The Buddha answered questions to help the other person on the path to enlightenment. (Image source: Public domain/Pexels)
As a human being, we have many questions, who am I, where do I come from, where do I go after death, is death painful? a lot ofpracticePeople will also have many questions, so who can answer these doubts? Everyone must have thought of itBuddhabecause Buddha knows the cause and effect of all sentient beings. Buddha is omniscient and omnipotent. Because he knows cause and effect, he has no worries. However, it is recorded in the Buddhist scriptures that Buddha refused to answer questions. So why didn’t Buddha answer? Is there something that Buddha doesn’t know?
It is recorded in the “Za Ahan Sutra” that a boy who was practicing with the Buddha asked the Buddha 14 questions. Is this world eternal? Will it not exist forever? The more convoluted issues will not be discussed one by one here. He felt that these questions were very important to him, but the Buddha did not answer him, which made him very dissatisfied, so he said to the Buddha, if you don’t answer, I will take off my monk’s robe and stop practicing.
After hearing this, the Buddha asked him: “Man boy, do you practice just to let me answer these questions of yours?” Man boy said no, and the Buddha asked him again, “I promised you that I will answer these questions of yours.” Is there a problem?” The boy said no, and the Buddha continued, “In this case, why? Why are you asking me these questions?” The boy lowered his head and the Buddha said slowly, “These questions have no meaning for practice, so I choose not to answer them. The first thing we must solve as a human being is not to know the answers to these questions. How to escape from the suffering of reincarnation.”
What the Buddha said is of profound significance, because many practitioners are accustomed to thinking in Buddhist scriptures, and sometimes the problems they think about are not related to their own practice. If they let themselves get stuck in these problems, they will not only cause trouble to themselves, but also cause problems. If you delay your own practice, once your thoughts are used elsewhere, your focus on what you really want to do will gradually fade away.
Buddha also made a metaphor full of wisdom: There was a man who was hit by a poisonous arrow. His relatives and friends found a doctor to treat him. He did not cooperate with the doctor’s treatment, but proudly said to the doctor, “I don’t want you to treat him.” Even after I take out the arrow, I don’t want you to heal my wounds unless you can answer the following questions for me: , what class does the person who hurt me belong to, what is his last name, what is his body shape, where he is from, what the bow is made of, what the arrow shaft and string are made of, what kind of bird the arrow feathers come from, if you can’t Give me a satisfactory answer, and I will never let you heal my arrow wound, nor will I let you pull out the poisonous arrow. In the end, the person died of poison before he could figure out the problem.
In the same way, if a person’s life is obsessed with issues that you can’t figure out, there will be no time for practice when time runs out. Practicing to escape reincarnation does not depend on affirming or denying the questions you raise. These questions cannot eliminate the suffering in the world, and they have nothing to do with the improvement of spiritual practice. Eliminating pain and escaping reincarnation is the purpose of spiritual practice.
The Buddha finally said to Man Tong, what I want to explain is how to stop the rise of suffering, and what I want to explain is how to escape from reincarnation. Cultivation can lead to liberation, and liberation can lead to infinite wisdom and power. At that time, all the wisdom is in your heart, so why worry about being unable to explain a few questions you raised? After hearing the Master’s words, Mantong felt ashamed of his gaffe. After thanking the Master, he left happily and continued to practice in the Sangha.
There are similar records in some other Buddhist scriptures. The Buddha said that these meaningless questions are puppet shows, tropical forests and deserts, which make people confused, frustrated, regretful and painful but cannot bring people peace, wisdom and liberation. Useless. Someone asked Buddha that you refused to answer these questions, so do you have your own opinions on these issues? Buddha replied: I am not bound by any theory and have transcended liberation from all theories. So since Buddha knew the answers to these questions, why did he refuse to answer them directly? On the one hand, the above mentioned has nothing to do with the improvement of spiritual practice; on the other hand, due to the limitations of language, ordinary people may not be able to understand these issues through language.
Language is a symbol used by human beings to express things, experiences, thoughts and feelings experienced by their senses and hearts. Language represents symbols for things and ideas that we are familiar with, but language itself is limited to time, space and dependent origination. In other words, human beings One thing, a scene, or a state can only be expressed in words within the limits allowed by time, space, and dependent origination.
Sometimes human language is not enough to express the reality of daily things. For example, sometimes we have a passion or feeling but cannot express it in words. Therefore, human language has great limitations, and in terms of understanding the truth, language is more It is unreliable and error-prone, because truths such as nirvana and liberation have already exceeded the limitations of time, space and dependent origination. Human beings can only experience them but cannot describe them in words, that is, the mind is destroyed and the words are broken.
Teaching students in accordance with their aptitude is the way for Buddha to educate sentient beings. Buddha is not a computer search engine, let alone chatGPT. No matter what question is entered, he will answer it without thinking. Buddha is a very practical teacher, full of compassion and wisdom. He does not answer questions to show off his knowledge, but to help the questioner embark on the path to enlightenment. When he talks to people , never forget the other person’s personality, roots, tendencies and ability to understand problems.
To sum up, Buddha opposed being keen on discussing formal issues and advocated a realistic spirit. Therefore, when it comes to promoting Buddhism, we should learn from the Buddha and speak more content that is easy to understand and guide our daily life based on the needs of today’s society, and speak less empty and mysterious words.
In addition, we must not forget that nothing in the world is as important as life and death, and any problem can be solved. Only life and death are not negotiable. If we cannot transcend life and death, we must continue to reincarnate. Life is short, and we face many contradictions and problems. We must cherish the present, but we must distinguish priorities and not waste energy on boring things. Therefore, we must seize every day and pull out all kinds of poisonous arrows in life. Otherwise, once we lose our body, we will be catastrophic and fall into three paths, with no hope of escape.
Editor in charge: Shen Siming Source: Look at China
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