manner half mythological half metaphysical is indicated
by other heresies, such as that there is an intermediate realm where
beings await rebirth, that the dead benefit by gifts given in the
world[573], that there are animals in heaven, that the Four Truths, the
Chain of Causation, and the Eightfold Path, are self-existent
(asankhata).

The point of view of the Katha-vatthu, and indeed of the whole Pali
Tripitaka, is that of the Vibhajjavadins, which seems to mean those who
proceed by analysis and do not make vague generalizations. This was the
school to which Tissa Moggaliputta belonged and was identical with the
Theravada (teaching of the elders) or a section of it. The prominence of
this sect in the history of Buddhism has caused its own view, namely
that it represents primitive Buddhism, to be widely accepted. And this
view deserves respect for it rests on a solid historical basis, namely
that about two and a half centuries after the Buddha's death and in the
country where he preached, the Vibhajjavadins claimed to get back to his
real teaching by an examination of the existing traditions[574]. This is
a very early starting-point. But the Sarvastivadins[575] were also an
early school which attained to widespread influence and had a similar
desire to preserve the simple and comparatively human presentment of the
Buddha's teaching as opposed to later embellishments. Only three
questions in the Katha-vatthu are directed against them but this
probably means not that they were unimportant but that they did not
differ much from the Vibhajjavadins. The special views attributed to
them are that everything really exists, that an arhat can fall from
arhatship, and that continuity of thought constitutes Samadhi or
meditation. These theses may perhaps be interpreted as indicative of an
aversion to metaphysics and the supernatural. A saint has not undergone
any supernatural transformation but has merely reached a level from
which he can fall: meditation is simply fixity of attention, not a
mystic trance. In virtue of the first doctrine European writers often
speak of the Sarvastivadins as realists but their peculiar view
concerned not so much the question of objective reality as the
difference between being and becoming. They said that the world _is_
whereas other schools maintained that it was a continual process of
becoming[576]. It is not necessary at present to follow further the
history of this important school. It had a lo