KALAMA SUTTA

กาลามสตูร

The Kālāma Sutta or Sanskrit: Kālāma Sūtra; which pronounce:Kalama Sut, or Kesamutti Sutta;Pāli: Kesamuttisuttaṃ;

Burmese: Kalama thoke; Kethamotti thokeThai: กาลามสตูร

is a discourse of the Buddha contained in theAṅguttara Nikaya of the Tipiṭaka. It is often cited by those of the Theravada and Mahayana traditions alike as the Buddha's “charter of free inquiry.”

1. Do not go upon what has been acquired

by repeated hearing,2. nor upon tradition,3. nor upon rumor,4. nor upon what is in a scripture,5. nor upon surmise,6. nor upon an axiom,7. nor upon specious reasoning,8. nor upon a bias towards a notion that

has been pondered over,9. nor upon another's seeming ability,10. nor upon the consideration, "The monk is our teacher."

The Kālāma Sutta is also used for advocating prudence by the use of sound logical reasoning arguments and the dialectic principles for inquiries in the practice that relates to the discipline of seeking truth, wisdom and knowledge whether it is religious or not. In short, the Kālāma Sutta is opposed to blind faith, dogmatism and belief spawned from specious reasoning.