How to arrive at truth (Canki Sutra)

Ven. Ñanamoli, Ven. Thanissaro (trans.), Canki Sutta ("Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha," Majjhima Nikaya, MN 95); Amber Larson, Ananda M. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

It's pronounced "Chunky" (BB).

[In the exclusively Buddhist language known as Pali (Why not Sanskrit?), the personal name Canki is properly pronounced "Chunky" (hence the Canki Sutta) according to American Theravada scholar-monk and prolific translator Bhikkhu Bodhi.]

Thus have I heard. ...Now at that time the Blessed One [Master Gautama, the Buddha] was sitting and courteously conversing with some very senior Brahmins.

It so happened that a young Brahmin student named Kapadika (Kapathika) Bharadvaja was seated in the large assembly -- young, head shaved, 16-years-old, a master of the Three Vedas with their vocabularies, liturgy, phonology, etymologies, and histories, skilled in philology and grammar, well-versed in cosmology and the legendary marks of a great man.

While the very senior Brahmins were courteously conversing with the Blessed One, young Kapadika kept breaking in and interrupting their talk. So the Blessed One scolded him, "Venerable Bharadvaja, do not break in and interrupt while the very senior Brahmins are conversing. Wait until they are finished talking."

When this was said, the Brahmin Canki [who had just arrived] said to the Blessed One: "Master Gautama, do not scold the [young] Brahmin student Kapadika. He is a clansman [part of the Brahmin lineage, extended family clan, gotra], learned, wise, with good presentation skills. He is capable of taking part in this discussion with [the very senior Brahmins and] Master Gautama."

Then the thought occurred to the Blessed One, "Yes, this young Brahmin student Kapadika Bharadvaja must be accomplished in the texts of the Three Vedas given how much the Brahmins honor him."
 
Then the thought occurred to Kapadika, "When Gautama the wandering ascetic meets my gaze, I will ask him a question."
 
So the Blessed One, encompassing Kapadika's mind with his mind, met his gaze. And Kapadika thought, "Gautama the wandering ascetic has turned to me; suppose I now ask him a question?"

Vedic text in Sanskrit, the Rigveda (wiki)

So he said to the Blessed One, "Master Gautama, with regard to the ancient [Vedic] hymns of the Brahmins -- passed down by oral tradition and included in their lore -- the Brahmins have come to the definite conclusion that, "Only this is true; everything else is untrue." What does Master Gautama have to say about this?"
 
"Tell me, Bharadvaja, is there among the Brahmins even one Brahmin who can say, 'This I know-and-see [directly for myself]; only this is true; everything else is untrue?'"
 
"No, Master Gautama."
 
"And has there been among the Brahmins even one teacher or teacher's teacher back seven generations who could say, 'This I know-and-see [directly for myself]; only this is true; everything else is untrue?'"
 
"No, Master Gautama." ...

"Therefore, Bharadvaja, it seems that there is not among the Brahmins even one Brahmin who can say, 'This I know-and-see; only this is true; everything else is untrue.' And there hasn't been even one teacher or teacher's teacher among the Brahmins back for seven generations who could say, 'This I know-and-see; only this is true; everything else is untrue.' And there hasn't been among the Brahmin seers of the past, who composed the hymns...even one who can say, 'This we know-and-see; only this is true; everything else is untrue.'

Let me tell you what an elephant looks like.

"Suppose there were a row of blind men each holding on to the one in front of him. The first one does not see, the middle one does not see, nor does the last one see. Then the statement of the Brahmins turns out to be just like that row of blind men: The first one does not see, the middle one does not see, nor does the last one see. Therefore, what do you think, Bharadvaja? This being the case, does not the confidence [saddha, faith] of the Brahmins turn out to be groundless?"
 
"It is not only out of confidence, Master Gautama, that the Brahmins honor this. They also honor it as unbroken tradition."
 
"Bharadvaja, first it was confidence. Now you speak of unbroken tradition. There are five things that ripen here and now, and they do it in two ways. What are those five?

1. Confidence (faith)
2. preference (liking)
3. learning by hearsay (unbroken tradition)
4. arguing on evidence (reasoning by analogy)
5. agreeing through pondering some view.

These are the five things that can turn out in two ways here and now. Now a thing may have confidence well placed in it and yet be hollow, empty, and false. Then again something may have no confidence placed in it and yet be factual, true, and be no other than the way it seems. The same is true with preference and the rest (of the four remaining ideas).

If one has confidence then one guards truth when saying, "My confidence is thus," but on account of that one draws no unwarranted conclusion such as, "Only this is true; everything else is wrong."

In this way one guards the truth. But there is as yet no discovery of truth. And the same is true with preference and the other ideas.

How is truth discovered?

How is truth discovered? Here a meditator lives near some village or town. Then a householder or the householder's offspring goes to that meditator in order to test that person in three kinds of ideas, ideas provocative of

1. greed
2. hatred
3. delusion

wondering, "Are there in this venerable meditator any such ideas, whereby with mind obsessed while not knowing might say 'I know,' while not seeing might say 'I see,' or might get others to do likewise, which would be long for their harm and suffering?"

While thus testing that meditator, one comes to find that there are no such ideas in that meditator, and one finds that, "The bodily and verbal behavior of this venerable meditator are not those of one afflicted by lust or anger or confusion.

"But the Dharma (True Idea) that this venerable meditator teaches is profound, hard to see and hard to discover. Yet, it is the most peaceful and superior of all, which is beyond logical ratiocination, subtle, for the wise to experience directly (not for the unwise). Such a Dharma cannot be taught by one afflicted by greed, hatred, or delusion."

It is as soon as by testing this meditator that one comes to see that such a meditator is purified of ideas provocative of clinging, aversion, and wrong view that one plants confidence in such a person.

When one visits that meditator, one pays respects, when paying respects one gives ear, and one who gives ear hears the Dharma, remembers it, investigates the meaning of the ideas remembered. When one does that one acquires a preference by pondering the ideas. That produces keen interest. One interested is actively committed. So committed one makes a judgment. According to that judgment one exerts oneself.

When one exerts oneself one comes to realize with this body the ultimate truth, and one sees it by the penetrating of it with understanding. That is how there is discovery of truth. But there is as yet no final arrival at truth.

How is truth finally arrived at? Final arrival at truth is the repetition, the keeping in existence, the development [meditation] of those same ideas. That is how there is final arrival at truth." ...

At the end of the sutra, the Brahmin Kapadika (Kāpathika) declares himself a follower of the Buddha (M.ii.164ff).