The Saṃyukta Āgama (290): On 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 a moment fire arises. If the two pieces of wood are separated, the fire goes out accordingly. In the same way, all feelings arise in dependence on the accumulation of contact; when contact arises, contact accumulates. When contacts one by one accumulate, feelings one by one also accumulate. After the accumulation of contacts one by one ceases, the accumulation of feelings one by one also ceases and stops, and the mind becomes cool, tranquil, and stilled. When learned noble disciples contemplate in this way, they attain liberation with regard to the aggregate of form, liberation with regard to the aggregates of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, and liberation from birth, aging, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress. If so, I say they are liberated from suffering.

The Buddha used the analogy of two pieces of wood rubbed together to produce fire to illustrate the principle of conditioned arising—that when contact accumulates, feeling accumulates. When two pieces of wood are rubbed together, fire arises; if the two pieces of wood do not come into contact, the condition of contact is gone, and the fire no longer exists. Our suffering and afflictions arise from contact, and thus afflicted feelings arise. If this condition is gone—no more contact—then there is no feeling; when the condition of contact is gone, there is no 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 condition keeps accumulating, it does not cease. Where there is accumulation there is contact, and where there is contact there is feeling. When contact arises and accumulates, the accumulation of feeling follows; the condition for the arising of feeling is contact first. 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 are produced by karmic conditions from past lives. When contact ceases, feeling ceases; after the accumulation of feeling ceases, the mind attains cessation, coolness, and stillness. 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 illusory, and feeling is also illusory. Feeling is feeling produced primarily by the mind consciousness; contact is produced by the six sense faculties contacting 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 dependently are also illusory—they are produced by relying on certain conditions, and thus are not real. Only the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, exists without relying on conditions.