During law school, three decades ago, I was taught that it is possible to disagree without being disagreeable. However, in recent years, I have lost count of how many times, on traditional and social media, I have seen "talking heads" from the far left and far right -- mostly the far right, since November of 2016 -- demonizing the other side or its arguments instead of focusing on the substance of those arguments.
In these situations, I have come to feel some kinship with the Kalamas of ancient India. By way of background, after Siddhattha Gotama's enlightenment, he spent the rest of his life traveling around India teaching with members of his Sangha (the community of monks and nuns). One day, he came to a village of the Kalamas called Kesaputta, where the puzzled villagers sought his advice.
It seems that some of the wandering ascetics who came to Kesaputta would explain their own doctrines, but then "disparage, debunk, revile, and vilify" the doctrines of other ascetics. However, when the second group of ascetics came to the village, they would also explain their own doctrines but then "disparage, debunk, revile, and vilify" the doctrines of the first group.
Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of the Buddha's advice to the Kalamas reads as follows:
"Come, Kalamas. Do not go by oral tradition, by lineage of teaching, by hearsay, by a collection of texts, by logic, by inferential reasoning, by reasoned cogitation, by the acceptance of a view after pondering it, by the seeming competence of a speaker, or because you think, 'The ascetic is our teacher.' But when you know for yourselves, 'These things are wholesome; these things are blameless; these things are praised by the wise; these things, if undertaken and practiced, lead to welfare and happiness,' then you should engage in them."
Upon hearing the Buddha's teaching, the Kalamas exclaimed that it was "magnificent" and asked him to accept them as lay followers for life.
I am not suggesting that all of us -- or any of us -- should become Buddhists, but if more of us followed the Buddha's advice to the Kalamas about evaluating the claims of competing speakers, I believe the quality of our contemporary public discourse would be improved.
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References:
The passage quoted above comes from Bhikkhu Bodhi's In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (Boston, Wisdom Publications, 2005), AN 3:65, pages 88-91.
For another translation of the same text, see Glenn Wallis' Basic Teachings of the Buddha (New York, Modern Library, 2007), Kesamutti Sutta, Sutta 4, Anguttaranikaya 3.65, pages 22-26.
Yes indeed. So many blind followers with no true understanding or convictions. As a teacher, it is crucial that I encourage open-mindedness, deep reflection, empathy, and self-discovery, all things which seem to be eroding around us.
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