12/27/2025
There’s an old Buddhist teaching known as the Kalama Sutta that offers a timeless reminder:
Don’t accept ideas simply because they are traditional, popular, repeated by authority, or followed by many.
Examine them for yourself.
Ask instead:
Does this way of thinking reduce suffering—or increase it?
Does it lead to compassion—or cruelty?
Does it create peace—or division?
If a belief encourages harm, exclusion, fear, or violence, then no matter how old, widespread, or confidently preached it is, it has failed the test of wisdom.
Any ideology that teaches you to look down on others, justify harm, or silence empathy in the name of being “right” has missed its purpose entirely. Truth does not need hatred to defend it. Goodness does not require enemies.
Real understanding makes you gentler.
Real wisdom humbles you.
Real clarity expands your capacity to see humanity in everyone.
The Kalama teaching is simple and radical:
If something leads to suffering, let it go.
If it leads to compassion, peace, and understanding, live it.
No belief is above examination.
And no idea is worth losing your humanity for.