11.6 Of Concentration (KV11.6)

Controverted Point: That the continuity of consciousness is concentration of mind (samādhi).

Theravādin: Your statement must include of course past and future states of consciousness in the series. You forgot that, and you must agree that the past having ceased and the future being unborn, it is not right to say that they form a present concentrated state of mind.

Sabbatthivādin, Uttarāpathaka: Then is concentration confined to a momentary conscious unit?

Theravādin: Yes.

Sabbatthivādin, Uttarāpathaka: But if you could affirm that concentration is involved in each momentary unit of consciousness, you should say no less that one had won the ecstasy of Jhāna on the actual occasion of any sense-cognition, or at the very moment of thinking immoral thoughts, accompanied by lust, hate, dullness, or any of the ten corruptions … .

Theravādin: If your proposition is true, it must also be true a fortiori that a series of bad conscious units is concentration, whether it is accompanied by lust, hate, or any of the ten corruptions. This you deny … .

Sabbatthivādin, Uttarāpathaka: But if we are wrong, did not the Exalted One say:

“I, friend Jainas, am able, without moving the body or using the voice, to spend seven nights and days in the experience of absolute bliss”?

Surely then the flow of consciousness constitutes concentration of mind.

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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