15.10 Of Trance as a Means of reaching the Unconscious Sphere (KV15.10)

Controverted Point: That trance conduces to rebirth in the unconscious sphere.

Theravādin: Can you say of anyone who has attained to trance that in his character are the three moral conditions—absence of greed, of hate, of dullness, also faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and understanding? Is not the contrary usually the case? … .

You admit of course that one in trance is without mental reaction, feeling, perception, volition, cognition? But you cannot maintain that a Path can be practised in the absence of these.

Finally, your proposition implies that all who attain to trance are tending to rebirth in the Unconscious Sphere—which you must deny … .

Hetuvādin: But you admit, anyway, that in trance one is unconscious, and in that sphere one is unconscious. Hence I maintain that this tendency is a fact.

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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