8.11 Of a Result of Karma (KV8.11)

Controverted Point: That because of karma an Arahant may fall away from Arahantship.

Theravādin: How can you affirm this without also affirming—which you will not—that those in the three lower stages of fruition may fall away from their fruit?

And your claim is that he may fall away, not because of such karma, or prior action, as murder, theft, fornication, evil speech, matricide, parricide, Arahanticide, wounding a Buddha, or schism-making, but because of having calumniated Arahants. You affirm he may fall away because of having calumniated Arahants, but you deny that everyone who calumniates Arahants realizes Arahantship. Therefore your proposition that falling is due to calumniation is absurd.

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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