The Buddha had boundless wisdom and knew the past and future of all sentient beings in the entire world, but he refused to answer the 10 metaphysical questions raised by the wanderer Brahman. The ten questions are as follows:
1. Is the universe eternal?
2) Isn't the universe eternal?
3) Is the universe finite?
4) Is the universe infinite?
5. Are body and mind the same thing?
6. Is the body a thing and the mind a thing?
7. Does Rulai continue to exist after death?
8. Does it no longer exist after death?
9. Does it exist both and exist at the same time after death?
10. Does rulai neither exist nor exist after death?
Text/Pure Cause Master
Why didn't the Buddha answer these metaphysical questions? First, these questions have little to do with the Buddha's teachings. In the early Buddhist teachings, the Buddha placed special emphasis on the three non-leakage of precepts, concentration, and wisdom, and the three seals of impermanence of all actions, non-self-consciousness and leakage of all suffering.
The Buddha said more than once, "Bhikkhus, there are only two things I am talking about: suffering and the cessation of suffering (i.e., nirvana). Human beings are full of suffering, and our immediate task is to get rid of it, so I explain these Dharmas because they are useful, they have a fundamental relationship with the practice of Brahmanical practice of mind and body, which can be disgusting, de-grasping, entering into extinction, attaining tranquility, contemplation, and nirvana. So I explain these laws.... ”
Of the above ten metaphysical questions, the first four are questions about the duration and breadth of the universe, which is cosmology, and they have little to do with the Buddha's teachings. Whether the world is eternal or non-eternal, finite or infinite, they do not contribute to human liberation from suffering.
The next two questions are about the body and mind. According to the Buddha's teachings, the Dharmas have no self, which is one of the three seals. In fact, the doctrine of no-self is a great feature of Buddhism, so if one asks whether the body and mind are the same thing or not, it is simply incompatible with the Buddha's teachings. For Buddhism, these questions cannot be discussed at all.
The last few questions are related to the state of the Buddha's enlightenment. The transcendent realm of Buddha's enlightenment can only be attained through practice. For ordinary people, they will never understand this transcendent realm, even if the Buddha explains it to them.
So, these metaphysical questions have little to do with the Buddha's teachings, they have nothing to do with the Brahmanic practice of cultivating the body and mind, they cannot be disgusting, clinging to, going into extinction, attaining tranquility, contemplation, and nirvana, so the Buddha did not answer these questions. So whenever someone asked the Buddha about these metaphysical questions, the Buddha was always silent. Second, metaphysical problems can lead people astray and disorient them.
In the time of the Buddha, a monk named Man Tongzi, one day, when he was meditating in the afternoon, he suddenly got up and went to the Buddha's house, sat down next to him after performing the ceremony, and said, "Your Holiness, I was meditating alone, and suddenly a thought arose: There are ten questions that you have never given us a clear explanation. Whenever people ask you these questions, you always put them aside and go silent, and I don't like that. If Your Holiness is still silent about these questions, I will lose faith and will no longer practice Brahman, and if His Holiness knows that the world is eternal, please explain to me as such, if the universe is not eternal, why? If you don't know these questions, just say: I don't know. ”
The Buddha said, "You stupid man! Did you become a monk to understand these metaphysical questions? Did I promise you when you followed me in my Brahmanical practice that I would answer these questions? Man Tongzi replied, "Worldly, no." The Buddha said, "You're going to die before you get the answer." Man Boy, if a man was wounded by a poisoned arrow, his relatives and friends took him to see a surgeon. If the man had said, "I do not want to pull out this poisonous arrow unless I know who shot me, whether he is of the Shaktiris caste, the Brahmin caste, the Vedas, or the Sudra caste; whether he is tall, short, or of medium stature; whether his complexion is black, white, brown, or golden; and which city or country he comes from. I do not want to take out this poisonous arrow unless I know what bow I was shot with, what kind of bow string I was; what type of arrow; what kind of hair the arrow is made of; what material the cluster of arrows is made of... Man Boy, this man died long before he could figure out these answers. Similarly, if someone says, I don't want to follow The Venerable One to practice Brahmanical practices unless he answers me the question of whether the universe is eternal, the person will die before he can get the answer. ”
Since life is short, if someone is troubled by these metaphysical problems all day long, chasing after them and chasing after them, they will go astray and will eventually find nothing.
Third, due to the limitations of language, ordinary people cannot understand these problems through language. Language is created by human beings to express the things, experiences, thoughts, and feelings that human beings experience from the senses and the mind. It represents the symbols of things and ideas that we know. It is limited to time, space, and dependent arising, and language cannot go beyond these limits. In other words, human beings can only express one thing, one realm, in words, to the extent permitted by time, space, and dependent arising. Sometimes, human language is not even enough to express the true nature of everyday things. Experience, for example, tells us that sometimes we have a passion or feeling that we can't put into words.
So human language is not omnipotent, it has certain limitations. In terms of knowing the truth, language is even more unreliable and error-prone. Because absolute truths (such as nirvana) are beyond the limits of time, space, and dependent arising, human beings can only experience them, but cannot describe them in words, that is, the so-called extinction of the mind and actions, and the judgment of words. In fact, these questions can never be answered fully and satisfactorily through words and words, and no language can express this experience.
It's like there's no word for land in the fish vocabulary. The turtle told his friend fish that it had just gone on land for a walk back to the lake. The fish said, "Of course you mean swimming." "The turtle wanted to explain to the fish that the land was hard and could not swim on it, only to walk on it. But the fish insisted that there could be no such thing, that the land must be liquid, and that the lake where it lived had waves and could jump and swim on it.
Similarly, in the vocabulary of ordinary mortals, it is impossible to find appropriate words and phrases to describe Nirvana. However, at present, many people use the most beautiful words in the world to describe the lofty state of nirvana, and some people even spare no effort to discuss the wonderful state after the Buddha's entry and death at length. The result is just as the Lengya Sutra says that the fool clings to words and words, like an elephant caught in a quagmire and unable to extricate himself.
Finally, according to the machine, teaching according to one's aptitude is the Buddha's method of teaching sentient beings. The Buddha was not a computer, and no matter what kind of question anyone asked, he would answer it without thinking. He is a practical teacher, full of compassion and wisdom, and he does not answer questions to show off his knowledge, but to help the interrogator on the path of enlightenment. When he talks to people, he never forgets the other person's level, tendencies, roots, personality, and ability to understand a certain problem.
According to the Buddha, there are four ways to deal with problems:
1. When the questions are more direct, obvious, and metaphysical questions are avoided, they must be answered directly. For example, what is the cause of suffering?
2. Certain questions must be answered analytically, such as Buddhism is idealism or materialism?
3. There are other questions that must be answered with a counter-question.
4. There is a category of questions that must be answered with silence. For example, when someone asked the Buddha questions about metaphysics, the Buddha was often silent.
So, when Brahma asked the Buddha if he had a god, the Buddha was always silent. The buddha's silence has more influence on the Brahma than any eloquence. The compassionate and wise Buddha took pains to this confused seeker and showed him deep concern.
One might ask, could the Buddha answer these ten metaphysical questions? Let us not draw any conclusions for a moment, but one thing is certain, the Buddha must have known a lot more Dharma than he said.