16.8 Of Matter as Result (KV16.8)

Controverted Point: That material qualities are results of karma.

Theravādin: Do you mean to imply that matter is of the nature of feeling, pleasurable, painful, or neutral, that it is conjoined with feeling, with mental reaction, and other phases of consciousness, that it has the properties of mental adverting, adjustment, etc.? Is not the contrary the case? If you assent, you cannot maintain your proposition.

All those things are mental characteristics, not material. But you wish to see in matter a “result” of karma, without the mental characters which are the properties of “result”… .

Andhaka, Sammitiya: But is not consciousness and its concomitant attributes, which arise through actions done, “result”? Surely then material qualities, which arise through actions done, are equally “result”?

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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