Hello Alan,
op 19-09-2005 03:38 schreef Alan McClure op alanmcclure3@...:
Perhaps you could explain to me a bit

> more about the difference between "contact" and "sense contact." The
> sutta speaks of the six sense-bases (including the mind) and then the
> contact related to those six senses.

N: I know that some translators count the mind as a sense and speak of six
senses.
The aayatanas, translated as sensebases: the inner aayatanas are the five
sense organs and manaayatana or mind-base, including all cittas, and then
the outer aayatanas: the sense objects and dhammaayatana, mind objects.
I would like to distinguish between the five sense organs which are bases
and doorways for the relevant cittas arising in a sense-door process and the
mind-door which is the last bhavangacitta arising before the mind-door
process begins. Thus, the mind-door is mental.
There are sense-door processes of cittas which experience visible object and
the other sense objects and there are mind-door processes of cittas which
experience: the sense objects, further the ruupas which can be experienced
only through the mind-door, mental phenomena (cittas and cetasikas),
nibbaana and concepts. Thus, any object can be experienced through the
mind-door.
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A: To me this allows us to call it

> sense-contact. Since the mind is a sense, then thought (a very general
> term) would also be sensed by the mind, or as you say, "contact arises
> with thinking."

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N: When we speak about thinking, cittas arising in a mind-door process can
think of concepts such as persons, events, things.
Contact, phassa cetasika, is a universal, sabbacitta-saadhaaranaa, it
accompanies each citta and performs its fucntion of touching (phusana) the
object, whatever it may be.
If one translates phassa as contact it is more general and it can serve for
all cittas. We have to think of jhaanacitta and lokuttara citta that have
nothing to do with the sense objects.
If you compare with Buddhist Dictionary, Nyanatiloka, he translates phassa
as: sensorial or mental impression. He refers to M.9.
Nina.