The Kālāmas' Dilemma
The Kālāmas of Kesaputta approached the Buddha with a modern-sounding problem: "Various ascetics and brahmins come to us, each proclaiming their own doctrine as true and dismissing others as false. We are confused and in doubt about who is telling the truth."
Buddha's response was revolutionary: "Don't go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, 'This contemplative is our teacher.'"
Instead, he provided practical criteria: "When you know for yourselves that these qualities are skillful, these qualities are blameless, these qualities are praised by the wise, undertaken and carried out, these qualities lead to welfare and to happiness—then you should enter and remain in them."
Why This Framework Matters Today
- Information Overload: Buddha's criteria help filter signal from noise in our data-saturated world.
- Echo Chambers: The warning against "repeated hearing" directly addresses how algorithms create filter bubbles.
- Authority Worship: The emphasis on evidence over credentials prevents manipulation by false experts.
- Viral Misinformation: The focus on observable results helps identify harmful but popular false claims.
- Confirmation Bias: The warning against accepting information that merely agrees with our views.