11.7 Of the Causality of Things (KV11.7)

Controverted Point: That a cause of things is predetermined.

Theravādin: Is then the cause of causes predetermined by something else? You deny. For if you assent, you commit yourself to this: that, because of the continued eventuating due to endless causation, there can never be an end made to Ill, nor any cutting off the round of rebirth, nor any Nibbāna free from the residual stuff of rebirth.

Again, is the cause of any one of the five aggregates (body, mind) predetermined? If you assent, you commit yourself to the admission that the cause itself is predetermined by something else. And if you deny—and I insist, and take no denial—you, assenting, commit yourself to this—that there is, for this endless causation, no making an end of Ill, no cutting off of the round of rebirth, no Nibbāna without stuff of rebirth … .

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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