Chapter 6—Mental Reactivity
Living in a city, it is hopeless for a person who earns a normal living to be free of mental contact.
Yet such unavoidable mental contact gives us a new hope to use it as a part of the tools for Vipassana because one of the Vipassana principles is to observe that mental reactivity is something that arises temporarily. It arises and must cease to exist as a norm, uncontrollable for being sustained or expelled according to our wishes, as it is not ours. It is different from a light bulb that can be turned on and off, as we wish, through a light switch.
Without any mental affliction that creates mental reactivity, it would mean one would lack this part of the tools for Vipassana. Therefore, instead of being sad and burdened by the mental contact, one should be glad to be an ordinary person who has acquired such a tool.
According to the principle of Vipassana, you have to know that mental reactivity is not something that arises by itself, because it did not exist previously as a self entity, but it results from the interaction between the mind and ‘something else’ apart from the mind. For example, the letters on this very line can be counted as a kind of mental contact as long as your eyes still keep on glancing and understanding what the book is trying to communicate with you.
You will have a better understanding of the word ‘something else’ apart from the mind, if you realize that even a stream of thought can be counted as mental contact. This is the truth. Thought is actually something apart from the mind. It is perceivable by the mind whether it is clear from thoughts or being stirred by rippling waves of thoughts.
Therefore, even though you step out of your office or are far apart from all of your loved ones or enemies, do not think that there will not be any mental contact to give rise to reaction. Thought which follows you everywhere is the most frequent encounter to your mind in both positive and negative aspects. Therefore if you can keep observing the reaction resulting from a thought encountering your mind, it means you have practiced Vipassana most frequently.
In this chapter, please try to observe only the outstanding mental reactivity derived from the eyes encountering form, color, or shape; ears encountering sound; nose encountering scent; tongue encountering flavor of food, or drinks; body encountering rough, or soft object; and mind encountering simple, or stressful thought.
The phrase ‘outstanding mental reactivity’ is abbreviated for easy recognition simply as ‘like’ and ‘dislike.’ Please observe that when we have a special feeling towards something, its mental meaning can only be converted into words simply as like and dislike.
If one observes it in more detail, one may profoundly realize that just only like and dislike may amazingly be differentiated into innumerable defilements. That is ‘like’ will have attractive flow of desire to acquire it as ours. Such mental flow is in the same category as lust – Raka or greed – Labha. On the other hand, ‘dislike’ will generate repulsive flow of desire to expel it from our face. Such mental flow is in the same category as hatred – Dosa – or destructive thought.
Both like and dislike can be summed up into one group that is delusion. Our minds have been unwarily shrouded with delusion. It is because such like and dislike are fueling us every single day. Therefore, if one carefully observes like and dislike disintegrating by nature, one’s mind will be released from all sorts of luring delusion, until they finally extinguish.
For example, some is startled in the middle of the night by the barking sound of a dog. If one only has ‘dislike’ in the sound encountering one’s ears, one will be stressful and unable to fall asleep for hours because of resentment. Instead if one uses the barking sound of the dog as a tool to develop mindfulness, with a perspective that it is simply the sound encountering one’s eardrums, but not oneself. Then try to observe one’s mind, one will see that the detested reaction decreases. As time passes, one’s mind will be more indifferent, despite that the barking sound is still as loud as in previous. When mindfulness has fully developed, one would see such indifference arises as a norm. Even there may be the barking sound of the dog in the following nights, the well developed mindfulness will guard the mind from being startled by the barking sound of the dog. One may be awake just a little, and then would be indifferent towards the sound instead of being annoyed, and such indifference would let one fall back asleep fairly well. This is clearly a great benefit from observing mental reactivity to the point of being indifferent.
In the beginning of the basic practice, try to be an observer who knows the age duration of mental reactivity. One can expect that all kinds of mental reactivity have their own age durations, depending on the counted numbers of the in-and-out breaths. That is when one likes or dislikes something, one may start counting such mental reactivity arisen with the first breath, and keep observing to see how many breaths it would take for such reactivity to disintegrate.
At the beginning of your practice, you may find that as soon as you are aware of your breath, like and dislike will extinguish instantaneously and transform into oppression because one is forcing one’s mind to be aware of the in-and-out breath instead. Yet with repeated practice as toying with it, one will be accustomed to it and realize that like and dislike are but mental reactivity. It is something internal which must be realized only through the mind, while awareness of the breath is something external, which is realized through the body.
When your mindful awareness can categorily differentiate, it will not interfere with each other. Mental reactivity arisen internally will demonstrate itself interiorly. Breath arisen externally will demonstrate itself exteriorly. At this point, you will be aware of things without oppression, and most importantly you will not rush to speak or do things under the influence of like and dislike at that moment.
People in general cannot see like and dislike within their minds, because like and dislike once occurred, it becomes a chain reaction, resulting in words and deeds according to one’s desire instantaneously. Unless you train to use your breath as a tool to measure how long like or dislike would last, you will start to know how to be aware of like or dislike. And once you become skillful, you no longer rely on the breath as a tool anymore, but you can directly observe the arising and ceasing of like and dislike all at once.
Conclusion
At this point, you will see that when you truly understand Vipassana, you may practice it all the time, even when others thought that you were sitting relaxingly looking at stars on the sky, or even while you were chatting and laughing with them. It is not that you have to practice Vipassana only in a monastery or in a meditation room at home.
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