13.3 Of Abettors of Cardinal Crimes (KV13.3)

Controverted Point: That a person who, as abettor, is involved in “immediate retribution” may enter on the True Path of Assurance.

Uttarāpathaka: Do you mean that such a culpable abettor can enter on both the False and the True Path of Assurance? If you deny, neither can you affirm your proposition.

Again, if he become worried and uneasy after his connection with the deed, how can he ever enter on the True Path of Assurance?

Theravādin: You say he is incapable of entering on that Path. But are you assuming that one or other of the five cardinal crimes has actually been committed through his abetment? Your proposition implies this.

Again, you affirm that an abettor of such crimes, when he has withdrawn his instigation, and has dispelled his worry and remorse, is still incapable of entering upon the True Path of Assurance. Hereby you imply that some one of the grave misdeeds just named has been actually committed at his instigation. But can you maintain your position in the face of his reforming before the commission of the act?

Uttarāpathaka: But has he not previously instigated someone to commit it? How then can you judge him capable of entering on the True Path of Assurance?

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.