Suppose, Malunkyaputta, a man was wounded by an arrow thickly smeared with poison, and his friends and companions, his kinsmen and relatives, brought a surgeon to treat him. “If anyone should say thus: ‘I will not lead the holy life under the Blessed One until the Blessed One declares to me “the world is eternal”…or “after death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist,”’ that would still remain undeclared by the Tathagata and meanwhile that person would die. In the sutta, the monk Malunkyaputta decides that he will leave the Sangha if the Buddha does not give his opinion in regard to the following speculative views: Whether the world is eternal or not, whether it is infinite or not, whether the soul and the body are the same or different, whether the Tathagata exists or does not exist after death, or perhaps both exists and does not exist or neither exists nor does not exist. The most famous example of the Buddha’s teaching in regard to philosophical speculation is, of course, the Parable of the Poisoned Arrow in the Culamalunkyovata Sutta. Those who engaged in it would be much better off cultivating the means to attain direct knowledge for themselves.
The Buddha taught that not only was metaphysical speculation and philosophical debate fruitless, it was actually a pernicious waste of time. Philosophy and speculation was even harder hit. The theistic traditions, however, were not alone in being discredited by the Buddha.
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