KALAMA SUTTA

Have you ever been at the receiving end of unfair treatment simply because people changed their opinion about you overnight based on hearsay??

It makes me wonder how people get swayed so easily by what someone else tells them and don't bother to reflect a moment before blindly believing what others say. Is it just easier to believe rather than exercise those brain cells a li'l bit and question...or perhaps, often, one is not bold enough to question the source for fear of upsetting them? Is it lack of belief in their own judgement, an overdose of belief in others or a little bit of both??...what everthe case may be, I think it akin to insulting one's own intelligence.

Having recently experienced something of this, I was pondering on it, and as usual poning the question to the powers that are...what do you say to people whose opinions sway like a flag in the wind, letting themselves be taken in any direction others carry them? Almost as if in divine response, I chanced upon the Kalama Sutta-or as it is called-"Buddha's charter of free enquiry"...

I thought it worthwhile to share, so here it is...THINK FOR YOURSELVES PEOPLE- don't just go blindly for hearsay!!
Much love.
N.

 (As taken from the net:)

 "The Kālāma Sutta is used for advocating prudence by the use of sound logical reasoning arguments and the dialectic principles for inquiries in the practice that relates to the discipline of seeking truth, wisdom and knowledge whether it is religious or not. In short, the Kālāma Sutta is opposed to blind faith, dogmatism and belief spawned from specious reasoning".

                                                                   KALAMA SUTTA

 

Do not believe in anything (simply) because you have heard it.  

Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.
Do not believe in anything because it is spoken and rumoured by many.
Do not believe in anything (simply) because it is found written in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
But after observation and analysis when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conductive to the good and benefit of one and all then accept it and live up to it.

 Buddha (Anguttara Nikaya Vol. 1, 188-193 P.T.S. Ed.)"