Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor can the tongue tell of such matters for they are beyond and above us. And it is for this reason that the Blessed One replied thus to the venerable Malukya, when he reproached the Perfect One as follows:
“Is the world eternal or the slave of time? Does the World-Honoured live on beyond death? It pleases me not at all that all these important matters should remain unanswered. May it please the Master to answer them if he can. And if he does not know let him say so plainly.”
But the Master replied with his smile:
“Did I say to you, Malukya,—‘Come and be my disciple, and I will teach you whether the world is everlasting or finite, whether the vital faculty is separate from the body or one with it, whether the Exalted One lives or does not live after death?’ Did I promise all this?”
“No, sir, you did not.”
“And, Malukya, if a man is struck by a poisoned arrow, suppose he says—‘I will never allow my wound to be treated until I know who shot the arrow—was it a man of high or low caste. And I must know whether he is tall or short, and how his bow and arrows are made!’—Would this be a sensible proceeding? Surely no. He would die of his wounds.
“Why have I not made these things clear? Because the knowledge of them does not conduce to holiness nor right detachment, nor to peace and enlightenment.—What is needed for these I teach, the truth of suffering and its origin, the truth of the Way to its cessation. Therefore let what I have not revealed rest, and follow that which I have revealed.”
And Malukya was content, knowing at last that in this life these questions are deep, mysterious and unanswerable, and the sole way to their understanding is to live the life, untroubled by controversy and dogma on such things as cannot be uttered in terms of human knowledge.
For there is a Knowledge veiled in excess of light which dazzles the eyes to blindness. Let words be few. Let good deeds be many. He understands it for whom it passes thought. Who thinks of it can never know it. And if it could be told in words it would not be the Truth.
And there is yet another example of this. For once in early days the Blessed One sat high among his own upon the Peak of Vultures, and there came before his quiet feet a Shining One and laid there a golden flower, praying that he would speak and in sweet speech instruct them of the innermost of the Peace. The Blessed One received the golden flower within his hand and sat in utter calm but spoke no word and all the Assembly mused what this might mean, and, musing, could not know. But at long last, Kassapa the Great smiled, also in silence, and the Blessed One said softly: