How did the Buddha debate?
score:4
The Pali suttas say the Dhamma is taught only to those who are interested, per AN 9.5:
The best sort of kindly speech is to teach the Dhamma again and again to someone who is engaged and who lends an ear.
Etadaggaṃ, bhikkhave, peyyavajjānaṃ yadidaṃ atthikassa ohitasotassa punappunaṃ dhammaṃ deseti.
The Pali suttas say debate is not the purpose of Dhamma, per MN 22:
They just memorize the teaching for the sake of finding fault and winning debates. They don’t realize the goal for which they memorized them. Because they’re wrongly grasped, those teachings lead to their lasting harm and suffering. Why is that? Because of their wrong grasp of the teachings.
The Pali suttas generally show the Buddha debated people who visited him to debate him, such as MN 35:
Now at that time Saccaka, the son of Jain parents, was staying in Vesālī. He was a debater and clever speaker regarded as holy by many people. He was telling a crowd in Vesālī: “If I was to take them on in debate, I don’t see any ascetic or brahmin—leader of an order or a community, or the teacher of a community, even one who claims to be a perfected one, a fully awakened Buddha—who would not shake and rock and tremble, sweating from the armpits".
Hopefully, some time or other I’ll get to meet Master Gotama, and we can have a discussion. And hopefully I can dissuade him from his harmful misconceptions.”
Upvote:1
He was giving analytical and categorical answers in due time. Stayed on topic. Didn't show hostility. Posed counter questions in due time. Did not back down. Was not intimidated.
It is not a complete list.
More post
- 📝 Practice of saying Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!
- 📝 Understanding beginningless
- 📝 Does the wicked have a better bargain at death in Buddhism?
- 📝 Did Manjushri, Vajrassatva, Avalokiteshvara live?
- 📝 Mereology: does being inside something mean it is inside?
- 📝 Mindfulness and Pushing Away Emotions
- 📝 Vajrayana VS theravada - after death theories - do they contradict each other?
- 📝 What would an Arahant experience, as a slave in a labor camp?
- 📝 The "cow-keeper"-story?
- 📝 Relationship between the 5 higher fetters and the Three Characteristics or the Three Doors
- 📝 Why are the 16 Unwise Reflections ("shall I exist in future" etc.) considered unwise?
- 📝 Critique on Kalama Sutta: Is Buddhism bad for Buddhism?
- 📝 Rebirth, nibbana, and anatta
- 📝 What does "heard" mean in "I allow fish and meat that is pure in three respects: One has not seen, heard, or suspected..."
- 📝 Brahma Viharas Without Visualizing
- 📝 What is the correct definition for Mindfulness?
- 📝 Purifying my mind
- 📝 Does a Pali thesaurus exist?
- 📝 When and how should a layperson declare their achievements?
- 📝 What is perfect virtue?
- 📝 Has Buddha Gautama ever had problems with some autorities about his teachings and way of live?
- 📝 Why Buddhist worship Mount Kailash?
- 📝 What would happen if everyone became a monk or nun?
- 📝 Bad behavior (and therefore bad kamma?) due to physical ailments
- 📝 Taking Refuge in the Dhamma
- 📝 If I undergo suffering now, will my next birth be better?
- 📝 Is there a universal definition of a crime?
- 📝 Need advice on how to handle my emotions
- 📝 How can killing of Muslims by Buddhists in Myanmar be justified?
- 📝 How not to alter breathing in Anapana meditation?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How did the Buddha subdue fear and terror while standing, sitting, etc.?
- 📝 Did the Buddha give any advice on how to manage economy?
- 📝 How did the suffering of Gautama Buddha arise or co-arise?
- 📝 How did the Buddha define success?
- 📝 Why did the Buddha teach how to escape Samsara if there is no soul?
- 📝 How many types of meditation did the Buddha teach in the Pali Canon?
- 📝 Did the Buddha tell how to visit another part of universe via meditation?
- 📝 How did the Buddha debate?
- 📝 Did the Buddha teach how to discern deception?
- 📝 How Lord Buddha did sermon for the people who was long distance
- 📝 How do you tell a 4-year-old who the Buddha was?
- 📝 Why did the Buddha suffer before he died?
- 📝 How was the Buddha Jayanti edition of the Tripitaka derived?
- 📝 Did the Buddha speak Pali? Are the suttas his word verbatim?
- 📝 What language did the Buddha speak?
- 📝 Did the Buddha really say that "life is suffering"?
- 📝 If there is no soul or self, why did the Buddha speak of his past lives?
- 📝 How and when did the name "Buddhism" appear?
- 📝 Did the Buddha ever delve on the dangers of one's own spirtual achievements feeding the ego?
- 📝 Did the Buddha ever say something proven wrong later?
- 📝 Did the Buddha ever mention the Upanishads or the Vedas?
- 📝 Why did the Buddha touch the earth at his enlightenment?
- 📝 Where did the Buddha speak of his difficulty in eating almsfood as a Bodhisatta?
- 📝 Did the Buddha say anything about attachment to meditation?
- 📝 What are the suttas in which the Buddha provides instruction on how to meditate?
- 📝 Did the Buddha Meditate?
- 📝 Did the Buddha ever talk about his family?
- 📝 Did the Buddha discover jhana by himself?
- 📝 What did the Buddha say about music?
- 📝 Why did physical representations of the Buddha only start to appear a few centuries after his death?