What Is Contact?

"Sparśa" (contact) means touching, making contact, or encountering. It is divided into mental contact and non-mental contact. Non-mental contact is the physical touching of objects; mental contact is the contact of the conscious mind, which is the mental factor of contact (sparśa-caitta). Only after contact occurs can subsequent discernment take place—when people meet face to face they come to know each other; without meeting, there is no way to know or understand one another. The manas contacting the mental sense-objects (dharma-viṣaya) is mental contact. After the mind consciousness arises, the three then come together in contact, meaning all three mutually contact one another. If there is no contact, there is no mind consciousness, and no subsequent discernment either. At this point, the manas contacts both the mental sense-objects and the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness contacts 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 contacted simultaneously by both the manas and the mind consciousness, and are also discerned simultaneously by both the manas and the mind consciousness. The manas then, through the discernment of the mind consciousness, further discerns the mental sense-objects, and thereby gains clear knowledge of them.

However, the contact of the six consciousnesses is divided into intentional contact and unintentional contact. Intentional contact is when there is first attention (manaskāra)—attention means being deliberate and intentional—and then contact with the object toward which attention was directed. Unintentional contact is when contact occurs first and attention follows; this is contact without mind and without intention, contact that occurs after the manas has exercised complete dominion, generally a sudden contact, a contact without preparation.