10.4 Of Sensations as Moral and Immoral (KV10.4)

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

Theravādin: (Verbatim similar to Kv 10.3 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.

Mahāsaṅghika: 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. 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.

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