Kalama Sutta:
The Buddha's Charter of Free Inquiry
Translated from the
Pali by Soma Thera
The Wheel
Publication No. 8
Courtesy of Dharma Net
For free
distribution only, as a gift of dhamma.
Contents
Preface
Supplementary
Texts
The Instruction to the Kalamas
Essay: A look at the Kalama Sutta (Bhikkhu
Bodhi)
The instruction of the Kalamas
(Kalama Sutta) is justly famous for its encouragement of free
inquiry; the spirit of the sutta signifies a teaching that is
exempt from fanaticism, bigotry, dogmatism, and intolerance.
The reasonableness of the Dhamma,
the Buddha's teaching, is chiefly evident in its welcoming
careful examination at all stages of the path to enlightenment.
Indeed the whole course of training for wisdom culminating in the
purity of the consummate one (the arhat) is intimately bound up
with examination and analysis of things internal: the eye and
visible objects, the ear and sounds, the nose and smells, the
tongue and tastes, the body and tactile impressions, the mind and
ideas.
Thus since all phenomena have to
be correctly understood in the field of Dhamma, insight is
operative throughout. In this sutta it is active in rejecting the
bad and adopting the good way; in the extracts given below in
clarifying the basis of knowledge of conditionality and
arhatship. Here it may be mentioned that the methods of
examination in the Kalama Sutta and in the extracts cited here,
have sprung from the knowledge of things as they are and that the
tenor of these methods are implied in all straight thinking.
Further, as penetration and comprehension, the constituents of
wisdom are the result of such thinking, the place of critical
examination and analysis in the development of right vision is
obvious. Where is the wisdom or vision that can descend, all of a
sudden, untouched and uninfluenced by a critical thought?
The Kalama Sutta, which sets forth
the principles that should be followed by a seeker of truth, and
which contains a standard things are judged by, belongs to a
framework of the Dhamma; the four solaces taught in the sutta
point out the extent to which the Buddha permits suspense of
judgment in matters beyond normal cognition. The solaces show
that the reason for a virtuous life does not necessarily depend
on belief in rebirth or retribution, but on mental well-being
acquired through the overcoming of greed, hate, and delusion.
More than fifty years ago, Moncure
D. Conway, the author of "My Pilgrimage to the Wise Men of
the East," visited Colombo. He was a friend of Ponnambalam
Ramanathan (then Solicitor General of Ceylon), and together with
him Conway went to the Vidyodaya Pirivena to learn something of
the Buddha's teaching from Hikkaduve Siri Sumangala Nayaka Thera,
the founder of the institution. The Nayaka Thera explained to
them the principles contained in the Kalama Sutta and at the end
of the conversation Ramanathan whispered to Conway: "Is it
not strange that you and I, who come from far different religions
and regions, should together listen to a sermon from the Buddha
in favor of that free thought, that independence of traditional
and fashionable doctrines, which is still the vital principle of
human development?" -- Conway: "Yes, and we with the
(Kalama) princes pronounce his doctrines good."
Anguttara Nikaya III.65: Kalama Sutta
"Friend Savittha, apart from
faith, apart from liking, apart from what has been acquired by
repeated hearing, apart from specious reasoning, and from a bias
towards a notion that has been pondered over, I know this, I see
this: 'Decay and death are due to birth.'"
Samyuttanikaya, Nidanavagga,
Mahavagga, Sutta No. 8
"Here a bhikkhu, having seen
an object with the eye, knows when greed, hate, and delusion are
within, 'Greed, hate, and delusion are in me'; he knows when
greed, hate, and delusion are not within, 'Greed, hate, and
delusion are not in me.' Bhikkhus, have these things to be
experienced through faith, liking, what has been acquired by
repeated hearing, specious reasoning, or a bias towards a notion
that has been pondered over?" -- "No, venerable
sir." -- "Bhikkhus, this even is the way by which a
bhikkhu, apart from faith, liking, what has been acquired by
repeated hearing, specious reasoning, or a bias towards a notion
that has been pondered over, declares realization of knowledge
thus: I know that birth has been exhausted, the celibate life has
been lived, what must be done has been done and there is no more
of this to come."
Samyuttanikaya, Salyatanavagga,
Navapuranavagga, Sutta No. 8
[The following commentary on the
Kalama Sutta appeared in the Buddhist Publication Society
Newsletter (No. 9, 1988). It did not appear in the original BPS
edition of Wheel No. 8, but is included in this DharmaNet edition
as an aid to those interested in studying this important sutta.
