14.4 Of the Outward Life of an Ariyan (KV14.4)

Controverted Point: That the Ariyan “forms” of speech and action are derived from the four primary qualities of matter.

Theravādin: You admit that the qualities of the Ariyan are moral, and not unmoral. But the primary qualities of matter are not moral; they are unmoral … .

Again, there is in these primary qualities nothing akin to the absence of intoxicant, fetter, tie, flood, bond, hindrance, infection, grasping, corruption, characteristic of the Ariyan's qualities. On the contrary, the former are concomitant with these ethically undesirable things.

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

“Whatever matter there is, bhikkhus, is the four primary qualities and their derivatives”.

Hence it is surely right to say that the material qualities of the Ariyan are derived from the primary qualities.

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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