Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c36.62

v2.c36.62

The next attempt of the Th. is to find out whether the Sam. regard *puggala* as something existing like any of the 57 elements, *rūpa*, *vedanā*, *saññā*, etc. The Sam. deny it saying they do not admit *puggala* as an element apart from the 57 elements,⁴ and in support of their contention they quote from the Nikāyas (*Dīgha*, iii, 232; *Majjhima*, i. 341; *Aṅguttara*, ii. 95) the passage "atthi puggalo attahitāya paṭipanno", which indicates that *puggala* exists but not apart from the elements. The Th. also do not clearly state that *puggala* (as a *paññatti*) is different from the elements, the reason assigned by Buddhaghosa¹ being that the questions of the opponents have a mixture of *sammuti* and *paramattha* truths and as such the Th. have no other alternative but to leave them unanswered (*thapaniya*).²