Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c33.s3.55

v2.c33.s3.55

The opponents state that through the use of five viññāṇas a person may engender rāga (attachment) is self-evident though the Theravādins may not admit that the five perceptions are sābhogā (X. 5). In the discussion (VIII. 4) whether the five āyatanas are associated with desires (kāma), the Theravādins acknowledge that Buddha said that the five āyatanas may or may not be kāmaguṇas, and explained the same by saying that a person's organs of sense or the objects of the senses are not by themselves kāmaguṇas (associated with desires) but one, who has saṃkapparāga (desireful intention) and does not dissociate his mind from the objects of sense, is not expected to attain detachment from worldly objects.¹ The Mahāsanghikas, I think, hold the identical opinion though it is not so clearly expressed in Vasumitra, it is only the Sarvāstivādins who held the opinion that the vijñānas conduce to sarāga and not to virāga (Masuda, p. 48).