kalamas sutta

[befriend]

is the kalamas sutta saying that its not necessary to believe in kamma vipaka to walk the path? but its good to believe in kamma, ive heard we can believe in kamma 99% and leave the last 1% for experiential confirmation. metta, befriend

[santa100]

Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote a great essay on this topic..

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... ay_09.html

[befriend]

Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote a great essay on this topic..

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... ay_09.html

ill check that out when i get the chance. thanks.

[Hanzze]

Takes much doubts: Faith In Awakening in add also The Meaning of the Buddha's Awakening

[mikenz66]

And here is a newish essay by Ven Thanissaro:

Lost in Quotation
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... ation.html

Many people who don't know much about old Buddhist texts often know one passage from the Pali Canon: the part of the Kalama Sutta (AN 3.65) stating that old texts can't be trusted.

Quotes from this passage come in many shapes and sizes. Some of them are short sound bites, like the message that was rubber-stamped on the envelope of a letter I once received:

Follow your own sense of right and wrong.

— The Buddha

There's also the desktop wallpaper:

Believe nothing, no matter who said it, not even if I said it, if it doesn't fit in with your own reason and common sense.

— The Buddha

Even scholarly citations of the sutta give the same message. Here's the entire quote from the sutta in a recent book:

When you know for yourselves that these things are wholesome... these things, when entered upon and undertaken, incline toward welfare and happiness — then, Kalamas, having come to them you should stay with them.

— The Buddha

Taken together, these quotes justify our tendency to pick what we like from the old texts and throw the rest away. No need to understand the larger context of the dhamma they teach, the Buddha seems to be saying. You're better off rolling your own.
...

Mike

[Bonsai Doug]

Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote a great essay on this topic..
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... ay_09.html

To the OP... if you have doubts or concerns regarding this Sutta, then by all means
read the above quoted Bhikkhu Bodhi essay. The Kalamas Sutta is very often either
misquoted, or certain verses are taken out of context to make it appear that The Buddha
is basically saying... pick and choose on your own... nothing else matters.

[dhammapal]

Also see p74 of Bhikkhu Bodhi's Introduction to the Anguttara Nikaya. The Chinese parallel to the Kalama Sutta is remarkably different.

With metta / dhammapal.