The unanswered questions ~ Riddle me this

For further reflection and in a similar line of thinking please see this article:

http://paxexsistovos.blogspot.com/2015/01/apophatic-theology-negative-theology.html

The unanswered questions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Fourteen unanswerable questions)

Jump to: navigation, search

The phrase unanswered questions or undeclared questions (Sanskrit avyākṛta, Pali: avyākata - "unfathomable, unexpounded"^[1]), in Buddhism, refers to a set of common philosophical questions that Buddha refused to answer, according to Buddhist texts. The Pali texts give only ten, the Sanskrit texts fourteen questions.

Fourteen questions[edit]

According to their subject matter the questions can be grouped in four categories.

Questions concerning the existence of the world in time

1. Is the world eternal?
2. ...or not?
3. ...or both?
4. ...or neither?
(Pali texts omit "both" and "neither")

Questions concerning the existence of the world in space

5. Is the world finite?
6. ...or not?
7. ...or both?
8. ...or neither?
(Pali texts omit "both" and "neither")

Questions referring to personal identity

9. Is the self identical with the body?
10. ...or is it different from the body?

Questions referring to life after death

11. Does the Tathagata (Buddha) exist after death?
12. ...or not?
13. ...or both?
14. ...or neither?

Pali Canon[edit]

Majjhima Nikaya 63 ^[2] & 72 ^[3] in the Pali canon contain a list of ten unanswered questions about certain views (ditthi):

1. The world is eternal.
2. The world is not eternal.
3. The world is (spatially) infinite.
4. The world is not (spatially) infinite.
5. The soul (jiva) is identical with the body.
6. The soul is not identical with the body.
7. The Tathagata (a perfectly enlightened being) exists after death.
8. The Tathagata does not exist after death.
9. The Tathagata both exists and does not exist after death.
10. The Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist after death.

Buddha's answer to the questions, according to the scriptures[edit]

The Buddha remained silent when asked these fourteen questions. He described them as a net and refused to be drawn into such a net of theories, speculations, and dogmas. He said that it was because he was free of bondage to all theories and dogmas that he had attained liberation. Such speculations, he said, are attended by fever, unease, bewilderment, and suffering, and it is by freeing oneself of them that one achieves liberation.

Sabbasava-Sutta[edit]

The Sabbasava Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 2^[4]) also mentions 16 questions which are seen as "unwise reflection" and lead to attachment to views relating to a self. ^[5]

1. What am I?
2. How am I?
3. Am I?
4. Am I not?
5. Did I exist in the past?
6. Did I not exist in the past?
7. What was I in the past?
8. How was I in the past?
9. Having been what, did I become what in the past?
10. Shall I exist in future?
11. Shall I not exist in future?
12. What shall I be in future?
13. How shall I be in future?
14. Having been what, shall I become what in future?
15. Whence came this person?
16. Whither will he go?

The Buddha states that it is unwise to be attached to both views of having and perceiving a self and views about not having a self. Any view which sees the self as "permanent, stable, everlasting, unchanging, remaining the same for ever and ever" is "becoming enmeshed in views, a jungle of views, a wilderness of views; scuffling in views, the agitation (struggle) of views, the fetter of views."<sup>[6]


Thanks to Source:</sup>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_unanswered_questions