What is Contact?

Touch means contact and touching, and it is divided into mental touch and non-mental touch. Non-mental touch is the physical touching of objects. Mental touch is the touch of the conscious mind, the mental factor of touch (sparśa). Only after touch occurs can subsequent discernment take place—when people meet, they come to know each other; without meeting, there is no way to know or understand one another. The manas touching the mental sense-objects is mental touch. After the mind consciousness arises, the three then come together in touch, meaning all three touch one another mutually. If there is no touch, there is no mind consciousness, and no subsequent discernment either. At this time, the manas touches both the mental sense-objects and the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness touches both the mental sense-objects and the manas. Therefore, the mind consciousness both discerns the mental sense-objects and knows the thoughts of the manas, while the manas both roughly discerns the mental sense-objects and knows the thoughts of the mind consciousness. The mental sense-objects are touched by both the manas and the mind consciousness, and are also discerned by both the manas and the mind consciousness. The manas, in turn, through the discernment of the mind consciousness, further discerns the mental sense-objects, and thus gains clear knowledge of them.