What Is Contact?

Touch refers to contact and sensation, divided into mindful contact and mindless contact. Mindless contact is the physical touching of objects. Mindful contact is the contact of the discerning mind, which is the mental factor of contact. Only after contact occurs can subsequent discernment arise; people recognize each other when they meet, but without meeting, they cannot know or understand each other.

When the manas (mental faculty) contacts the dharma-object (mental object), it is mindful contact. After consciousness arises, the three—manas, consciousness, and dharma-object—come together and mutually contact one another. If contact ceases, consciousness will not arise, nor will subsequent discernment occur.

At this point, the manas contacts both the dharma-object and consciousness, while consciousness contacts both the dharma-object and the manas. Therefore, consciousness discerns the dharma-object while also knowing the thoughts of the manas, and the manas coarsely discerns the dharma-object while also knowing the thoughts of consciousness. The dharma-object is simultaneously contacted and discerned by both the manas and consciousness.

Furthermore, the manas discerns the dharma-object more clearly through the discernment of consciousness, thereby attaining lucid knowledge of the dharma-object.