Especially for us beginners, one of the most powerful ways is to think of death and impermanence. Think: “I can die any time. So too the object, the person, can die at any time.”

Death is one thing but other changes can come about too. The object can change and become undesirable. Any day, any moment, this can happen. There are other changes besides death. An accident can happen, the body can get damaged or can become deformed. The body can change at any time. It can contract leprosy, which changes the body. Many things like that can happen.

One other very effective thing for us to think is that, any day, any minute, that person can become your enemy, by doing something that your attachment doesn’t like. The person can say or do something your self-cherishing doesn’t like. For example, that person may come to like another person, follow another person, and lose interest in you. This can happen any time.

I told him also it’s very useful to think that if you allow attachment to arise, that leaves a negative imprint on the mind that makes attachment arise again and again. So that makes it more difficult to handle attachment in the future. The more imprints are left, the more attachment will arise strongly over and over again, causing many difficulties in the future.

It is also good to think that this makes one’s life very uncontrolled.