Exploring the Path - Pāli Course

Tevijjohaṃ¹ mahājhāyī, cetosamathakovido;²

Sadattho³ me anuppatto, kataṃ buddhassa sāsana’nti.⁴

Having achieved the threefold knowledge, well-established in meditation,

And skilled in the calming of the mind, I have obtained the true goal,

And thus fulfilled the teaching of the Buddha.

The admonition spoken by the Buddha in the Sīsapā forest as presented in this lesson is well-known. In this simile the Buddha compares the vast multitude of leaves in the large and immense Sīsapā forest with a handful of leaves that he has taken in his palm.

He uses this comparison to equate the abundant leaves of the forest with the vast amount of topics that are conceivable to a Buddha in his omniscience and the curiosity of the human mind in general. But compared to such a wide field of possible enquiries, the exceptionally few essential truths concerning humans that actually matter for one’s own well-being, peace and liberation are like those few leaves in his hand.⁵

During most eras humankind generally dwells in ignorance and obliviousness, wasting energy in researching subjects that are not related to one’s salvation or real welfare. It is only during periods when fully Enlightened Ones point out the core and essential truths that really matter that awareness and energy is directed towards proper understanding and wisdom.

At the time of the Buddha various questions were addressed to him that he always declined to answer. He did so partly because the answers would not lead to the comprehension of the Four Noble Truths but also because the questions were based on tenacious ignorance in regards to the ‘belief in a self.’ The selection in the Abyākatasaṃyuttaṃ.⁶ provides a number of examples where the Buddha firmly declines to answer those kinds of unnecessary questions that derive merely from curiosity and philosophical inquisitiveness.

The opening verses of this Introduction were uttered by a wandering mendicant by the name of Vacchagotta. He was the son of a rich Brahmin family and had received education in all the Brahmanic lore, but unsatisfied with it he left the householder’s life. Vacchagotta approached the Buddha on various occasions, though he would also go to Māha Moggallāna with the same question in order to compare their replies.⁷ He was confused by the statements of other teachers and their answers to a set of metaphysical oddities common in the days of the Buddha. These were questions of whether the world was eternal or not, finite or not, whether body and soul were identical or different, whether the Tathāgato would exist after death or not, or exist and not exist.

Kiṃ nu kho, sassato⁸ loko’ti?

Kiṃ pana, asassato loko’ti?

Kiṃ nu kho, antavā⁹ loko’ti?

Kiṃ pana, anantavā loko’ti?

Kiṃ nu kho, taṃ jīvaṃ taṃ sarīra’nti?

Kiṃ pana, aññaṃ jīvaṃ aññaṃ sarīra’nti?

Kiṃ nu kho, hoti tathāgato paraṃ maraṇā’ti?

Kiṃ nu kho, hoti ca na ca hoti tathāgato paraṃ maraṇā’ti?

Kiṃ pana, neva hoti na na hoti tathāgato paraṃ maraṇā’ti?

All these questions the Buddha declined to answer and likewise did his disciples. Thus Māha Moggallāna would only reply by explaining that it was the Buddha, who had never declared those.

Etampi kho, vaccha, abyākataṃ bhagavatā.

This has never been explained by the Bhagava!

When Vacchagotta asked why they wouldn’t give any proper answers, the Buddha as well as Māha Moggallāna pointed out that these topics were based on a false view as they implied the existence of a prevailing ‘soul’ (atta). They thus either identified each of the sense organs with ‘this is mine’, ‘this am I’, ‘this is my self’.¹⁰

Aññatitthiyā¹¹ kho, vaccha, paribbājakā¹² cakkhuṃ
etaṃ mama, esohamasmi, eso me attā’ti samanupassanti …pe…

Or they would consider each of the five aggregates of clinging (pañca upādānakkhandhā) as ‘form as self’, i.e., it was the ‘self that was possessing form’, that ‘form was in self’ or ‘self in from’.¹³

Aññatitthiyā kho, vaccha, paribbājakā rūpaṃ attato samanupassanti,
rūpavantaṃ vā attānaṃ, attani vā rūpaṃ, rūpasmiṃ vā attānaṃ. Vedanaṃ
attato samanupassanti…pe…

Thus based on opinions or views only, rather than insight, ascetics of other sects were not able to recognise the nature of change and impermanence (anicca), i.e., the phenomenon of arising and passing away. Therefore the Buddha would not reply to such questions founded on false preconditions.

Tasmā tathāgatassa evaṃ puṭṭhassa na evaṃ veyyākaraṇaṃ hoti –
sassato lokotipi…pe… neva hoti na na hoti tathāgato paraṃ maraṇātipī’ti.

Even though Vacchagotta expressed his admiration for the identical answers given by the Buddha and Māha Moggallāna, it was only later that he finally took refuge and asked to be accepted as a member of the Sangha.¹⁴ Even after taking refuge, Vacchagotta again enquired about those ‘speculative views’ and the Buddha replied that he has put all views away¹⁵ because he has realized the arising and passing away, the origin and disappearance of all the pañca upādānakkhandhā. Vacchagotta then applied himself to the practice of meditation and soon became an Arahant, where he expressed the verses quoted at the start.

This demonstrates that all kinds of metaphysical speculations and philosophical beliefs stand in the way of one’s progress on the Noble Eightfold Path.