Brahmajalasutta 2.24

Brahmajala Sutta (Dialogues of the Buddha) 2.24

Language: English

2.24

‘In the first place, brethren, some recluse or Brahman does not understand the good in its real nature, nor the evil. And he thinks: -"I neither know the good, as it really is, nor the evil. That being so, were I to pronounce this to be good or that to be evil, I might be influenced therein by my feelings or desires, by ill will or resentment. And under these circumstances I might be wrong; and my having been wrong might cause me the pain of remorse; and the sense of remorse might become a hindrance to me.” Thus fearing and abhorring the being wrong in an expressed opinion, he will neither declare anything to be good, nor to be bad; but on a question being put to him on this or that, he resorts to eel-wriggling. to equivocation, and says: “I don’t take it thus. I don’t take it the other way. But I advance no different opinion. And I don’t deny your position. And I don’t say it is neither the one, nor the other.
‘This is the first case.
‘And what is the second?

2.24.n1

Either in self-training or in the attainment of bliss in heaven’ says Buddhaghosa (p.115).

2.24.n2

Buddhaghosa gives examples of these five equivocations.

Linked texts (1)

Brahmajālasutta — Pāli