Early Indian and Theravada Buddhism: Soteriological Controversy a ...

With the considerations laid out in the introduction and the beginning of this chapter in mind, I will turn my attention first to specific issues concerning the path as it is presented in the early Indian Buddhist tradition, particularly as it is reflected in the canon of the Theravāda school, written in the Pāli language. Early in my investigations, one discourse (AN II.161ff) from the Pāli canon caught my attention. It was a rarely referred-to discourse, in which two of the Buddha’s most prominent disciples, Saviṭṭha and Mahākoṭṭhita, approach Sāriputta for counsel. Sāriputta tells the pair that there are three types of noble persons in the world: (1) the saddhāvimutta, one who is “liberated by faith”; (2) the kāyasakkhin, one who has “the body as a witness”; and (3) the diṭṭhippatta, one who has “attained vision.” He then asks the pair, “Which of these three is most excellent and outstanding to you?” Saviṭṭha replies that the one liberated by faith is the best, in that such a person possesses the spiritual faculty (indriya) of faith in the highest degree.² Mahākoṭṭhita’s response is that the so-called body-witness is the best, because this type of person has the spiritual faculty of meditative concentration (samādhi) in the highest degree. They then ask Sāriputta for his opinion. Not surprisingly, given his reputation in the saṅgha both then and now as Buddha’s foremost disciple in insight (paññā), he says he prefers the type who has attained vision, for such a person has the faculty of insight in the highest degree.

The three, arahants all, decide to visit the Buddha, agreeing that they will accept his word as final. But the Buddha does not give them a clear-cut answer, stating that there are situations in which any one of the three types of persons could be bound for arahantship, whereas the other two types could be advancing only as far as the stages of the once-returner or non-returner in this life. The discourse ends with the Buddha concluding, “Sāriputta, it is not easy to decide for certain who is most excellent and outstanding.” Richard Gombrich argued that the Buddha’s statement implies that an adept may follow any of the three faculties (faith, concentration, and insight) all the way to awakening (bodhi),³ but I would question this; I will show that though there are indeed paths that