The Kesamutti Sutta, popularly known in the

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

as the Kālāma Sutta, is a discourse of the Buddha contained in the Aṅguttara Nikaya (3.65) of the

Tipiṭaka There are several Buddhist canons, which refers to the various scriptural collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures or the various Buddhist scriptural canons.

. It is often cited by those of the

Theravada ''Theravāda'' (; 'School of the Elders'; ) is Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school's adherents, termed ''Theravādins'' (anglicized from Pali ''theravādī''), have preserved their version of the Buddha's teaching or ''Dharma (Buddhi ...

and

Mahayana Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, Buddhist texts#Mahāyāna texts, texts, Buddhist philosophy, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main ex ...

traditions alike as the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

's "charter of free

inquiry An inquiry (also spelled as enquiry in British English) is any process that has the aim of augmenting knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving a problem. A theory of inquiry is an account of the various types of inquiry and a treatment of the ...

.""Kalama Sutta, The Buddha's Charter of Free Inquiry"
by

Soma Thera Kotahene Soma Maha Thera (December 23, 1898 - February 23, 1960), born as Victor Emmanuel Perera Pulle in Kotahena, Colombo,The Path Of Freedom (Vimuttimagga) of Arahant Upatissa' Translated from the Chinese by Rev. N. R. M. Ehara, Soma Thera, Khe ...

Premise

The sutta starts off by describing how the Buddha passes through the village of

Kesaputta Kesaria, also known as Kesariya is a town in the district of East Champaran, in the Indian state of Bihar. It is the site of a stupa built by the Mauryan king Ashoka. Geography Kesaria is near the River Gandak and Rampur Khajuria. The neare ...

and is greeted by its inhabitants, a clan called the ''Kalamas''. They ask for his advice: they say that many wandering holy men and ascetics pass through, expounding their teachings and criticizing the teachings of others. So whose teachings should they follow? He delivers in response a sermon that serves as an entry point to the Dhamma, the Buddhist teachings for those unconvinced by mere spectacular revelation.

Discerning Religious Teachings

The Buddha proceeds to list the criteria by which any sensible person can decide which teachings to accept as true. Do not blindly believe religious teachings, he tells the Kalamas, just because they are ''claimed'' to be true, or even through the application of various methods or techniques. Direct knowledge grounded in one's own experience can be called upon. He advises that the words of the wise should be heeded and taken into account. He proposes not a passive acceptance but, rather, constant questioning and personal testing to identify those truths which verifiably reduce one's own

suffering Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, may be an experience of unpleasantness or aversion, possibly associated with the perception of harm or threat of harm in an individual. Suffering is the basic element that makes up the negative valence (psyc ...

or misery (Pali: dukkha). The Kesamutti Sutta states (Pali expression in parentheses): *Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing (anussava), *nor upon tradition (paramparā), *nor upon rumor (itikirā), *nor upon what is in a scripture (piṭaka-sampadāna) *nor upon surmise (takka-hetu), *nor upon an axiom (naya-hetu), *nor upon specious reasoning (ākāra-parivitakka), *nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over (diṭṭhi-nijjhān-akkh-antiyā), *nor upon another's seeming ability (bhabba-rūpatāya), *nor upon the consideration 'The monk is our teacher (samaṇo no garū)' *Kalamas, when you yourselves know 'These things are good; these things are not blameable; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness,' enter on and abide in them. Thus, the Buddha named ten specific sources whose knowledge should not be immediately viewed as truthful without further investigation to avoid

fallacies A fallacy is the use of invalid or otherwise faulty reasoning in the construction of an argument that may appear to be well-reasoned if unnoticed. The term was introduced in the Western intellectual tradition by the Aristotelian '' De Sophis ...

: #

Oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

Tradition A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common e ...

# News sources #

Scripture Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and ...

s or other official texts # Suppositional reasoning # Philosophical dogmatism #

Common sense Common sense () is "knowledge, judgement, and taste which is more or less universal and which is held more or less without reflection or argument". As such, it is often considered to represent the basic level of sound practical judgement or know ...

