Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge c13.148

c13.148

(688) The Buddha's attitude to the numerous theories which were being propagated and defended on rational grounds at this time (*v. supra*, Ch. V) seems to have been to ignore them. The evidence of the texts indicates that he refrained from joining issue with these dialecticians and rational metaphysicians in debate as far as possible, like some of the Sceptics (*v. supra*, 169) though he seems to have accepted the challenge when they came to him with questions for the purposes of debate (*v. supra*, 350 f.). The attitude of the Buddha is probably summed up in his own statement that 'when a debate has arisen the sage does not enter it' (vādañ ca jātam muni no upeti, Sn. 780). It is probably this attitude of shunning debates in public assemblies on the whole, which earned for the Buddha the rebuke of the brahmins that 'the recluse Gotama utters a lion's roar, but he utters it in the empty house and not in the public assemblies' (sīhanādam kho samano Gotamo nadati, tañ ca kho suññāgāre nadati no parisāsu, D. I.175). Even when people wished to know from the Buddha his views on or criticisms of others' doctrines, he generally refrains from expressing any view and is content to teach his own doctrines. When Subhadda mentions the famous teachers of his time and wants to know whether 'they all understood, none understood or some understood and some did not' (sabbe te ... abbhaññamsu, sabbe'va na abbhaññamsu, ekacce abbhaññamsu ekacce na abbhaññamsu, D. II 150, 151), the Buddha says, 'enough, Subhadda, leave these questions aside ... I shall teach you the dhamma ...' (alam, Subhadda, titthat' etam ... dhammam te ... desissāmi, *loc. cit.*). When two brahmins come to him and state the contradictory views expressed by Pūrana Kassapa and Nigantha Nātaputta on the extent of the cosmos (*v. supra*, 393) and wish to know which of them was true, his reply was the same (A. IV.429). This attitude probably explains why there is very little rational criticism even of doctrines which Buddhism opposed, in the Pāli Canon.