[Come Beggar!]

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Five Unreliable Ways
of
Determining the Truth
and
Awakening to the Truth

Five things that cannot be relied upon for concluding that a thing is true because they can be seen to be sometimes true and sometimes not and the reverses of each are similarly sometimes true and sometimes not.

For example: Something held to be true because it is agreeable can be incorrect; something held to be false because it is disagreeable can be true.

These same five things, however are the ways truth may be preserved down through time.

How to awaken to the truth

Examine the teacher as to bodily and verbal behavior with regard to states of lust, anger and delusion.

Is he in the control of these states such that he might, not knowing, not seeing, say: "I know" or "I see"?

Is he in the control of these states such that he might urge others to act to their detriment?

Does the doctrine of this teacher lead to dispassion, giving up, letting go, detachment and freedom? A doctrine that is profound, hard to see and hard to understand, peaceful and sublime, unattainable by mere reasoning, subtle, to be experience by the wise each for himself here in this visible state, for such doctrine is not easily taught by one in the control of lust, anger and delusion.

After determining that this teacher is in control of these states such that he would not, not knowing, not seeing, say: "I know' or "I see," and would not urge others to act to their detriment, then only:

Pāli	Olds	Horner	Bhks. Ñanamoli/Bodhi	Bhk. Thanissaro
saddhaɱ niveseti	Repose Faith Upon	Reposes Faith in	Places Faith	Places Conviction
upasaṅkamanto payirupāsati	Reposing Faith, approach respectfully near	Draws close and sits down near by	Visits and pays respect	Visits and grows close
payirupāsanto sotaɱ odahati	Respectfully give ear	Lends Ear	Gives Ear	Lends Ear
Dhammaɱ suṇāti	Giving Ear, Listen to Dhamma	Hears Dhamma	Hears Dhamma	Hears Dhamma
sutvā Dhammaɱ dhāreti	Having Listened, Retain Heard Dhamma	Remembers	Memorizes	Remembers
dhāritānaɱ Dhammānaɱ atthaɱ upaparikkhati	Having Retained, Grasp the Profit in the Retained as Heard	Tests the Meaning	Examines the Meaning	Penetrates the Meaning
Dhammā ni-j-jhānaɱ khamanti	Having Grasped the Profit, repose satisfaction with or acceptance of the insight arising from this Dhamma	Approves	Reflectively Accepts	Comes to Agreement through Pondering
dhamma-ni-j-jhāna-k-khantiyā sati chando jāyati	There being satisfaction with the insight arising from this Dhamma, wish is born	Desire is born	Zeal Springs Up	Desire Arises
ussahati	Wish born, there is daring to do	Makes an Effort	Applies Will	Becomes Willing
tulayati	daring to do there is taking measures	Weighs Up	Scrutinizes	Contemplates, Weighs Up
pahadati	taking measures there is taking steps	Strives	Strives	Makes Exertion
pahitatto samāno kāyena c'eva paramasa-c-caɱ sacchi-karoti,|| paññāya ca taɱ ati-vijjha passati	Having taken steps, the shaman, bodily embraces the truth and thus wisely, with his very own vision, sees.	being self-resolute he realizes with his person the highest truth itself; and penetrating it by means of intuitive wisdom, he sees.	Resolutely striving, he realizes with the body the ultimate truth and sees it by penetrating it with wisdom.	Exerting himself, he both realizes the ultimate meaning of the truth with his body and sees by penetrating it with discernment.

 

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Securing Truth

The above practice brings one to the state of having wakened to the truth. To secure that awakening one must repeat this practice again and again.

 

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The Four Causes of Error

1. The influence of fragile or unworthy authority.
2. Custom.
3. The imperfection of undisciplined senses.
4. Concealment of ignorance by ostentation of seeming wisdom.

— From Remembrance Rock by Carl Sandberg, attributed to Roger Bacon. Note the following from Encyclopaedia Britanica, Eleventh Edition, Vol. 3-4, AUS to CAL, Bacon, Roger (c. 1214-c. 1204) p 153: "Phyical science, if there was anything deserving that name, was cultivated, not by experiment in the Aristotelian way, but by arguments deduced from premises resting on authority or custom. Everywhere there was a show of knowledge concealing fundamental ignorance," words not attributed to Bacon.

■

Etha tumhe Kālāmā mā anusasavena,||
mā paramparāya,||
mā itikirāya,||
mā piṭakasampadānena,||
mā takkahetu,||
mā naya-hetu,||
mā ākāra-parivitakkena,||
mā diṭṭhi-ni-j-jhāna-k-khantiyā,||
mā bhavya-rūpatāya,||
mā samaṇo no garū ti||
yadā tumhe Kālāmā attanā va jāneyyātha:||
ime dhammā akusalā,||
ime dhammā sāvajjā,||
ime dhammā viññugara-hitā,||
ime dhammā samattā samādinnā ahitāya dukkhāya saɱvattantī ti —||
atha tumhe Kālāmā pajaheyyātha.|| ||
— Kesaputtiya Suttaɱ

■

Let not thy going, Kalamas, be by tradition,
nor by reliance on conclusions,
nor by hearsay,
nor by that which is contained in the scriptures,
nor by that which is driven by cranking out thought,
nor that which is driven by method,
nor by thoroughly thought through constructions,
nor by just capitulating to some viewpoint,
nor by appearance of reasonableness,
nor by instruction of your teacher,
but, Kalamas, let thy going be
by knowing for thyself:
'this thing is unskillful',
'this thing is blamable',
'this thing gives rise to a fault,
'this thing undertaken, accomplished,
is harmful, painful in result' -
and going by that, Kalamas
rid thyself thereof.

— Olds, translation. See also translations of:
Woodward
Bhk. Thanissaro,
Soma Thera.