Help! The Kalama Sutta
Help!
by Buddhadasa
Bhikkhu
(translated by Santikaro
Bhikkhu)
All people in the world,
including the Thai people, are now in the same situation as were
the Kalama people in Kesaputta
township, India, during the time of the Buddha. Their village was
in a location through which many religious teachers frequently
passed. Each of these teachers taught that his personal doctrine
was the only truth, and that all others before and after him were
wrong. The Kalamas could not decide which doctrine they should
accept and follow. When the Buddha once visited their village, the
Kalamas brought up their problem with him: they did not know which
teacher to believe. Consequently, the Buddha taught them what is
now known as the Kalama Sutta, which we will examine
here.
Nowadays, worldly people study
many different approaches to economic, social, and technological
development. The universities teach just about everything. Then,
regarding spiritual matter, here in Thailand alone we have so many
teachers, so many interpretations of the Buddha’s teachings, and so
many meditation centers that nobody knows which teaching to accept
or which practice to follow. Thus, it can be said that we have
fallen into the same position as the Kalamas were in two millennia
ago.
The Buddha taught them, and us,
not to accept or believe anything immediately just because it fits
with any of a number of criteria. He listed ten such criteria for
them to be wary of, so they could avoid becoming anyone’s
intellectual slave, even of the Buddha Himself. This principle
enables us to choose for ourselves the teachings that are truly
capable of quenching suffering (dukkha). The ten examples the
Buddha gave in the Kalama Sutta follow.
1. Ma
anussavena:
Don’t accept and believe
something to be true just because it has been passed along and
retold for many years. Such credulity is a characteristic of
brainless people, of "sawdust brains," such as those in Bangkok who
once believed that disasters would befall people born in the
"ma" years. (The years of the small snake, big snake,
horse, and goat — five through eight in the old twelve-year Thai
cycle — all begin with "ma.")
2. Ma
paramparaya:
Don’t believe in something
merely because it has become a traditional practice. People tend to
imitate what others do and then pass the habit along, as in the
story of the rabbit that was terrified by a fallen mango (like
Chicken Little’s falling sky). When the other animals saw the
rabbit running at top speed, they were frightened too and ran after
it. Most of them ended up tripping and tumbling off a cliff to
their deaths. Any vipassana (insight) practice that merely
imitates others, that just follows traditions, will bring similar
results.
3. Ma
itikiraya:
Don’t accept and believe
something simply because of reports and news of it spreading far
and wide, whether through one’s village or throughout the whole
world. Only fools are susceptible to such rumors, for they refuse
to exercise their own powers of intelligence and
discrimination.
4. Ma
Pitakasampadanena:
Don’t accept and believe
something just because it is cited in a pitaka (text). The
word "pitaka," although most commonly used for Buddhist
scriptures, can mean anything written or inscribed on a suitable
writing material. The teachings memorized and passed on orally
should not be confused with pitaka. A pitaka is a
certain kind of conditioned thing made and controlled by human
beings, which can be improved or changed by human hands. Thus, we
cannot trust every letter and word we read in them. We need to use
our powers of discrimination to see how these words can be applied
to the quenching of suffering. There are discrepancies among the
pitaka of the various Buddhist schools, so care is called
for.
5. Ma
takkahetu:
Don’t believe something solely
on the grounds of logical reasoning (takka). Logic is
merely one branch of knowledge that people use to try to figure out
the truth. Takka or Logic is not infallible. If its data
or inferences are incorrect, it can go wrong.
6. Ma
nayahetu:
Don’t believe or accept
something merely because it appears correct on the grounds of
Naya or what is now called "philosophy." In Thailand, we
translate the Western term philosophy as prajna. Our
Indian friends cannot accept this because "naya" is just a
point of view or opinion; it isn’t the supreme understanding
properly referred to as panya or prajna.
Naya or nayaya is merely a method of deductive
reasoning based on hypotheses or assumptions. Such reasoning can
err when the method or hypothesis is inappropriate.
7. Ma
akaraparivitakkena:
Don’t believe or accept
something simply because of superficial thinking, that is, because
it appeals to what we nowadays call "common sense," which is merely
snap judgments based on one’s tendencies of thought. We like to use
this approach so much that it becomes habitual. Some careless and
boastful philosophers rely on such common sense a great deal and
consider themselves clever.
