What is the contact? Can we experience the contact?

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
SarathW
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Re: What is the contact? Can we experience the contact?

Post by SarathW »

Is contact bodily or mental?
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Sam Vara
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Re: What is the contact? Can we experience the contact?

Post by Sam Vara »

SarathW wrote: Fri Aug 03, 2018 8:23 pm Is contact bodily or mental?
It's a bit of an odd question, as contact is explained as the meeting of different things. I would have thought that it depends on the sense-base. All of them partially depend upon the body, except mental contact:
Mind consciousness arises dependent on the mind and thoughts. The meeting of the three is contact.
https://suttacentral.net/sn12.44/en/sujato

But even then, some people might argue that the mind presupposes a physical body.
chownah
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Re: What is the contact? Can we experience the contact?

Post by chownah »

SarathW wrote: Fri Aug 03, 2018 8:23 pm Is contact bodily or mental?
By "bodily" do you mean "physical"?
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SarathW
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Re: What is the contact? Can we experience the contact?

Post by SarathW »

By "bodily" do you mean "physical"?
Nama or Rupa?
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chownah
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Re: What is the contact? Can we experience the contact?

Post by chownah »

SarathW wrote: Sat Aug 04, 2018 2:46 am
By "bodily" do you mean "physical"?
Nama or Rupa?
By "bodily" do you mean "physical"?
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SarathW
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Re: What is the contact? Can we experience the contact?

Post by SarathW »

By "bodily" do you mean "physical"?
Now I am lost.
Is Rupa physical?
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justindesilva
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Re: What is the contact? Can we experience the contact?

Post by justindesilva »

SarathW wrote: Fri Aug 03, 2018 8:23 pm Is contact bodily or mental?
Contact is bodily but impressions are mental.
SarathW
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Re: What is the contact? Can we experience the contact?

Post by SarathW »

I think contact is non-physical. (Nama)
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
chownah
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Re: What is the contact? Can we experience the contact?

Post by chownah »

SarathW wrote: Sat Aug 04, 2018 9:50 pm I think contact is non-physical. (Nama)
This is progress.
Your original question:
Is contact bodily or mental?
...so...to the extent that one thinks that "bodily" means "physical" you think that contact is not bodily.....but what do you think if someone thinks that "bodily" is taken to be relative to the mental fabrication of the body?
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Re: What is the contact? Can we experience the contact?

Post by sentinel »

When one talk about body specifically it means physical aspect .
But , if we are talking about mental formation with regard to the body , this is a different story .

Contact is but a tagging for the three things in meeting .
The contact of three things is different from the contact of , such as , touching the table physically .
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Re: What is the contact? Can we experience the contact?

Post by Spiny Norman »

SarathW wrote: Sat Aug 04, 2018 9:50 pm I think contact is non-physical. (Nama)
Sort of, though phassa cannot occur without rupa, at least for the five "physical" sense-bases which take derived form as their objects.
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