Points of Controversy

3.8. Of the Celestial Ear

Controverted Point: That the fleshly ear, when It is the medium of an idea, is the celestial ear.

PTS CS 3.8.1 and PTS CS 3.8.2 correspond exactly to the same sections in Kv 3.7.

Theravādin: Further, you are, by your proposition, also admitting that the celestial ear, when it is the medium of a sensuous idea, becomes the fleshly ear. Further, you are also admitting that there is only one ear, or sense of hearing. If you deny, you cannot maintain your proposition. If you assent, I would ask whether the Exalted One did not speak of two ears—the fleshly ear and the heavenly ear?

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.