The Saṃyuktāgama (290): The Arising of Contact

Original text:譬如两木相磨。和合生火。若两木离散。火亦随灭。如是诸受缘触集。触生触集。若彼彼触集故。彼彼受亦集。彼彼触集灭故。彼彼受集亦灭止。清凉息没。多闻圣弟子如是观者。于色解脱。于受想行识解脱。于生老病死忧悲恼苦解脱。我说彼于苦得解脱。佛说此经已。诸比丘闻佛所说。欢喜奉行。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Suppose there are two pieces of wood rubbing against each other in contact; in a moment fire arises. If the two pieces of wood are separated, the fire ceases accordingly. It is just like this: all feelings arise in dependence on the accumulation of contact; when contact arises, contact accumulates. When each and every contact accumulates, each and every feeling also accumulates. After each and every contact's accumulation ceases, the accumulation of each and every feeling also ceases and stops, and the mind becomes cool, tranquil, and subsided. When learned noble disciples contemplate in this way, they will attain liberation with regard to the aggregate of form, liberation with regard to the aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness, and liberation with regard to birth, aging, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress. In that case, I say they have attained liberation from suffering.

The Buddha used the analogy of two pieces of wood rubbing together to produce fire to illustrate the principle of conditionally arisen phenomena—that when contact accumulates, feeling accumulates. When two pieces of wood rub together, fire arises; if the two pieces of wood do not make contact, the conditions for contact are gone, and there is no fire. The conditions for our suffering arise from contact, and thus there are feelings of distress. If these conditions no longer exist—no more contact—then there is no feeling; when the conditions for contact are gone, there is no longer the sensation of feeling.

No matter which kind of feeling it is, if the condition of contact accumulates, the accumulation of feeling arises; as long as the conditions continue to accumulate, it does not cease. Where there is accumulation there is contact, and where there is contact there is feeling. When contact arises and accumulates, there will be the accumulation of feeling; the condition for the arising of feeling is contact first, and contact is the function of conditions—without conditions, contact cannot occur. All things and phenomena depend on conditions in order to arise and exist, and those conditions arise from the karmic conditions of past lives. When contact ceases, feeling ceases; after the accumulation of feeling ceases, the mind attains cessation, coolness, tranquility, and subsidence. The Buddha wants us to recognize that the accumulation of contact is the accumulation of feeling—where there is contact there is feeling. Contact is false and illusory, and feeling is likewise false and illusory. Feeling is feeling produced primarily by the mind consciousness; contact is produced by the contact of the six sense faculties with the six sense objects, and this requires conditions for the contact to occur. Therefore, the arising of all things requires dependent origination—without conditions there is no arising; with conditions there is arising. Phenomena that arise through dependent origination are also false and illusory, produced in reliance on certain conditions, and thus are not real. Only the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, exists without relying on conditions.