Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing, nor upon tradition, nor upon rumour.”
The Buddha · Buddhism · Ancient · canonical discourse; oral tradition from the 5th–4th century BCE, written down centuries later
Part of:Ancient questions, modern life →
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is a warning not to outsource judgement to repetition, tradition, or rumour, and to test what leads to harm or benefit. A competing reading hears a charter for believing whatever you like, whereas the discourse replaces those grounds with a test: what, when taken up, leads to welfare and does not harm. It is Anguttara Nikaya 3.65, spoken to the Kalamas, who were tired of visiting teachers abusing one another. The short English is the negative half only.
Did The Buddha really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. The opening of the advice to the Kalamas in Anguttara Nikaya 3.65. This English follows Soma Thera's widely quoted wording. Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of the same discourse gives a longer list: not by oral tradition, lineage, hearsay, scripture, logic, inference, reasoned thought, acceptance of a view, the speaker's seeming competence, or the thought that this ascetic is our teacher.
Where it comes from
Anguttara Nikaya 3.65
Approximate date: canonical discourse; oral tradition from the 5th–4th century BCE, written down centuries later.
How to use it
A claim that has gone round a parents' group until it feels known, or a tradition at work that nobody has tested, is the sort of ground the Kalamas are told to refuse. The next step, in the discourse, is not a shrug. It is to look at greed, hatred, and results, and dropping rumour without putting a test in its place is only the first half of the visit, and the verse is constantly quoted as if the first half were the whole.
A mindset reading
The habit is to ask what a belief is resting on, and then to ask the discourse's next question, which the short line omits. Repeated hearing can be a clue. It is not, on this advice, a reason, and neither is the pleasure of having dropped every authority while keeping your favourite rumour under another name.
Understand the philosophy
The Buddha is answering people pulled about by competing dogmatists. The Kalamas are told not to go upon tradition, rumour, or repeated hearing, and not, in the full list, upon logic or a teacher's charisma either. The replacement is a practical test of what reduces greed, hatred, and delusion and leads to welfare. The key move is that replacement, and scepticism about sources, without the test, is not the discourse.
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FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is a warning not to outsource judgement to repetition, tradition, or rumour, and to test what leads to harm or benefit. A competing reading hears a charter for believing whatever you like, whereas the discourse replaces those grounds with a test: what, when taken up, leads to welfare and does not harm. It is Anguttara Nikaya 3.65, spoken to the Kalamas, who were tired of visiting teachers abusing one another. The short English is the negative half only.
Did The Buddha really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. The opening of the advice to the Kalamas in Anguttara Nikaya 3.65. This English follows Soma Thera's widely quoted wording. Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of the same discourse gives a longer list: not by oral tradition, lineage, hearsay, scripture, logic, inference, reasoned thought, acceptance of a view, the speaker's seeming competence, or the thought that this ascetic is our teacher.
Which work is it in?
Anguttara Nikaya 3.65 Approximate date: canonical discourse; oral tradition from the 5th–4th century BCE, written down centuries later.