8. Ma
ditthinijjhanakkhantiya:
Don’t believe accept something
to be true merely because it agrees or fits with one’s preconceived
opinions and theories. Personal views can be wrong and our methods
of experiment and verification may be inadequate, neither of which
lead us to the truth. This approach may seem similar to the
scientific method, but can never actually be scientific, as its
proofs and experiments are inadequate.
9. Ma
bhabbarupataya:
Don’t believe something just
because the speaker appears believable, perhaps due to
creditability or prestige. Outside appearances and the actual
knowledge inside a person can never be identical. We often find
that speakers who appear creditable outwardly turn out to say
incorrect and foolish things. Nowadays, we must be wary of
computers because the programmers who feed them data and manipulate
them may put in the wrong information, make programming errors, or
use them incorrectly. Don’t worship computers so much, for doing so
goes against this principle of the Kalama
Sutta.
10. Ma
samano no garu ti:
Don’t believe something simply
because the monk (more broadly, any speaker) is "my teacher." The
Buddha’s purpose regarding this important point is that nobody
should be the intellectual slave of anybody else, not even the
Buddha Himself. The Buddha emphasized this point often, and there
were disciples, such as the Venerable Sariputta, who confirmed it
in practice. They didn’t believe the Buddha’s words immediately
upon hearing them; they only did so after reasoned reflection and
the test of practice. See for yourselves whether there is any other
religious teacher in the world who has given this highest freedom
to his disciples and listeners! In Buddhism there is no dogmatic
system that pressures us to believe without the right to examine
and decide for ourselves. This is the greatest uniqueness of
Buddhism that keeps its practitioners from being anybody’s
intellectual slave. We Thais should never volunteer to follow the
West as slavishly as we are doing now. Intellectual and spiritual
freedom is best.
Intellectual
freedom
The ten examples of the
Kalama Sutta are a surefire defense against intellectual
dependence and not being one’s own person, that is, neglecting
one’s own intelligence and wisdom in dealing with what one hears
and listens to (paratoghosa, the "sound of others," in
Buddhist terms). Whatever one listens to, one should carefully and
systematically reflect upon it. When the facts of the matter are
clearly beneficial and it results in the quenching of suffering,
one may finally believe it one-hundred per cent.
The principle of the Kalama
Sutta is appropriate for everyone, everywhere, every era, and
every world, even for the heavenly worlds. Nowadays, the world has
been shrunk by miraculous communications, by the easy and rapid
exchange of information. People can get new knowledge from every
direction and corner of the planet. In the process, they don’t know
what to believe and, therefore, are in the same position as were
the Kalamas during the time of the Buddha. Indeed, the Kalama
Sutta can be their refuge. Please give it the good attention
and study it deserves. Consider it the greatest good fortune that
the Buddha taught this Sutta. It is a gift for the whole world.
Only those who are too foolish will be unable to benefit from this
Discourse of the Buddha.
The Kalama Sutta is to
be practiced by people of all ages. Even children can apply its
principle in order to be children of awakening (bodhi)
rather than children of ignorance (avijja). Parents should
teach and train their children to know how to understand the words
and instructions they receive, how to see the reasoning and natural
facts involved, and whether the results will really be as claimed.
Whenever teaching or telling their children something, parents
should help them to really understand what they are asked to do and
see the benefits for themselves. For example, when telling them not
to take drugs, the children shouldn’t obey merely because of fear,
but because of seeing what the results of taking drugs actually are
and thus willingly refuse addictive substances.
None of the ten examples in the
Kalama Sutta state that children should never believe or
listen to anyone. They simply state that children, along with the
rest of us, should listen carefully and only believe something to
be true after having seen for themselves its real meaning and the
advantages that will come from such belief, then practice
accordingly. When a teacher teaches something, helping children to
see the reasoning behind the teaching won’t make them obstinate.
For the obstinate ones, gently apply a bit of stick and let them
think things over again. Children will increasingly understand and
appreciate the principle of the Kalama Sutta as they
mature. They will accomplish all ten examples by the time they are
fully mature adults, if we train children by this
standard.
Today’s scientific world will
be able to gladly accept all ten tenets of the Kalama
Sutta as being in line with the scientific method. There is
not the least contradiction between the principles of science and
those of the Kalama Sutta. Even the eighth item, which
states that one should not accept something just because it
corresponds with one’s own preconceived theories, does not
contradict scientific principles. True scientists emphasize
experimental verification as their main criterion for accepting
something as true, not personal opinions, concepts, beliefs,
reasoning, and theories. Due to these standards of the Kalama
Sutta, Buddhism will satisfy the expectations and needs of
true scientists.
