Sue Hamilton
Identity and Experience
Phassa In the
Majhima Nikāya passage which describes the arising of, say, visual feeling (and the form of the Pali is the same for all six senses),
phassa is said to be the combination of three things: eye, (visible) object and consciousness. This is what I have suggested should be understood as the conscious (visual) sensory event. And it is from this conscious sensory event that feeling arises. Elsewhere the way in which
phassa gives rise to agreeable, disagreeable or neutral feeling is described by means of analogy. So of agreeable feeling we read that just as when two sticks come into contact together (i.e. when there is friction between them), warmth and heat are produced, but when the two sticks are separated and kept apart, the warmth and heat dissipate and are no longer produced, in just this way agreeable feelings arise because of the appropriate
phassa and do not arise when the appropriate
phassa ceases. There is no suggestion in the text that this description refers exclusively to bodily (tactile) feelings, and the reference to contact as tactile has to be understood as meaning the coming together of any of the senses and a corresponding object. This point is stressed by the commentator on the
Brahmajāla Sutta who states that sense and object are not to be thought of as literally touching one another: rather,
phassa is what occurs when there is the appropriate coming together of the two (and
viññāṇa). A further point about the analogy of the sticks is that it raises the possibility that
phassa itself is agreeable, disagreeable or indifferent. That appropriate feelings arise from appropriate contact suggests that, say, the agreeableness of the feeling is determined at the
phassa stage of the process of the arising of the feeling.
As we shall see in chapter III, the passage from which I have quoted a description of the arising of feeling states that as the process continues apperception and identification of the experience in question take place. I have also suggested, partly in the light of this passage but also in the light of others (which are discussed fully in chapter V) that
vedanā is not to be understood as mere feeling but that it is part of the cognitive process as a whole. It follows from this suggestion that
phassa is also a
sine qua non of the cognitive process as a whole. That this is the case is explicitly supported by some canonical passages in which
phassa is found. In the
Brahmājāla Sutta, in which the Buddha systematically refutes a wide variety of views held by Brahmans and ascetics,
phassa is stated to be involved in each and every one of the views referred. Without
phassa, the
Sutta states, none of those views would be held. All of the views arise because of continual contact in the six spheres of contact. And in the
Saṃyutta Nikāya we read that (visual) contact is defined as the meeting, coincidence, coming together of eye, visible object and consciousness. Later the passage states: "Contacted one feels, contacted one thinks, and contacted one apperceives". In a description of the five
khandhas in the
Khandha Saṃyutta of the
Saṃyutta Nikāya we read that it is from the arising of
phassa that
vedanā, saññā and samkhāra arise, and from its cessation that they cease. In the same passage,
rūpa is said to arise and cease according to the arising and cessation of food (
āhāra), and
viññāṇa arises and ceases according to the arising and cessation of
namarūpa. These differences are unsurprising if one remembers that the classification into
khandhas is an analysis rather than a prescription for the arising of the human being. What is meant, therefore, is that the body is dependent for its functioning on food; and
vedanā, saññā and samkhārā are dependent for their functioning on
phassa (which the passage has defined as the conscious sensory event).
Viññāṇa is not dependent on
phassa since
phassa involves
viññāṇa. It is, rather, dependent on
namarūpa.
Nāmarūpa is discussed in chapter VI, when it will become clearer in what sense
viññāṇa might be said to be dependent on it.
It appears from what we have seen thus far that it is reasonable to describe
phassa, which is defined as the contact which takes place when
viññāṇa, sense organ and sense object come together, as a conscious sensory event, as I have suggested.
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Тема: Перевод "phassa" (Прочитано 4836 раз)