Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c27.32

v2.c27.32

Pakudha-Kaccāyana (Pakudha-Kātiyāna, Kakudha-Kaccāyana, Kakuda-Kātiyāna).—Head of one of the six heretical sects of the Buddha's time. In the Sāmaññaphala Sutta,¹ Ajātasattu is said to have visited him and obtained from him an exposition of his teaching, which was to the effect that the four elements—earth, fire, air, water; pleasure, pain, and the soul—these seven things were eternally existent and unchangeable in their very nature; that there is no volitional activity of consciousness in them. His doctrine is, therefore, one of non-action (akiriya-vāda). When one, with a sharp sword, cleaves a head in twain, no one is thereby deprived of life, a sword has merely penetrated into the interval between seven elementary substances.² In other words, there is no such act as killing, or hearing, or knowing, etc.; no conceptions of, or distinction between, good and bad, knowledge and ignorance, etc.³