If one follows the principle of
the Kalama Sutta, one will have independent knowledge and
reason with which to understand the meaning and truth of ideas and
propositions heard or read for the first time. For example, when
one hears that greed, hatred, and delusion are dangerous and evil,
one understands thoroughly and instantly, because one already knows
through personal experience what these things are like. One
believes in oneself rather than the speaker. The way of practice is
the same in other cases. If a statement is about something one has
never seen or known before, one should try to understand or get to
know it first. Then one can consider whether or not to accept the
newly received teaching or advice. One should never accept
something just because one believes in the speaker. One should take
ones time, even if it means dying before finding out. This is how
the Kālāma Sutta protects one from becoming the intellectual slave
of anyone else, even in the most subtle matters and so-called
“mysteries.”
There’s a problem every time a
new kind of medicine comes out and is advertised all over the
place. Should we offer ourselves as guinea pigs to test it, out of
belief in the advertisements? Or should we wait until we have
sufficient reason to try just a little of it first, to see if it
truly gives the good results advertised, before relying on it
fully? We should respond to new statements and teachings in the
same way we respond to new medicines, by following the principle of
the Kalama Sutta as a true refuge.
The Kalama Sutta
requires us to develop wisdom before faith. If one wants to have
faith come first, then let it be the faith that begins with wisdom,
not the blind faith that comes from ignorance. The same holds true
in the principle of the Noble Eightfold Path: take wisdom or right
understanding as the starting point, then late faith grow out of
that wisdom or right understanding. This is the only safe approach.
We ought never to believe blindly immediately upon hearing
something, nor should we be forced to believe out of fear, bribery,
or the like.
The world nowadays is so
overwhelmed by the power of advertising and propaganda that most
people have become slaves to it. They can make people pull out
their wallets without even thinking in order to buy things they
don’t need to eat, don’t need to have, and don’t need to use. This
is so commonplace that we absolutely must offer the principle of
the Kalama Sutta to our human comrades of this era.
Propaganda is much more harmful than ordinary advertising or what
is called "paratoghosa" in Pali. Even with ordinary
advertising or paratoghosa, we must rely on the principle
of the Kalama Sutta as our refuge, to say nothing of
needing it to deal with outright propaganda, which is full of
intentional deceptions. So we can say that the Kalama
Sutta is beneficial even in solving economic
problems.
I ask you all to consider,
investigate, and test whether there is found anywhere greater
spiritual freedom than is found in the Kalama Sutta. If
someone says that Buddhism is a religion of freedom, can there be
any reason to dispute or oppose that statement? Does this world
which is so intoxicated with freedom really know or have freedom in
line with the principle of the Kalama Sutta? Do blind
ignorance and indifference regarding the Kalama Sutta
create the lack of such freedom? Some even disparage this Sutta by
claiming it teaches us to not believe or listen to anything.
Moreover, some actually claim that the Buddha preached this Sutta
only for the Kalama people there at that time. Why don’t we open
our eyes and notice that people nowadays have become intellectual
and spiritual slaves, that they have lost their freedom much more
than the Kalamas in the time of the Buddha? Dear friends, fellow
worshippers of freedom, I ask you to consider carefully the essence
and aim of the Kalama Sutta and the Buddha's intention in
teaching it. Then, your Buddhist qualities of awakening will grow
fat and robust, rather than skinny and weak. Don’t foolishly fear
and loathe the Kalama Sutta. The word "Thai" means
"freedom." What kind of freedom are you going to bring to our
"Thainess"? Or what kind of "Thainess" is fitting and proper for
the independence or "Thainess" of Buddhists, the disciples of the
Buddha?
Avoiding
clashes through openmindedness
Now let us look further to see
the hidden benefits and advantages in the Kalama Sutta.
The Sutta can help us to avoid the tactless and narrow-minded talk
that leads to violent clashes and disputes. For example, it is
foolish to set up an unalterable rule for all families regarding
who, husband or wife, will be the front legs (leader) and who the
hind legs of the elephant. It all depends on the specific
conditions of each family. According to the principles in the
Kalama Sutta and the law of Specific Conditionality
(idappaccayata), we only can discuss the proper roles of
family members on the basis of each family’s circumstances. Please
don’t speak one-sidedly and violate natural principles.
