Chapter 11 poison arrow of life

The Buddha did not answer questions such as whether the universe is eternal, because he considered them useless. A disciple who practiced under the seat of the Buddha asked the Buddha one day: World Honored One, I was sitting alone in meditation when a thought suddenly came to my mind: There are some problems that the World Honored One never explains, or put aside or reject.These questions are: Is the universe eternal or not?Is it finite or infinite?Are body and mind the same thing or separate things?Does the Tathagata continue to exist after death or not continue to exist?The Blessed One never explained these questions to me.I don't like this attitude, and I can't understand it.If the World Honored One knows that the universe is eternal, please explain it to me in this way; if the World Honored One knows that the universe is not eternal, please explain it clearly.If the World Honored One doesn't know, he should just say I don't know, I don't understand.

Buddha replied: Suppose a man is wounded by a poisoned arrow, and his relatives and friends take him to a doctor.If the man then said: I will not draw this arrow unless I know who shot me, whether he is tall or short or of medium stature, whether his complexion is dark or brown or golden, and what town he comes from; unless I know What kind of bow was I shot by, what kind of bowstring is like, and what material is the arrowhead made of? This person will surely die without knowing these answers.If someone says that I don't want to practice the holy life under the Blessed One, unless he answers my question whether the universe is eternal or not, that person will die before he knows the answer.

Questions such as whether the universe is eternal are things I will not answer, why do I not answer these questions?Because they are useless, they cannot be repulsed, abandoned, passed into extinction, attained tranquility, deep insight, full enlightenment, or nirvana. There are indeed some very basic questions in the universe and the human world that are difficult to answer. If you indulge in these questions and ignore the reality and process of life, these questions can easily become poisonous arrows for life.But if you think these questions are useless and don’t ask them, then the attainment of enlightenment and nirvana may also contain false elements!