4. This is the famous discourse
dealing with the Buddha’s advice to
the Kālāmas on how to find out truth
and falsehood. It also reveals the
freedom of thought allowed by the
Buddha to His disciples on the way
seeking for truth.
5. The Kālāmas, 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.
6. This left the Kālāmas 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.
7. "There are some monks and
brahmins, Venerable Sir, who visit
Kesaputta. They expound and
explain only their own doctrines; the
doctrines of others they despise,
revile, and pull to pieces.
8. Some other monks and brahmins
too, Venerable Sir, come to
Kesaputta. They also expound and
explain only their own doctrines; the
doctrines of others they despise,
revile, and pull to pieces.
9. Venerable Sir, there is doubt, there
is uncertainty in us concerning them.
Which of these reverend monks and
brahmins spoke the truth and which
falsehood?"
10. The Buddha begins by assuring
the Kālāmas that under such
circumstances it is proper for them
to doubt, an assurance which
encourages free inquiry.
11. He advised the Kālāmas to
abandon those things they know for
themselves to be bad and to
undertake those things they know for
themselves to be good.
12. "Come, Kālāmas. 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.'
13. “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”.
14. “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”.
15. The Buddha’s discourse to the
Kālāmas expresses a correct mental
attitude of a seeker of truth in the
jungle of views. He asked the
Kālāmas to see for themselves:
16. - What is unwholesome,
censured by the wise and to reject
them.
- What was wholesome, praised
by the wise and to accept them.
17. The Buddha encouraged them to
think freely and not to be led by
anyone, any authority even that of
time-honoured Scriptures or
traditions.
18. The Buddha went even further. He
asked His disciples to examine
Himself, the Tathāgata, in order to
have confidence in the true value of
Teacher.
19. “Just as the quality of gold is
determined by heating, rubbing on a
stone by a wise smith, even so, my
word has to be accepted after
examination and not out of respect
for Me”.
20. The Buddha said that His teaching
is a Come-And-See thing
(Ehipassiko), which invites you to
come and see, but not to come and
believe.
21. 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.