The essay may also be found in a collection of 25 essays by
Bhikkhu Bodhi, also available via DharmaNet in the file
BBESSAYS.ZIP. -- John Bullitt, DharmaNet]
by Bhikkhu Bodhi
In this issue of the newsletter we
have combined the feature essay with the "Sutta Study"
column as we take a fresh look at an often quoted discourse of
the Buddha, the Kalama Sutta. The discourse -- found in
translation in Wheel No. 8 -- has been described as "the
Buddha's Charter of Free Inquiry," and though the discourse
certainly does counter the decrees of dogmatism and blind faith
with a vigorous call for free investigation, it is problematic
whether the sutta can support all the positions that have been
ascribed to it. On the basis of a single passage, quoted out of
context, the Buddha has been made out to be a pragmatic
empiricist who dismisses all doctrine and faith, and whose Dhamma
is simply a freethinker's kit to truth which invites each one to
accept and reject whatever he likes.
But does the Kalama Sutta really
justify such views? Or do we meet in these claims just another
set of variations on that egregious old tendency to interpret the
Dhamma according to whatever notions are congenial to oneself --
or to those to whom one is preaching? Let us take as careful a
look at the Kalama Sutta as the limited space allotted to this
essay will allow, remembering that in order to understand the
Buddha's utterances correctly it is essential to take account of
his own intentions in making them.
The passage that has been cited so
often runs as follows: "Come, Kalamas. Do not go upon what
has been acquired by repeated hearing, nor upon tradition, nor
upon rumor, nor upon scripture, nor upon surmise, nor upon axiom,
nor upon specious reasoning, nor upon bias towards a notion
pondered over, nor upon another's seeming ability, nor upon the
consideration 'The monk is our teacher.' When you yourselves
know: 'These things are bad, blamable, censured by the wise;
undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill,'
abandon them... When you yourselves know: 'These things are good,
blameless, praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these
things lead to benefit and happiness,' enter on and abide in
them."
Now this passage, like everything
else spoken by the Buddha, has been stated in a specific context
-- with a particular audience and situation in view -- and thus
must be understood in relation to that context. The Kalamas,
citizens of the town of Kesaputta, had been visited by religious
teachers of divergent views, each of whom would propound his own
doctrines and tear down the doctrines of his predecessors. This
left the Kalamas perplexed, and thus when "the recluse
Gotama," reputed to be an Awakened One, arrived in their
township, they approached him in the hope that he might be able
to dispel their confusion. From the subsequent development of the
sutta, it is clear that the issues that perplexed them were the
reality of rebirth and kammic retribution for good and evil
deeds.
The Buddha begins by assuring the
Kalamas that under such circumstances it is proper for them to
doubt, an assurance which encourages free inquiry. He next speaks
the passage quoted above, advising the Kalamas to abandon those
things they know for themselves to be bad and to undertake those
things they know for themselves to be good. This advice can be
dangerous if given to those whose ethical sense is undeveloped,
and we can thus assume that the Buddha regarded the Kalamas as
people of refined moral sensitivity. In any case he did not leave
them wholly to their own resources, but by questioning them led
them to see that greed, hate and delusion, being conducive to
harm and suffering for oneself and others, are to be abandoned,
and their opposites, being beneficial to all, are to be
developed.
The Buddha next explains that a
"noble disciple, devoid of covetousness and ill will,
undeluded" dwells pervading the world with boundless
loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity.
Thus purified of hate and malice, he enjoys here and now four
"solaces": If there is an afterlife and kammic result,
then he will undergo a pleasant rebirth, while if there is none
he still lives happily here and now; if evil results befall an
evil-doer, then no evil will befall him, and if evil results do
not befall an evil-doer, then he is purified anyway. With this
the Kalamas express their appreciation of the Buddha's discourse
and go for refuge to the Triple Gem.
Now does the Kalama Sutta suggest,
as is often held, that a follower of the Buddhist path can
dispense with all faith and doctrine, that he should make his own
personal experience the criterion for judging the Buddha's
utterances and for rejecting what cannot be squared with it? It
is true the Buddha does not ask the Kalamas to accept anything he
says out of confidence in himself, but let us note one important
point: the Kalamas, at the start of the discourse, were not the
Buddha's disciples. They approached him merely as a counselor who
might help dispel their doubts, but they did not come to him as
the Tathagata, the Truth-finder, who might show them the way to
spiritual progress and to final liberation.
