Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it. Not even if I have said it, not unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense.
The quote above is often attributed to Siddharta Gautama, aka the Buddha, in the Kalama Sutta. If that quote were presented to me, I would have an issue with it.
The reason why I would have a problem with it is because “your own reason” and “your own common sense” is not at all very helpful. An asylum full of people have their own reasons and their own common sense for doing things. A schizophrenic person has his/her own reason to stand in the middle of the road and start stripping stark naked – after all, that voice that tells him/her to do things are his/her own reasoning talking back which is simply perceived as an external voice.
It is here that I must pause, and raise a point – I feel that the Buddha had been misrepresented. Of course I am no translation expert but pretty much the experts agree that in the original Kalama Sutta, common sense and one’s own reason are the sources where one should not rely upon – specifically the original Pali * Yes, I have nothing better to do than to learn a completely dead and foreign language to read books. Same reason why I learned German: to read Marx phrase “Ma anussavena, ma paramparaya, ma itikiraya, ma pitakasampadanena, ma takkahetu, ma nayahetu, ma akaraparivitakkena, ma ditthinijjhanakkhantiya, ma bhabbarupataya, ma samano no garu ti” [ref] which translates (as literally as possible to)
- Not because it is repeated information
- Not not because it is tradition
- Not not because it is common knowledge (more in the tune of “it’s common knowledge that…”
- Not not because it is scriptures (literally: not text, but given that the only text back then were scripture, it’s fair to come to this conclusion)
- Not not because it is axiomatic reasoning (or more literally: not because logical inferences are made without support – i.e. surmises)
- Not because it suits one’s beliefs (common translation includes inferences, and conjectures)
- Not because it seems to be right (i.e. common sense)
- Not because of one’s bias to an idea (more literal translation: not because one likes the idea)
- Not because it seems acceptable
- Not because the teacher says so
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While I am by no means skilled in hermeneutics * it’s also my personal belief if something needs deep interpretation skills, said text is worthless , I believe the spirit of the sutta refers to one of radical skepticism – i.e. question everything. The latter part of the Kalama Sutta (it’s a very long and tediously repetitive work) says something about after analysing and observing the facts, if the implementation of the idea is good for one and all, then it can be considered a good idea.
It can be read as an early form of peer-review (the phrase “if it’s praiseworthy by the wiser ones”)
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