What is Contact?

Contact means touching and encountering, coming into contact. 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). Only after there is contact can subsequent discernment occur—when people meet, they come to know each other; without meeting, there is no way to know or understand. The manas contacting the mental sense-objects is mental contact. After the mind consciousness arises, the three then come together in contact, meaning all three contact one another mutually. If there is no contact, then there is no mind consciousness, and no subsequent discernment either. At this time, 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 intentions of the manas, while the manas both roughly discerns the mental sense-objects and knows the intentions of the mind consciousness. The mental sense-objects are contacted by both the manas and the mind consciousness, and are simultaneously discerned by both the manas and the mind consciousness. The manas, 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 where manasikāra (directing the mind) comes first—manasikāra means having mind and intention—and then there is contact with the dharma toward which the mind was directed. Unintentional contact is where contact comes first and manasikāra comes afterward; this is contact without mind and without intention, contact that occurs after the manas has exercised complete dominion, generally a sudden contact, an unprepared contact.