The Kalama Sutta

[Aloka]

Any thoughts about this article from the Buddhist Door website?


The Kalama Sutta: The First Rationalist Buddhist Text?

https://www.buddhistdoor.net/feature...buddhist-text/

[philg]

I think that aspects of the Kalama Sutta kept me going to the Buddhist Centre at one time. There was a talk on the Sutta and the 'Taste of Salt' where you have to decide for yourself whether the teachings are for you, to rely on what you experience rather than just on acceptance on an intellectual level. This part is fairly rational, although the extent to which it persuades you to then go on to accept other things may not be so obvious.

An interesting part of the quoted sutta is the seeming ambiguity of statements such as:

“The first assurance he has won is this: ‘If there is another world, and if there is the fruit and result of good and bad deeds, it is possible that with the breakup of the body, after death, I will be reborn in a good destination, in a heavenly world.’

The second assurance he has won is this: ‘If there is no other world, and there is no fruit and result of good and bad deeds, still right here, in this very life, I maintain myself in happiness, without enmity and ill will, free of trouble'."

In other words it works whether you believe in an afterlife, or rebirth, or not.