Theos-Talk Archives (January 2002 Message tt00411)

See http://www.cains.com/bucha/kalama.html. It might shed some light 
regarding the conflict that exists between liberals and 
findamentalists. Then again, it may not.

It was nice chatting with you,
MNS

p.s. A more modern version is contained in the controversial SD, Vol. 
III:

Blind Faith Not Expected

(Page 401) If we bring as an argument the sacred Jaina books, wherein 
the dying Gautama Buddha is thus addressed: "Arise into Nirvi 
[Nirvâna] from this decrepit body into which thou hast been 
sent. . . . Ascend into thy former abode, O blessed Avatâra;" and if 
we add that this seems to us the very opposite of nihilism, we may be 
told that so far it may only prove a contradiction, one more 
discrepancy in the Buddhist faith. If again we remind the reader that 
since Gautama is believed to appear occasionally, re-descending from 
his "former abode" for the good of humanity and His faithful 
congregation, thus making it incontestable that Buddhism does not 
teach final annihilation, we shall be referred to authorities to whom 
such teaching is ascribed. And let us say at once: Men are no 
authority for us in questions of conscience, nor ought they to be for 
anyone else. If anyone holds to Buddha's Philosophy, let him do and 
say as Buddha did and said; if a man calls himself a Christian, let 
him follow the commandments of Christ—not the interpretations of His 
many dissenting priests and sects.

In A Buddhist Catechism the question is asked:

Are there any dogmas in Buddhism which we are required to accept on 
faith?

A. No. We are earnestly enjoined to accept nothing whatsoever on 
faith, whether it be written in books, handed down from our 
ancestors, or taught by sages. Our Lord Buddha has said that we must 
not believe in a thing said merely because it is said; nor traditions 
because they have been handed down from antiquity; nor rumours, as 
such; nor writings by sages, because sages wrote them; nor fancies 
that we may suspect to have been inspired in us by a Deva (that is, 
in presumed spiritual inspiration); nor from inferences drawn from 
some haphazard assumption we may have made; nor because of what seems 
an analogical necessity; nor on the mere authority of our teachers of 
masters. But we are to believe when the writing, doctrine, or saying 
is corroborated by our own reason and consciousness. "For this," says 
he in concluding, " I taught you not to believe merely because you 
have heard, but when you believed of your consciousness, then to act 
accordingly and abundantly." [See the Kalama Sutta of the 
Anguttaranikayo, as quoted in A Buddhist Catechism by H. S. Olcott, 
President of the Theosophical Society. pp. 55.56.]