Sparśa

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The Five Aggregates (pañca khandha) according to the Pali Canon.
	form (rūpa)   4 elements (mahābhūta)         ↓     contact (phassa)     ↓ ↑   consciousness (viññāna)	→ ←       ←	mental factors (cetasika)     feeling (vedanā)       perception (sañña)       formation (saṅkhāra)
Form is derived from the Four Great Elements. Consciousness arises from other aggregates. Mental Factors arise from the Contact of Consciousness and other aggregates.
Source: MN 109 (Thanissaro, 2001)  |  diagram details

The 12 Nidānas:   Ignorance ↓ Formations ↓ Consciousness ↓ Mind & Body ↓ Six Sense Bases ↓ Contact ↓ Feeling ↓ Craving ↓ Clinging ↓ Becoming ↓ Birth ↓ Old Age & Death

Sparśa (Sanskrit) or Phassa (Pāli) is a Buddhist term meaning "contact" or "touching" or "sense impression".

Synonyms:

• 觸 or 触 Cn: chù; Jp: soku; Vi: xúc
• Tibetan: reg.pa

Sparśa refers to the contact between the sense, sense-objects, and sense-consciousness for example, between eye, light and awareness of vision. In the Pali Canon, there are six "classes" of contact: eye-contact, ear-contact, nose-contact, tongue-contact, body-contact and mind-contact.^[1]

Sparśa is the sixth of the Twelve Nidānas. It is conditioned by the presence of the six sense-openings ṣaḍāyatana, and in turn is a condition for the arising of physical sensations (vedanā).

In terms of the Five Aggregates, sparśa is the implicit basis by which Form (rūpa) and Consciousness (viññāna) lead to the mental factors of Feeling (vedanā), Perception (sañña) and Formations (sankhāra).

In the Abhidhamma and Pali commentaries, sparśa is one of the fifty-two mental factors (cetasika), the first of seven sabbacitta, which are present in all classes of consciousness.^[2]

[edit] See also

• Ayatana (sense bases)
• Skandha (aggregates)

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Thanissaro (1997).
2. ^ U Kyaw Min (n.d.), Appendix II

[edit] Sources

• Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (1997). Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta: Analysis of Dependent Co-arising (SN 12.2). Retrieved 2007-06-20 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/samyutta/sn-12-002-tb0.html.

• U Kyaw Min (n.d.). Introducing Buddhist Abhidhamma: Meditation and Concentration. Retrieved 2007-06-21 from "Tipitaka,

der Pali Kanon des Theravāda-Buddhismus" at http://www.palikanon.com/english/intro-abhidhamma/book_i.htm.

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Preceded by Ṣaḍāyatana

Twelve Nidānas Sparśa

Succeeded by Vedanā