Speculative philosophical questions lead the practitioner away from liberation ⏳
In a discourse with the Buddha, the monk Malunkyaputta approached the Buddha demanding answers to a series of ten speculative questions, threatening to leave the Sangha if the demand was not satisfied. These questions are: Is the world eternal? Is the world not eternal? Is the world finite? Is the world infinite? Is the soul the same as the body? Is the soul one thing and the body another? Does a Tathagata exist after death? Does a Tathagata not exist after death? Does a Tathagata neither exist or not exist after death?
The questions were inevitably met with silence from the Buddha. This is because all such questions are based on the underlying assumption that existence is to be interpreted in terms of a self and a world which a self is situated in. Since these questions are invalid, no valid answer framed in terms of these premises can be provided. However, even though the Buddha had philosophical grounds for refusing to answer these questions. He also rejected them because he saw the obsession with there solutions to be irrelevant to the quest for the release of suffering and Nibbana.
References
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Bodhi, Bhikkhu. (2005). In the Buddha’s Words An Anthology of Discourses From the Pali Canon Chapter VII. THE PATH TO LIBERATION (Location 3887). Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications.
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Majjhima Nikaya 63: Cūḷamāluṅkya Sutta; I 426–32
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