Buddhism A Form Of Radical Empiricism - 2329 Words

The KÄ lÄ ma Sutta is being used as a means by many skeptics and rationalist to denounce hearing, tradition, scripture, and faith. They support their arguments by citing the passage that the Buddha given to the perplexed KÄ lÄ mas. â€Å"Come, KÄ lÄ mas. Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing, †¦tradition, †¦rumor, †¦scripture, ...surmise, †¦axiom, †¦specious reasoning, †¦bias towards a notion pondered over, †¦another’s seeming ability, nor upon the consideration ‘The monk is our teacher.’ When you yourselves know†¦Ã¢â‚¬  In the book Encountering Buddhism edited by Seth Robert Segal is found to only cited this passage and having stated that, â€Å"Buddhism is a form of radical empiricism. The Buddha taught that one should not to take his word on†¦show more content†¦However, he insisted that: The KÄ lÄ ma Sutta explicitly rejected the transmitted tradition. Instead, Buddhists are exhorted â€Å"to know for themselves,† that is, to derive authority from their own experiences. In other words, experiential authority based on the individual is privileged over and against scriptural or textual authority. The KÄ lÄ ma Sutta was really criticizing heretical beliefs as false sources of religious authority deriving from â€Å"hearsay† and charismatic authority, and further highlights the problems of relying solely on â€Å"repeated hearing,† â€Å"tradition,† and â€Å"scripture,† all of which must be understood as references to Vedic and Brahmanical understanding of religious authority. On counter wise, Zhiru claims this discourse â€Å"argues for the authority of individual experience and realization of truth over transmitted teachings.† And it is â€Å"explicit prioritization of personal experience over transmitted text as the source of religious authority†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Is this true? Because the Buddha never seem says thus in the