17.6 Of the Order and the Accepting of Gifts (KV17.6)

Controverted Point: That it ought not to be said “The Order accepts gifts”.

Theravādin: But is not the Order worthy of offerings of hospitality, of gifts, of salutations, as the world's supreme field of merit? How then can it be wrong to say it accepts gifts? Were not its four pairs of men, its eight classes of individuals declared by the Exalted One to be worthy of gifts? And are there not they who give to it?

Finally, was it not said by the Exalted One:

“As doth the holy flame its offering,
As doth the bounteous earth the summer rain,
So doth the Order, in rapt thought expert,
The Gift accept”?

Hence surely the Order accepts gifts.

Mahāsuññatāvādin: But can a Path accept? Can Fruition accept? … .

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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