10.2 Of the Path and Bodily Form (KV10.2)

Controverted Point: That the physical frame of one who is practising the Eightfold Path is included in that Path.

Theravādin: 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.

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. 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.

If you affirm the absence of these mental characteristics from those three factors of the Path, you must also affirm their absence from all these five factors of the Path.

Mahiṁsāsaka, Sammitiya, Mahāsaṅghika: But you admit that supremely right 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.

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

This SuttaCentral edition was prepared by Manfred Wierich and Ven. Vimala and proofread by Josephine Tobin. Some changes were introduced:

Abbreviations, i.e., those of cited works and the participants in the controversies, were expanded.

Cross-references were linked.

Some typographic changes were introduced, among others, i.e.: the phonetic symbol “ŋ” was changed to the Pāli diacritical letter “ṃ”, “ô” to “o”, single quotes to double quotes, and “:—” to “:”.

Letter-spacing with fixed spaces was replaced with bold font.

The corrigenda were merged into the text. Some could not be resolved, though.

This electronic version is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 licence (CC BY-NC 3.0) as found here: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

All copyright is owned by the Pali Text Society. See also the statement under http://www.palitext.com/ → Publications → Copyright Announcement. For non-commercial use only.