Geoff:
I was just paraphrasing the professor's own words. Karunadasa's
The Dhamma Theory: Philosophical
Cornerstone of the Abhidhamma:
He goes on to say that "a dhamma is a truly existent thing
(sabhāvasiddha)." This is a completely realist view. And the
inevitable consequence entailed by this realist view, wherein all
conditioned dhammas are "truly existing things," is that path
cognitions and fruition cognitions of each of the four paths and
fruits must occur within an utterly void vacuum state cessation,
which is considered to be the ultimately existent "unconditioned."
This is described by Jack Kornfield:
This notion of path and fruition cognitions is not supported by the
Pāli canon. Moreover, there are now numerous people who've had such
experiences sanctioned by "insight meditation" teachers, and who
have gone on to proclaim to the world that arahants can still
experience lust and the other defiled mental phenomena. Taking all
of this into account there is no good reason whatsoever to accept
this interpretation of path and fruition cognitions. Void vacuum
state cessations are not an adequate nor reliable indication of
stream entry or any of the other paths and fruitions.
All the best,
Geoff