21.6 Of All-Pervading Power (KV21.6)

Controverted Point: That the Buddhas persist in all directions.

Theravādin: Do you mean that they persist in the eastern quarter? You deny. Then you contradict yourself. You assent. Then I ask, How is this Eastern Buddha named? What is his family? his clan? what the names of his parents? or of his pair of elect disciples? or of his body-servant? What sort of raiment or bowl does he bear? and in what village, town, city, kingdom, or country?

Or does a Buddha persist in the southern … western … northern quarter? or in the nadir? or in the zenith? Of any such an one I ask you the same questions … Or does he persist in the realm of the four great Kings? or in the heaven of the Three-and-Thirty? or in that of the Yāmā or the Tusita devas? or in that of the devas who rejoice in creating, or of those who exploit the creations of others? or in the Brahma-world? If you assent, I ask you further as before … .

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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