Regarding abortion, people
argue until they are red in the face whether it is right or wrong,
without investigating to discover in which cases it is suitable and
which not. Once we follow the natural principles of the Buddhist
way of reasoning, each situation will show us when it is
appropriate and when not. Please stop insisting on one-sided
positions.
The principle is the same in
the case of meat eating versus vegetarianism. Each side pigheadedly
argues from its absolute position. Such people are attached to
regarding food as being either meat or vegetable. For Buddhists,
there is neither meat nor vegetable; there are only natural
elements. Whether the eater or the eaten, it’s all just natural
elements. The situations in which one should eat meat and the
circumstances when one shouldn’t can be discerned using the
principle of the Kalama Sutta. For this reason, the Buddha
never said decisively one way or the other whether to eat meat or
vegetables, or to never eat meat or never eat vegetables. To speak
so carelessly is not the way of Buddhists.
Nor should one say that
democracy is always and absolutely good. Those who insist on such
views haven’t considered that a democracy of selfish people could
be worse than a dictatorship of unselfish people who live according
to Dhamma or righteousness. A democracy of selfish people means
freedom to use their selfishness in a most frightening and awful
manner. Consequently, problems drag on endlessly among those people
who have a democracy of selfishness. Stop saying that democracy is
absolutely good or that dictatorship is absolutely good. Instead,
stick to the principle that either will be good when based on
Dhamma. Each society should choose which suits it best according to
the particular circumstances facing it.
To say that the Prime Minister
must always be an elected member of Parliament and never someone
who was not chosen directly by the people is to rant and rave as if
deaf and dumb.1 Really, we must look to see how the
situation ought to be, what the specific circumstances and reasons
are, then practice correctly according to the principle of Specific
Conditionality. The same applies to other political issues. This is
the true Buddhist way, befitting the fact that Buddhism embodies
democracy in the form of Dhammic socialism. Therefore, the election
of members of parliament, the establishment of a government, the
structuring of the political system, and even the course of social
and economic development all should be carried out using the
principle of the Kalama Sutta. Please consider each
example and you will discover the necessity of using the principle
of this Sutta.
More than ever the modern world
needs the Kalama Sutta as its basic operating principle.
The world is spinning ever faster with humanity’s defilements. It’s
shrinking because of better transportation and communication. And
it’s about to self-destruct because proper awareness, intelligence,
and wisdom are lacking. Under the power of defilement, the world is
worshiping materialism, sex, and luxury because it lacks standards
like that of the Kalama Sutta. No one knows how to make
choices in line with its principles. Consequently, the world is
wholly unfit for peace, while increasing in crime and other
wickedness every moment. Let’s eliminate all these problems and
evils by relying on the Kalama Sutta as our
standard.
Finally, there is the matter of
the name of this Sutta. When named after the people who originally
listened to this teaching, it’s called the Kalama Sutta.
When named after the place where it was preached, it’s called the
Kesaputta Sutta.2 Whatever the name, the content and meaning
is still the same. During the early part of the last century the
Tipitaka was popularized in a series called "Dhamma
Treasure" (Dhammasampatti).3 Then, this Sutta became well-known as the
Kalama Sutta. Therefore, let’s yell at the top of our
lungs, "Help! Kalama Sutta, help!"
In conclusion, the Kalama
Sutta never forbids us to believe in anything; it merely
implores us to believe with independent intelligence and wisdom. It
never forbids us to listen to anything; it merely asks us to listen
without letting our intelligence and wisdom be enslaved.
Furthermore, it also enables us to think, consider, investigate,
and decide with great subtlety and precision, so that we can find
specks of gold in mountain-sized rubbish heaps.
Please come, Kalama
Sutta! Come invest yourself in the hearts and minds of all
Buddhists, of all human beings, in the present world.
Mokkhabalarama
April 6, 1988
Footnote
Kalama
1. Up until the mid
1990s, this issue was a dangerous point of contention between
democracy activists on one hand and the military and conservatives
on the other.
Kalama
2. Different
editions of the Tipitaka name this Sutta
differently.
Kalama
3. By the Venerable
Phra Mahasamanachao Kromphraya Vachiraya Nyanarorot, the Supreme
Patriarch at the time who modernized Buddhist texts and education
in Thailand.
Source : http://www.suanmokkh.org/