Central Philosophy of Jainism Anekanta Vada

Author(s): Bimal Krishna Matilal, Nagin J Shah, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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And being so asked, they answer, "No."
And I ask them thus, "Have you, friends, heard the voices of those gods who had realized the world of the perfect happiness, saying, 'Be earnest, O men, and make direct efforts towards the realization of the world of the perfect happiness. For we have made similar efforts and have now realized the world of the perfect happiness."
And being so asked, they answer, "No."
Now, what do you think, Poṭṭhapada? If this is so, would not the statement of these śramanas and brāhmaṇas be nonsensical ?"
The Central Philosophy of Jainism
'Yes, Sir. If this is so, then certainly the statement of those śramanas and brahmanas would be nonsesnical."
I think the above dialogue of the Buddha requires no comment. The point of the simile is quite clear. In any case, the Buddha did not leave the ten so-called avyakata questions altogether unanswered. Jayatilleke, in his eagerness to show parallelism between the Buddha and Wittgenstein (or the Positivists) has unfortunately forgotten that the Buddha did answer all the ten questions with the help of his vibhajya method. The first six questions were rejected by the Buddha (and therefore, one can say that he answered them in the negative, perhaps, with a qualified negation), for they definitely run contrary to his philosophic position, i. e. the Middle Way, madhyamā pratipat. Thus, for example, if he accepted that the loka (world ?) is finite he would be accepting the annihilationist's position and if he accepted that the loka is infinite, he would be accepting the eternalist's position. But his philosophic goal was to steer clear of these extremes. For example, let us refer to the following dialogue in the Lokayatikasutta of the Samyuttanikaya XII, 47:
'The Lokayatika brahmana asked the Buddha: "O Gotama, does everything exist? " "Everything exists-this is, O Brāhmaṇa, the first Lokāyatika view."
"Again, Gotama, does nothing exist ?" "Nothing exists-this is, O Brahmana, the second Lokayatika view."
"O Gotama, is all one ?" "All is one this is, Brāhmaṇa, the third Lokayatika view."
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Again, O Gotama, is all separate ?" "All is separate this is, O Brāhmaṇa, the fourth Lokayatika view. The Tathāgata, O Brhamana, teaches his doctrine through the Middle Way (having avoided all extremes), viz., depending upon avidya (misconception) samskāra arises, and so on."