here are the fourteen philosophical questions that Buddha refused to answer. lucky for you, i'm not Buddha!
Questions referring to the world: concerning the existence of the world in time
- Is the world eternal? - yes
- or not? - what?
- or both? - wait a second...
- or neither? - what the? what?
Questions referring to the world: concerning the existence of the world in space
- Is the world finite? - no
- or not? - or not what? this is way over my head
- or both? - this is giving me a headache
- or neither? - what the? what?
- Is the self identical with the body? - yes, the self is one & the same with the body
- or is it different from the body? - yes, the self is completely different from the body
Questions referring to life after death
- Does the Tathagata exist after death? - yes i believe after death we find truth
- or not? - yes after death we are just as confused about truth as we were before death
- or both? - yes we are both truthful and not truthful filled
- or neither? - excuse me. my head just exploded and i'm picking up the little bits ...
6 fabulous comments, click to add yours!:
Man. I'm still trying to figure out why I got out of bed this morning...I'm in no shape to be tackling those questions! Good ones, however!
Yes, the buddha was a man of contradictions, but in a weird way, all of the answers can exist simultaneously. Just wondering, are you Buddhist? I'd say I lean towards the Zen philosophy.
mary i know right? just trying to think about how to answer them makes my head hurt
kathleen i am not a buddhist, but a christian although not in the strictest sense ;)
LMAO that's funny!!
ow. My head hurts now.
"If we look at the context of the text in which these questions are put to the Buddha by Vacchagotta, in the "Discourse to the Vacchagotta on Fire," we find the Buddha saying "does not apply" to each of the alternatives (a-d) and then saying: "this dhamma is deep, difficult to see, difficult to understand, peaceful, excellent, beyond dialectic." 54 By way of explanation the Buddha asks Vaccha what Vaccha would say on being asked which direction (North, South, East, or West) the fire in front of him went on being quenched. The answer to be given to this question containing four alternatives (North, South, East, West) is the same as the one that is appropriate in response to the questions about the Tathagata, which also entertain four alternatives (a-d), that answer being, the question does not apply."
Title: Early Buddhism: Some Recent Misconceptions
Author(s): Henry Cruise
Source: Philosophy East and West, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Apr., 1983), pp. 149-166
Publisher(s): University of Hawai'i Press
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