The Kalama Sutta

This is the audiobook version of Soma Thera's translation of the Buddha's discourse to the Kalamas.

The instruction of the Kalamas (Kalama Sutta) is justly famous for its encouragement of free inquiry; the spirit of the sutta signifies a teaching that is exempt from fanaticism, bigotry, dogmatism, and intolerance.

As the Buddha says, "Look, Kalamas, it is not by recitation, nor by tradition, nor by report, nor by scripture, nor by reason of philosophy, nor by reason of inference, nor by thinking ideas through, nor by favoring views, nor by others' seeming capability, nor insofar as a particular ascetic is your teacher, but rather when you know yourselves."