Kathavatthu - Of Cessation & Of the Path and Bodily Form

Points of Controversy
OR
Subjects of Discourse
BEING A TRANSLATION OF THE KATHAVATTHU
FROM THE ABHIDHAMMA-PITAKA
BY
SHWE ZAN AUNG, B.A
AND
MRS. RHYS DAVIDS, M.A

BOOK X
1. Of Cessation.
Controverted Point.—That before five aggregates seeking
rebirth have ceased, five operative1 aggregates arise.
From the Commentary.—Some—for instance, the Andhakas—hold
that if, before a unit of snb-consciousness lapses, another unit of con-
sciousness, with its [operative] fourfold aggregate and the material
aggregate sprung from it, has not arisen, the living continuum must
be cut off.2
[1] Th.—Is there then a congeries of ten aggregates?
Do ten aggregates arrive at actuality? If you deny, where
is your proposition? If you assent, you must answer for
two copies of each aggregate [which is unorthodox].
[2] The same argument holds if you maintain that only
four operative aggregates
3
may arise, substituting 'nine'
for ' ten' [i.e., five plus four].
[3] And the same argument holds if you maintain that
only operative insight
4
arises, substituting 'six' for 'nine '
[i.e., five plus one].
[4] A.—When the five aggregates seeking rebirth cease,
does the Path then arise ?

1
Kiriya, here meaning that which induces action, such as bodily
movement, etc. It is not specialized, as in Compendium, pp, 19,
235 f.; and may therefore be consciousness entailing merit or demerit.
The aggregates (khandha's) must be conceived as series of life-
moments.
2
Cf. op. cit., 126.
3
Excluding the material aggregate.
4
I.e., insight understood as in IX. 5.—Comy.


Th—Yes.
A.—What! do the dead, does one who has ended his
days, develop the Path?1

2. Of the Path and Bodily Form.
Controverted Point.—That the physical frame of one who
is practising the Eightfold Path is included in that Path.
From the Commentary.—Those who, like the Mahingsasakas, Sam-
mitiyas and Mahasanghikas, hold that the three factors of the Path :
—supremely right speech, action, and livelihood—are material, are
confronted with the contradiction that, since the factors of the Path
are subjective, they imply mental attributes lacking in matter.
[1] Th.—You must then be prepared to affirm also that
bodily form is [like the Path-factors] subjective, having
the mental attributes of adverting, ideating, co-ordinated
application, attending, volition, anticipating, aiming. You
deny this and rightly, for surely the opposite is true.
[2, 3] The three factors of the Path [in which you deem
things corporeal to be included]—supremely right speech,
action, livelihood—these, you affirm, are not subjective, not
having the mental attributes above-named. [4-5] But the
other five factors of the Path—supremely right views,
aspiration, endeavour, mindfulness, concentration—these,
you admit, are subjective, and have the mental attributes
above-named.
[6, 7] If you affirm the absence of these mental charac-
teristics from those three factors of the Path, you must
also affirm their absence from all these five factors of the
Path.
[8] M. S. M.—But you admit that supremely right
1
'By sophistry' (chalavada , Comy.), he has shifted from
psychological to religious ground, then skips back again, drawing a
false analogy between the final death of any one life and momentary
death. The aggregates typify the life of worldly desires, which for
the convert is superseded by the higher life of the Path. Psycho-
logically and physically, the cessation of their continuity means death.
Cf. below, X. 3.


speech, action, and livelihood are factors of the Path, [and
these are manifestations of corporeality]. Surely then
the practiser's physical frame is included in the Path.1

1
I.e., in part of it. The opponents regard those three factors as
physical, the Theravadin as psychical. For instance, according to the
latter's doctrine, sammavac a is not so much the right utterance
itself as that factor in the religious character by which right speech is
engendered.