# One's own opinions #

Experts An expert is somebody who has a broad and deep understanding and competence in terms of knowledge, skill and experience through practice and education in a particular field or area of study. Informally, an expert is someone widely recognize ...

# Authorities or one's own teacher Instead, the Buddha says, only when one personally knows that a certain teaching is skillful, blameless, praiseworthy, and conducive to happiness, and that it is praised by the wise, should one then accept it as true and practice it. Thus, as stated by

, the Kalama Sutta is just that, the Buddha's charter of free inquiry: However, as stated by

Bhikkhu Bodhi Bhikkhu Bodhi (born December 10, 1944) () born Jeffrey Block, is an American Theravada Buddhist monk ordained in Sri Lanka. He teaches in the New York and New Jersey area. He was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publication Soci ...

, this teaching is not intended as an endorsement for either

radical skepticism Radical skepticism (or radical scepticism in British English) is the philosophical position that knowledge is most likely impossible. Radical skeptics hold that doubt exists as to the veracity of every belief and that certainty is therefore ne ...

or as for the creation of unreasonable personal truth: Rather than supporting skepticism or subjective truths, in the sutta the Buddha continues to argue that the three unwholesome roots of greed, hatred and delusion lead to the opposite negative results, i.e. they are unskillful, blameworthy, etc. Consequently, behaviour based on these three roots should be abandoned. Moral judgements of actions can therefore be deduced by analysing whether these actions are based on the unwholesome roots or not.

The Buddha's Assurances

The first and main part of the Kesamutti Sutta is often quoted, but an equally important section of the Kesamutti Sutta follows on from this. This section (17) features the Buddha's four assurances, or solaces. The Buddha asserts that a moral life would be happy and appropriate whether or not there is

karma Karma (, from , ; ) is an ancient Indian concept that refers to an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptively called ...

reincarnation Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the Philosophy, philosophical or Religion, religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new lifespan (disambiguation), lifespan in a different physical ...

. The logic is comparable to that of Pascal's wager. On these four solaces, Soma Thera wrote:

Interpretation

The Kesamutti Sutta is often incorrectly used for advocating prudence by the use of sound logical reasoning arguments for inquiries in the practice that relates to the discipline of seeking truth, wisdom and knowledge whether it is religious or not. However, a plain reading of the text clearly states that one should not determine the validity of tradition based "by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, 'This contemplative is our teacher.'" While nothing in the text limits one from employing their own reasoning, the Buddha instructs not to make a decision based alone on it. Instead, the Buddha teaches that one can determine the validity of a tradition if "These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness' — then you should enter & remain in them." The misunderstanding of this sutta has become popular in part by reliance on a fake quote attributed to the Buddha and this sutta that includes "when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it," which is in part the opposite of what the sutta actually states.https://fakebuddhaquotes.com/do-not-believe-in-anything-simply-because-you-have-heard-it/ This website is not scholarly but summarizes the problem of the fake quote __TOC__

References

External links

Root texts
Pali text
at SuttaCentral (available in five scripts, including Roman and Devanagari) Translations
With the Kālāmas of Kesamutta
translation by

Bhikkhu Sujato Sujato, known as Ajahn Sujato or Bhikkhu Sujato (born Anthony Best), is an Australian Buddhist monk ordained into the Thai forest lineage of Ajahn Chah. Life He is a former musician with the post punk alternative rock Australian band Martha' ...

Kesaputtiya
translation by

Essays
The wisdom of Kalama Sutta
fro
Western Buddhist Review
by

Buddhadasa Bhikkhu Buddhadasa (27 May 190625 May 1993) was a Thai Buddhist monk. Known as an innovative reinterpreter of Buddhist doctrine and Thai folk beliefs, he fostered a reformation in conventional religious perceptions in his home country, Thailand, as w ...