3.3.8. Contact, sensation, and idea (MIL3.3.8)

The king said: ‘Where thought (mental perception) is, Nāgasena, is there always sensation?’

‘Yes, where thought arises there is contact, and there is sensation, and there is idea, and there is conceived intention, and there is reflection; and there is investigation.’

‘Reverend Sir, what is the distinguishing characteristic of contact (Phassa)?’

‘Touch, O king.’

‘But give me an illustration.’

‘It is as when two rams are butting together, O king. The eye should be regarded as one of those two, the form (object) as the other, and the contact as the union of the two.’

‘Give me a further illustration.’

‘It is as when two cymbals are clashed together. The one is as the eye, the other as the object, and the junction of the two is like contact.’

‘Very good, Nāgasena!’

The Questions of King Milinda, translated from the Pali by T.W. Rhys Davids.

Part 1 (to section 5.4.10) was originally published as Volume xxxv of “The Sacred Books of the East”, Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1890.

Part 2 (from section 5.5.1) was originally published as Volume xxxvi of “The Sacred Books of the East”, Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1894.

This SuttaCentral edition was prepared by Bhikkhu Sujato based on the digital text of the Internet Sacred Text Archive. The work of the Sacred Text Archive to make this text publically available is gratefully acknowledged.

In preparing this edition minor editorial changes have been made. The structure has been adapted to agree with the Mahāsaṅgīti Pali text as found on SuttaCentral. In addition, the corrections proposed by the translator in the “Addenda et Corrigenda” of the original editions have for the most part been adopted.

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Prepared for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato.