Hi James,
I don't know what version or whose translation Leigh was using when he brought up these ideas, but in looking back at this sutta (MN 30) in my Wisdom Publications edition translated by Bhk. Nanamoli and edited by Bhk. Bodhi, Bhk Bodhi makes clear in a footnote what this "controversy" is referring to. Perhaps Leigh was unaware of this explanation when he wrote his comment.
At MN 30.13 there is the following statement:
13. "Here, brahmin, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the first jhana, which is accompanied by applied and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion. This is a state higher and more sublime than knowledge and vision."[353]
Footnote:
353. Although the jhanas may also have been included in the attainment of concentration set forth in sec.10, and knowledge and vision was described as higher than the attainment of concentration, the jhanas now become higher than knowledge and vision because they are being treated as the basis for the attainment of cessation and the destruction of the taints (in sec. 21).
The attainment of cessation is a graphic demonstration that the mind can become free from (unattached to) the taints of: 1) sensual desire, 2) the desire for becoming, and 3) the taint of ignorance. The destruction of the taints is what prohibits these "unwholesome views," which arise from mental conditioning, from arising and affecting the mind of the awakened individual.
I hope that explanation helps you.
In peace,
Ian
