7.3 Of Mental Properties (KV7.3)

Controverted Point: That they do not exist.

Theravādin: You surely do not also deny that some mental phenomena are concomitant, co-existent, conjoined with consciousness, have their genesis and cessation, physical basis and object in common with it? Why then exclude the “mental”? Contact, for instance, is co-existent with consciousness; hence it is a “mental”, i.e., a property or concomitant of mind. So are feeling, perception, volition, faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, understanding, lust, hate, dullness,… indiscretion—all the “mentals”.

Rājagirika, Siddhatthika: You allow then that what is co-existent with consciousness is a “mental”. Do you equally admit that what is co-existent with contact is a “contactal”, or that what is co-existent with each of those mental phenomena is to be analogously regarded; for instance, that what is co-existent with indiscretion is an “indiscretional”?

Theravādin: Certainly. And if you assert that there are no mental phenomena corresponding to our term “mentals”,

was it not said by the Exalted One:

“Yea! verily this mind and mental states
Are void of soul for one who understands.
Whoso discerns the low and high in both,
The seer, he knows that neither can endure”?

Or again, was it not said by the Exalted One:

“Suppose in this case, Kevaṭṭa, that a bhikkhu can make manifest the mind, and the mental property, and the direction and application of thought in other beings, other individuals, saying: Such is your mind. This is your mind. Thus and thus are you conscious”?

Hence there is such a thing as a “mental” that is, a property, or concomitant, of consciousness or mind

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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