goodness all round evening talk audio