17.10 Of the Buddha and the Fruit of Giving (KV17.10)

Controverted Point: That it should not be said that “Anything given to the Buddha brings great reward”.

Theravādin: Now was not the Exalted One of all two-footed creatures the highest and best and foremost and uttermost, supreme, unequalled, unrivalled, peerless, incomparable, unique? How then could a gift to Him fail to bring great reward? Are there any equal to Him in virtue, in will, in intellect?

And was it not said by the Exalted One:

“Neither in this world nor in any other is any to be found better than, or equal to the Buddha who has reached the summit of them who are worthy of offerings, who are desirous of merit, who seek abundant fruit”?

Hence surely anything given to the Buddha brings great reward.

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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