🚀 go-pugleaf

X-Orig-MsgId: <386B9AE6.95EAD454@bu.edu>



Jigme Dorje wrote: <<As the Buddha maintained in the Majjhima Nikaya 58 - Abhaya
Sutta (Abhaya-raja-kumara Sutta) To Prince Abhaya On Right Speech,  several
factors go into deciding what is and is not worth saying. The main factors are
three:

-whether or not a statement is true,
-whether or not it is beneficial,
-and whether or not it is pleasing to others.

The Buddha himself would state only those things that are true and beneficial,
and would have a sense of time for when pleasing and unpleasing things should be
said. (The possibility that a statement might be untrue yet beneficial is not
entertained.)  So, strictly speaking, in denouncing evil, we should be extremely
cautious, sensitive and mindful.>>

It is not true that the possibility that a statement might be untrue yet
beneficial is not entertained. Such a possibility is actuated by the Buddha, i.
e., is no longer a mere possibility but is an actuality.

I have quoted many times a dialogue where a brahman asks the Buddha:

 "Friend Gotama! Where are the brahmanic scriptures supported?"
 "The brahmanic scriptures are supported by man!"
 "Friend Gotama! Where is man supported?"
 "Man is supported by food."
 "Friend Gotama! Where is food supported?"
 "Food is supported by the earth."
 "Friend Gotama! Where is the earth supported?"
 "The earth is supported by water."
 "Friend Gotama! Where is water supported?"
 "Water is supported by the wind."
 "Friend Gotama! Where is wind supported?"
 "Wind is supported by space."
 "Friend Gotama! Where is space supported?"
 "You go too far, great brahman. Space is un-supported (a-pratisthita). It is
only because of the sun and moon that there is space!"

The brahman misses the Buddha�s double message and keeps asking where sun and
moon are supported, the Buddha answers by the four god-kings, and from that they
go after a few steps to the Great Brahma, who according to the Buddha is
supported by patience and honesty. After the Buddha�s reduction of all brahmanic
cosmology physical and divine to morality, the brahman keeps asking where
patience and honesty are supported, and the Buddha answers that they are
supported by blowing-out (nirvana). The brahman asks where blowing-out is
supported, and the Buddha answers:

 "Brahman! You want to have the ultimate supported! Your question goes to far
(atisarasi)! However blowing-out (nirvana) is un-supported (a-pratisthita)!
Blowing-out is the goal, blowing-out is the end!

This dialogue (not preserved in Pali) is famous in Indian Buddhism, and is
quoted by Nagarjuna, see Christian Lindtner, "Nagarjuna and the Problem of
Precanonical Buddhism," Religious Traditions, Volumes 15-16-17, 1994, 120 and n.
13.

The Buddha is obviously playing here, for he is not taking any of these
Brahmanical things seriously, but is only playing along with the brahman to make
fun of the latter's cosmology, and turn it into Buddhism.

So in Buddhism, there is speech that is untrue but beneficial, and the Buddha
himself practices it, and Nagarjuna quotes him on it.

Tang Huyen