The Cula-Malunkyovada is one of my favorite suttas. In it, Buddha is approached by a monk who demands that questions of the soul and afterlife be answered, or he will leave the holy life. As you can probably guess, the monk gets schooled by Buddha, ending in this synopsis:
“So, Malunkyaputta, remember what is undeclared by me as undeclared, and what is declared by me as declared. And what is undeclared by me? ‘The cosmos is eternal,’ is undeclared by me. ‘The cosmos is not eternal,’ is undeclared by me. ‘The cosmos is finite’… ‘The cosmos is infinite’… ‘The soul & the body are the same’… ‘The soul is one thing and the body another’… ‘After death a Tathagata exists’… ‘After death a Tathagata does not exist’… ‘After death a Tathagata both exists & does not exist’… ‘After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist,’ is undeclared by me.
“And why are they undeclared by me? Because they are not connected with the goal, are not fundamental to the holy life. They do not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, calming, direct knowledge, self-awakening, Unbinding. That’s why they are undeclared by me.
“And what is declared by me? ‘This is stress,’ is declared by me. ‘This is the origination of stress,’ is declared by me. ‘This is the cessation of stress,’ is declared by me. ‘This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress,’ is declared by me. And why are they declared by me? Because they are connected with the goal, are fundamental to the holy life. They lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, calming, direct knowledge, self-awakening, Unbinding. That’s why they are declared by me.
“And why are they undeclared by me? Because they are not connected with the goal, are not fundamental to the holy life. They do not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, calming, direct knowledge, self-awakening, Unbinding. That’s why they are undeclared by me.”
In Thanissaro’s essay on No-Self, he reminds us that when Buddha was asked point-blank whether there is or is not a self…
“he refused to answer. When later asked why, he said that to hold either that there is a self or that there is no self is to fall into extreme forms of wrong view that make the path of Buddhist practice impossible. Thus the question should be put aside.”
Aside from its unswerving focus on the compassionate cessation of suffering, what I most respect about Buddhism as a “religion” is that refuses to answer metaphysical questions. It is an incredibly wise thing to do, regardless of what the answers are.
I come back to this in other areas of my practice as well. Every day, issues come up that I find myself struggling with. Many must be dealt with, but many others are invented, blown out of proportion, or irrelevant to the task at hand. It feels great to remember that, in so many cases, the struggle can simply be put aside.
