Why Did Buddha Say What He Did Ganeri
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This article was downloaded by: [University of Groningen]On: 14 June 2015, At: 03:06Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Contemporary Buddhism: An Interdisciplinary JournalPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:
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Words that Burn: Why did the Buddha say what he didJonardon Ganeri
Published online: 21 Nov 2006.
To cite this article:Jonardon Ganeri (2006) Words that Burn: Why did the Buddha say what he did?, Contemporary Buddhis
An Interdisciplinary Journal, 7:1, 7-27, DOI: 10.1080/14639940600877853
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14639940600877853
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WORDS THAT BURN: WHY DID THE
BUDDHA SAY WHAT HE DID?
Jonardon Ganeri
Before all else, that the soul be turned around as regards the fundamental
direction of its striving. . .
1 (Martin Heidegger)
The Buddhas silences
Vacchagotta, whose questions about the immortality of the soul and the
eternality of the world the Buddha famously refused to answer,2 would
nevertheless later say that the Buddha has made the Dhamma clear in many ways,
as though he were turning upright what had been overthrown, revealing what
was hidden, showing the way to one who was lost, or holding up a lamp in the
dark.3 In the Milinda-panha, the Greek King Menander challenges the Buddhist
monk Nagasena to explain how it could be that the Buddha was willing to remain
silent and yet also assert that he had nothing to hide; that unlike other teachers he
did not keep some things in his fist:
Revered Nagasena, this too was said by the Lord: In regard to the Tathagatas
teachings, Ananda, there is no teachers fist. On the other hand when the Elder
Malunkyaputta asked the Lord a question he did not answer it. This question,
revered Nagasena, will have two ends on one of which it must rest: either that of
not knowing or that of keeping something secret. For if, revered Nagasena, the
Lord said: In regard to the Tathagatas teachings, Ananda, there is no teachers
fist, well then, it was through not knowing that he did not answer the Elder
Malunkyaputta. But if though he knew he did not answer, well then, in the
Tathagatas teachings there was a teachers fist. This too is a double-pronged
question; it is put to you; it is for you to solve.4
How can silence be anything other than a form of secrecy? Apparently only if the
person questioned does not know the answer. Compare Clitophons accusation
against Socrates: [O]ne of two things must be true: either you know nothing
about it [sc. justice], or you dont wish to share it with me (Clitophon 410c67).
Nagasena responds that there are foursorts of question: questions that require a
definite reply, questions that require an analysis, questions that demand to be met
Contemporary Buddhism, Vol. 7, No. 1, May 2006ISSN 1463-9947 print/1476-7953 online/06/010007-27
q 2006 Jonardon Ganeri DOI: 10.1080/14639940600877853
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with a counter-question, and, finally, questions that are to be set aside. The
questions to be set aside are those for which there is no cause or reason to answer,
for there is no utterance or speech of the Buddhas, the Lords, that is without
reason, without cause. Nagasenas solution, then, is that some questions do not
deserve an answer and the Buddha would not say something unless there
was a point in doing so; the point, for the Buddha, being always related to the
perlocutionary effects of his remarks on his audience. It is true that the Buddha
does not wish to share his knowledge but the motivation is not a desire to
preserve a secret, but rather the wish not to harm his questioner with the truth.5
In so choosing to remain silent, however, does the Buddha not conceal the truthwhen in his judgement his teachings will not have the transformative effect
intended for them? Clearly, the internal coherence of the Buddhas stance on
silence requires that it is not zealotry but compassion that motivates him; his
compassion is, as it were, a presupposition for the consistency of his position. Not
every silence is a subterfuge; sometimes the silence is sincere. Lying permits of a
similar distinction: some lies are acts of manipulation, but others legitimately
protect the liar from the interrogations of one who does not have a right to the
truth. The Buddha had no need to worry about the effects of others words on him
but he did care about the effects his words had on others. This led him to remain
silent; in the next section, we will ask whether his compassion also led him to lie.
Vasubandhu supplements Nagasenas response with two further considera-
tions.6 One is that the Buddha takes into account the intentions and prior beliefs
of the questioner in assessing the effect any answer may have on them. These
intentions and beliefs may be such that the questioner will misunderstand the
answer, although it be true, however it is phrased. Vasubandhus second addition
is to note that some questions are to be set aside, not because the Buddha does
not know the answer, but because any answer would commit him to knowledge
that is not to be had. The Buddha refused to answer the question What happens
to a man after he dies?, and it is the case neither that he knows what happens but
refuses to say, nor that he does not know what happens; rather, any answer would
commit him to knowing there issomethingthat happens, and, for the Buddha, this
is not a fact available to be known. To put it another way, questions are implicit
arguments, and answers can only confirm or deny the validity of the argument
implicit in the question but not challenge the truth of its premises. When the
person answering the question believes that one of its implicit premises is false,
the only option is to remain silent.7
The face-value of the Buddhas words about the self, and their truevalue
A specific problem I will now seek to address concerns the problem of the
Buddhas truthfulness: did the Buddha sometimes lie, and if so with what
justification? The philosophical problem of the compassionate lie, and the more
general hermeneutical problem of the Buddhas truthfulness, are ones that had to
8 J. GANERI
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be confronted by the tradition of Buddhist hermeneutics.8 Although Nagarjuna
tries, on one occasion, to define the compassionate lie out of existence, the
problem is not so easily dismissible.9 A compassionate lie might well be morally
justified but that does not turn it into a truth. The implication of the famous
parable of the burning house in the Lotus Sutra, in which a father cajoles his
children to leave the burning house with the false promise of toys, is that the
compassionate lie is a skilful way to bring about the good.10 The parable suggests
that the Buddhas words, although untrue, encourage people to escape the
burning house that is a persons lustful attachment to the world.11 This in spite of
some attempt to claim that no untruth is involved:
[The Buddha asks Sariputra,] Sariputra, what do you think . . . was [the father]
guilty of falsehood or not? Sariputra said, No, this rich man simply made it
possible for his sons to escape the peril of fire and preserve their lives. He did not
commit a falsehood . . . because if they were able to preserve their lives, then
they had already obtained a plaything of sorts. And how much more so when,
t
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