Wiser responses to pleasure and pain
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Now, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones, when touched with a feeling of pain, does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. So he feels one pain: physical, but not mental.
Just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow and, right afterward, did not shoot him with another one, so that he would feel the pain of only one arrow.
In the same way, when touched with a feeling of pain, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. He feels one pain: physical, but not mental.
With the practice of mindfulness, we are aware that we are having a painful experience (this may be either physical or mental — the sutta here is just following through the image of an arrow, which is by definition a physical pain). So we are aware that this experience is happening, and we are aware that it is an experience, and that it’s not inherently a part of us.
We recognize that the pain arises, exists, and passes away. And we don’t generate a cascade of reactive thoughts and emotions, which lead to yet more pain.
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