[Buddha-l] Buddha's Meditation

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Franz and "gang",

 

I agree. And, to the list of Buddhist triumphalist texts hidden in plain sight, I would add the locus classicus for supposed Buddhist scientific openness: the "Kalama Sutta." (For the text see <http://tinyurl.com/qcele

>.) In it, as we all remember, the Buddha does indeed call on people not to believe or follow religions (or anything paths) for reasons of myth, logic, respect, tradition, and so on. But he does not do this because he is open in some modern, scientific way to all evidence.  

Quite the opposite (in my reading, at least). He does this because he is entirely convinced of his own unfalsifiable experience! That, fellow beings, makes for a lovely religion, but it does not make for science. So, like the elephant story and the well story, we again see Buddhist triumphalism reaching right back to its founder.

 

As if we should have expected something different?

 

"Of course you are uncertain, Kalamas. Of course you are in doubt. When there are reasons for doubt, uncertainty is born. So in this case, Kalamas, don't go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, 'This contemplative is our teacher.' When you know for yourselves that, 'These qualities are unskillful; these qualities are blameworthy; these qualities are criticized by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to harm & to suffering' — then you should abandon them."

"He keeps pervading the first direction — as well as the second direction, the third, & the fourth — with an awareness imbued with [the four bramavihaaras]. Thus he keeps pervading above, below, & all around, everywhere & in every respect the all-encompassing cosmos with an awareness imbued with [the four bramavihaaras]: abundant, expansive, immeasurable, free from hostility, free from ill will."

"One who is a disciple of the noble ones — his mind thus free from hostility, free from ill will, undefiled, & pure — acquires these four assurances in the here-&-now."

 

My reading of the Kalama sutta is different. What I believe the Buddha is saying here is "not through the so-called valid cognitions (pramaa.na)...". All the four most common paramaa.nas are included in his list of "don't go by...".  The Buddha also said about pramaa.na : “One who has reached the end has no criterion (pamaa.na) by which anyone would say that — for him it doesn't exist. When all phenomena are done away with, all means of speaking are done away with as well.” Snp 5.6

 

"Go by" in order to go where?  In the here-&-now, which is a mind free from hostility, free from ill will, undefiled, & pure. A mind that doesn't need to be validated through anything else. Self evident and unfalsifiable. Does it need to be proved, can it be proved through science or other valid cognitions?  Who cares? Probably not the noble one with his mind free from hostility, free from ill will, undefiled, & pure. 

 

Joy