Lectures on the Father and Son Collection Sutra (Part 8)

What are the six contact points?

Original Text: What are the six contact points? They are: the eye contact point, which perceives form; the ear contact point, which hears sound; the nose contact point, which smells scents; the tongue contact point, which tastes flavors; the body contact point, which experiences touch; and the mind contact point, which cognizes dharmas.

Explanation: The World-Honored One said: What are the six contact points? They are: the eye contact point, where the eye faculty and the form object make contact, giving rise to eye-consciousness, enabling the perception of form; at the ear faculty’s location, contact with the sound object gives rise to ear-consciousness, enabling the hearing of sounds; at the nose faculty’s location, contact with the smell object gives rise to nose-consciousness, enabling the smelling of fragrances, odors, and other miscellaneous scents; at the tongue faculty’s location, contact with the taste object gives rise to tongue-consciousness, enabling the tasting of sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, salty, and other flavors; at the body faculty’s location, contact with the touch object gives rise to body-consciousness, enabling the experience of tactile sensations. For example, contact with sunlight allows one to feel warmth; wind blowing against the body allows body-consciousness to perceive coolness; this also includes bodily sensations such as lightness and ease, comfort, hunger, thirst, fatigue, soreness, and exhaustion, all of which are touch objects. At the mind faculty’s location, contact between the mind faculty and the dharmas object gives rise to mind-consciousness, enabling the discernment of all dharmas objects and phenomena.