Thus, because the Kalamas had not
yet come to accept the Buddha in terms of his unique mission, as
the discloser of the liberating truth, it would not have been in
place for him to expound to them the Dhamma unique to his own
Dispensation: such teachings as the Four Noble Truths, the three
characteristics, and the methods of contemplation based upon
them. These teachings are specifically intended for those who
have accepted the Buddha as their guide to deliverance, and in
the suttas he expounds them only to those who "have gained
faith in the Tathagata" and who possess the perspective
necessary to grasp them and apply them. The Kalamas, however, at
the start of the discourse are not yet fertile soil for him to
sow the seeds of his liberating message. Still confused by the
conflicting claims to which they have been exposed, they are not
yet clear even about the groundwork of morality.
Nevertheless, after advising the
Kalamas not to rely upon established tradition, abstract
reasoning, and charismatic gurus, the Buddha proposes to them a
teaching that is immediately verifiable and capable of laying a
firm foundation for a life of moral discipline and mental
purification . He shows that whether or not there be another life
after death, a life of moral restraint and of love and compassion
for all beings brings its own intrinsic rewards here and now, a
happiness and sense of inward security far superior to the
fragile pleasures that can be won by violating moral principles
and indulging the mind's desires. For those who are not concerned
to look further, who are not prepared to adopt any convictions
about a future life and worlds beyond the present one, such a
teaching will ensure their present welfare and their safe passage
to a pleasant rebirth -- provided they do not fall into the wrong
view of denying an afterlife and kammic causation.
However, for those whose vision is
capable of widening to encompass the broader horizons of our
existence. this teaching given to the Kalamas points beyond its
immediate implications to the very core of the Dhamma. For the
three states brought forth for examination by the Buddha --
greed, hate and delusion -- are not merely grounds of wrong
conduct or moral stains upon the mind. Within his teaching's own
framework they are the root defilements -- the primary causes of
all bondage and suffering -- and the entire practice of the
Dhamma can be viewed as the task of eradicating these evil roots
by developing to perfection their antidotes -- dispassion,
kindness and wisdom.
Thus the discourse to the Kalamas
offers an acid test for gaining confidence in the Dhamma as a
viable doctrine of deliverance. We begin with an immediately
verifiable teaching whose validity can be attested by anyone with
the moral integrity to follow it through to its conclusions,
namely, that the defilements cause harm and suffering both
personal and social, that their removal brings peace and
happiness, and that the practices taught by the Buddha are
effective means for achieving their removal. By putting this
teaching to a personal test, with only a provisional trust in the
Buddha as one's collateral, one eventually arrives at a firmer,
experientially grounded confidence in the liberating and
purifying power of the Dhamma. This increased confidence in the
teaching brings along a deepened faith in the Buddha as teacher,
and thus disposes one to accept on trust those principles he
enunciates that are relevant to the quest for awakening, even
when they lie beyond one's own capacity for verification. This,
in fact, marks the acquisition of right view, in its preliminary
role as the forerunner of the entire Noble Eightfold Path.
Partly in reaction to dogmatic
religion, partly in subservience to the reigning paradigm of
objective scientific knowledge, it has become fashionable to
hold, by appeal to the Kalama Sutta, that the Buddha's teaching
dispenses with faith and formulated doctrine and asks us to
accept only what we can personally verify. This interpretation of
the sutta, however, forgets that the advice the Buddha gave the
Kalamas was contingent upon the understanding that they were not
yet prepared to place faith in him and his doctrine; it also
forgets that the sutta omits, for that very reason, all mention
of right view and of the entire perspective that opens up when
right view is acquired. It offers instead the most reasonable
counsel on wholesome living possible when the issue of ultimate
beliefs has been put into brackets.
What can be justly maintained is
that those aspects of the Buddha's teaching that come within the
purview of our ordinary experience can be personally confirmed
within experience, and that this confirmation provides a sound
basis for placing faith in those aspects of the teaching that
necessarily transcend ordinary experience. Faith in the Buddha's
teaching is never regarded as an end in itself nor as a
sufficient guarantee of liberation, but only as the starting
point for an evolving process of inner transformation that comes
to fulfillment in personal insight. But in order for this insight
to exercise a truly liberative function, it must unfold in the
context of an accurate grasp of the essential truths concerning
our situation in the world and the domain where deliverance is to
be sought. These truths have been imparted to us by the Buddha
out of his own profound comprehension of the human condition. To
accept them in trust after careful consideration is to set foot
on a journey which transforms faith into wisdom, confidence into
certainty, and culminates in liberation from suffering.