13.1 Of Age-Long Penalty (KV13.1)

Controverted Point: That one doomed to age-long retribution must endure it for a whole kappa.

Theravādin: But this implies that the cycle may start when a Buddha is born into the world, or when the Order is dissolved, or when the condemned person is committing the act incurring the penalty, or when he is dying … .

It also implies that if he live for a past kappa, he may live for a future one—nay, for two, three, or four … .

And if during his kappa there be a cosmic conflagration, whither will he go?

Rājagirika: To another plane of the universe.

Theravādin: Do the dead go thither? Do they go to the sky?

Rājagirika: The dead go.

Theravādin: Can the act involving the penalty take effect in a subsequent life? You must deny … Hence he must go to the sky. This implies that he has the gift of iddhi—else he could not. Now can one doomed to age-long retribution practise the four steps to Iddhi—will, effort, thought, investigation? … .

Rājagirika: But if I am wrong, was it not said by the Exalted One:

“Doomed to the Waste, to purgatorial woe
For age-long penalties, provoking schism.
Of discord fain, fixed in unrighteousness.
From the sure haven doth he fall away,
Breaking the concord of the Brotherhood,
Age-long in purgat'ry he waxeth ripe”?

Hence my proposition is true.

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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