俱舍論記 4.41

4.41

"Contact (sparśa) means, from the sense-bases and objects... being able to make contact": it is born from the coming together of the three—sense-base, consciousness, and object; this identifies it by citing its cause. It is able to exercise the function of contacting the object before it; this clarifies it by citing its activity. Another explanation: it is able to cause the mind and so forth to make contact with the object before it. Although all minds and mental factors could be called 'contact' in the sense of confronting an object, because its contacting is predominant, it exclusively receives the name 'contact.' Therefore, the Abhidharmāvatāra states: "Contact is born from the coming together of sense-base, object, and consciousness, and causes the mind to touch the object. Because it is able to nurture the mind and mental factors and is concordant with pleasant sensation and so on, it is differentiated into three (the explanation says: it causes the mind [to touch the object] following what is predominant; in principle it actually also causes the mental factors to touch the object)." If one relies on the Nyāyānusāra, it states: "It is able to act as the cause of sensation (the explanation says: citing the effect to reveal the cause)."