🚀 go-pugleaf

From: Michael Gerlach <gerlach@rz.informatik.uni-hamburg.dbp.de>
To: mod-ki@unido.informatik.uni-dortmund.de
Date: 4  May 90 13:24 +0100
Subject: Die acht Wahrheitswerte Buddhas
Keywords: Feuilleton

mod-ki message 0456
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Ein Auszug aus: Facets of Buddhist Thought, von Prof. K.N. Jayatilleke
 
Veroeffentlicht von: The Buddhist Publication Foundation, Wat
Phratatdoisutep, Chiangmai, Thailand
Zuerst veroeffentlicht von: The Buddhist Publication Society,
P.O.Box 61, Kandy, Sri Lanka
 
The Buddhist Conception of Truth
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...
Right speech, however, is not limited to the requirement of speaking the
truth. It is also necessary that (a) one  avoids  slander  which  causes
divisions  and  dissensions  among  people  and  confines   oneself   to
statements which bring about social harmony and understanding,  (b)  one
refrains from harsh or foul language and be civil and courteous in one's
speech, saying what is pleasant and (c) avoid gossip and vain speech and
speak at the right occasion and in  accordance  with  the  law  what  is
profitable, righteous and true.

An exception is sometimes made in the case of (b), where it is held that
our statements even when true, may be either pleasant or unpleasant.  It
is sometimes necessary to say what is true but  unpleasant  when  it  is
useful, just as much as it is necessary  to  put  one's  finger  in  the
throat of a child even when it causes a little pain in order to pull out
something that has  got  stuck  in  the  child's  throat.  Thus  in  the
Abhayarajakumara Sutta, it is pointed out that statements may be true or
false, useful or useless and pleasant or  unpleasant.  This  results  in
eight possibilities as follows.

    1.  True  useful   pleasant
    2.    "      "     unpleasant
    3.    "   useless  pleasant
    4.    "      "     unpleasant
    5.  False useful   pleasant
    6.    "      "     unpleasant
    7.    "   useless  pleasant
    8.    "      "     unpleasant

Of the eight possibilities,  it  is  said,  that  the  Transcendent  One
asserts 1 and 2 at the  proper  time...  Lying  is  prohibited  and  the
necessity to seek and speak the truth is emphasised because such  action
promotes one's  personal  happiness  as  well  as  social  progress  and
harmony...
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