Points of Controversy

10.4. Of Sensations as Moral and Immoral

Controverted Point: That the five kinds of sense-consciousness are good and bad (have positive moral quality).

Theravādin: Verbatim similar to PTS CS 10.3.1–PTS CS 10.3.3.) The argument being here, too, that the senses are limited to sense-objects, ethical and intellectual matters being the concerns of intellect, will, etc.

Mahāsaṅghikas: Well, but was it not said by the Exalted One:

“Here, bhikkhus, when a bhikkhu sees an object with the eye, he grasps, … or again, does not grasp, at the general characters or the details of it, … or hears a sound, etc…”

Surely then the five sorts of sense-consciousness are good and bad.

The Points of Controversy, an English translation of the Pali Abhidhamma Kathāvatthu. Translated by Shwe Zan Aung and C.A.F. Rhys Davids. Published by Pali Text Society, 1915.

This SuttaCentral edition was prepared by Bhikkhu Sujato, assisted by Jatin Patel and team from Hi-Tech Outsourcing, in 2013–2014. It contains several minor changes in terminology, the intent of which was to bring the translation in line with more commonly accepted renderings, while eliminating some ambiguities and archaisms. These were particularly apparent in the verses, so I have newly translated most of these. In addition, the corrections listed on pp. lv–lvi of the original edition incorporated in the text. Much of the text is highly compressed, and is often a paraphrase rather than a translation. All notes and excerpts from the commentaries have been omitted, with the exception of the identification of schools, which is marked with each argument. These do not entail that these schools existed at the time of the Kathāvatthu’s composition.

In May 2013, this volume was kindly released by the Pali Text Society under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 licence (CC BY-NC 3.0). The current SuttaCentral edition, including all revisions, corrections, additions, and modifications, is released under the same terms.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato.