Contact

Contact (Skt. sparśa; Tib. རེག་པ་ or རེག་བྱ་, Wyl. reg pa, reg bya) — one of the fifty-one mental states defined in Abhidharma literature. According to the Compendium of Abhidharma, it belongs to the subgroup of the five ever-present mental states. Contact is also the sixth of the twelve nidanas.

Definitions

In the Khenjuk, Mipham Rinpoche says (Tib. རེག་པ་ནི་(ཡུལ་དབང་ཤེས་)གསུམ་འདུས་ནས་(སྔ་མ་ན་མེད་པའི་)དབང་པོའི་འགྱུར་བ་ཡོངས་སུ་གཅོད་པ(འམ་ཤེས་པ)་ཚོར་བའི་རྟེན་བྱེད་པའོ།

• Contact is the meeting together of the three (object, sense faculty and consciousness) and the positive determination (or cognition) of the (previously non-existing) faculty. It is the support of sensation. (▷RIGPA)
• Contact is the meeting together of the three (object, sense faculty and consciousness) and the cognition of the faculty's (particular) event. It supports sensation. (Erik Pema Kunsang)