Contact, Attention, Intention

‘Contact’ is the act of registering experience.

Now take the case when we’re intensely focused on reading a book or watching a movie: awareness of our bodies, of the pressure of the chair, and maybe even a minor ache or pain, disappears. The mind’s attention is absorbed in seeing and processing the seen, so the tactile impressions of the chair, and of sitting here, don’t register an internal impression. In such a case, contact can’t be said to have occurred. Contact depends on where the attention is.

When we do experience contact, there’s a shift – something resonates. What occurs is that certain patterns of energy in the bodily, conceptual or emotive domains respond. So to be conscious of something entails an energetic shift – we focus, light up, relax, or retract; we are moved. The way in which we are moved, dependent on attention and contact, forms programs and patterning (saṅkhāra) such as arousal, relaxation or defence.

Consciousness is bound up with these; it is programmed to form and retain further programs and patterns. And these carry intention in the forms of momentary response or of sustained purpose. The most fundamental intention is to ascertain whether a sight, sound, touch, etc. is an indication of threat or enjoyment. This, at a very basic level, is what programs our lives: we seek the agreeable and seek to avoid the disagreeable.

The nature of intention also affects attention: when a thief looks at a saint, he notices the saint’s pockets. And the intention is steered by what our minds have designated as offering pleasure (such as acquiring some money) or, of course, displeasure. But, as in the above example, it’s not the tactile sensation of holding coins in the hand that is pleasing, but what that means. So the ‘felt meaning’ of an experience – this ‘heart-impression,’ or ‘designation contact’ – is the most important aspect of contact.

Through these felt meanings, we cognize; we learn the meaning of things: smile means friendly; this person is trustworthy, etc. Then we ‘recognize’ those signs when we come across them or others like them. This is how felt meanings, appetites and needs of the heart, have their effect on what gets looked out for and what gets recorded.

Then, what grabs the mind’s attention are signs that represent those pleasant or unpleasant meanings. These signs become reference points for how we’ll feel good or not in the present. In the above case, this means that the thief weighs up his opportunity, then, when the saint’s attention is elsewhere, picks the pocket. In other words, designation-contact depends on the patterning, the old kamma, and is a basis for action, fresh kamma.

This patterning process is more than a mental one. The body also ‘learns’ and even ‘remembers.’ For example, it has learnt how to stand up and maintain balance. It knows what sensations, what pressures in the feet, etc. indicate that it is firmly balanced.

Also this bodily intelligence provides us with flight, freeze, and fight reflexes. When we are in an argument, the body tightens up; a loud noise may cause us to ‘jump;’ a ‘warm’ smile trigger off a flutter in the pulse, and so on. Body and mind-base are essentially not separate, and at an instinctive reflex level, bodily-intelligence will override the rational.

This is important to bear in mind because even when a memory, or the result of kamma, is reasoned with and dismissed, forgotten, or suppressed, there can still be a bodily and emotive memory of significant events; and like any other memory that can arise at an unexpected time.

This reflection by Ajahn Sucitto is from the book Kamma and the End of Kamma, in “Kamma and Memory,” (pdf) pp. 68-70. [Please also read Ajahn Sucitto’s fully updated perspective on this topic in the revised book Kamma and the End of Kamma, 2nd Edition (2021), in “Sense and Meaning: The Perceptual Process,” (pdf) pp. 45-49.]