What is the Kālāma Sutta? The setting
The discourse opens as the Blessed One, wandering in Kosala with a large community of monks, arrives at Kesaputta. The Kālāmas, having heard of him, come to see him and voice their perplexity plainly: ascetics and brahmins come to the town, each exalting his own view while attacking and belittling the views of others — so who among them speaks the truth, and who speaks falsely?
The Buddha's first answer is to acknowledge that doubt: in a matter that is uncertain, perplexity naturally arises. The discourse belongs to the Great Chapter of the Book of Threes; its familiar Pāli name is the Kālāma Sutta. The reading page writes «Kesamutta» and the translation «Kesaputta»: two spellings of the same town's name.
The ten «do not go by…» and knowing for yourselves
This is the passage often called «the ten things not to believe in haste». In the translation, do not believe something merely because: it has been reported by others; it is legend; it is tradition; scripture hands it down; reasoning deduces it; it is inferred from something similar; the facts have been weighed superficially; it agrees with your preconceptions; it comes from a source of authority; or the ascetic who says it is your own teacher. When the list is repeated for the last time, the fifth and sixth items are rendered «metaphysical reasoning» and «agreement with a standpoint».
The sutta is often summed up as «don't believe anything», but that is not what it says. Right after the list comes the test: things you know for yourselves to be unwholesome, blameworthy, criticised by the wise and leading, when undertaken, to suffering — abandon them; things that are wholesome, blameless, praised by the wise and leading to well-being — take them up and abide in them. The sutta does not tell anyone to discard tradition or scripture; it only says not to believe merely because of them.
Greed, hatred, delusion: letting the listeners answer
Then the Buddha adds no theory; he questions them: when greed arises in a person, does it bring welfare or harm? Someone overcome by greed kills, takes what is not given, goes after another's wife, lies and urges others to do the same; does this lead to lasting harm and suffering? The Kālāmas answer for themselves: harm, suffering. He asks the same about hatred and delusion, then examines the other side: freedom from greed, hatred and delusion brings lasting well-being. The ten are repeated, together with the teaching to attain and abide in what is wholesome.
The four immeasurables and the four assurances
The last part speaks of the noble disciple free of greed, hatred and delusion, clearly comprehending and mindful, who abides pervading the four directions, above, below, across and the whole world with a mind of loving-kindness — vast, boundless, without hostility or ill will — and in the same way with compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity: the four immeasurables.
With a mind thus free of enmity and ill will, undefiled and pure, that person gains four assurances here and now. First: if there is another world and good and bad deeds bear fruit, then after the breakup of the body I shall arise in a good destination, a heavenly world. Second: if there is no other world and deeds bear no fruit, then in this very life I still live at ease, free of enmity and ill will. Third: suppose evil deeds are done — I bear ill will toward no one and do no evil, so how could suffering touch me? Fourth: if no evil is done, I see myself pure in both respects.
The first two set side by side the two possibilities, another world or none; in either case one who lives without enmity is at ease. Hearing this, the Kālāmas go for refuge to the Buddha, the Dhamma and the community of monks as lay followers for life.
Reading it in the library, and the Chinese parallel
The AN 3.65 page holds the whole discourse, about 2,900 words, which the page estimates at some 12 minutes; the small numbers «TTC 1», «TTC 2»… are the translation's paragraph numbers. The «English» tab gives an English translation, and «Cả 2» (both) shows the two side by side. This is a prose discourse, better suited to slow reading, paragraph by paragraph, than to chanting. The library has no PDF or recording of it.
In the Chinese canon the parallel is the Già-lam Sūtra, number 16 of the Madhyama Āgama, on the library page «Trung A Hàm Kinh quyển 3»; the translation's note marks it as the counterpart of AN III.65. There the Kālāmas are called «Già-lam» people and the town «Ki-xá tử». This version has no list of ten: the Buddha says they lack the pure knowledge to know whether there is another world or whether a deed is blameworthy, then teaches that greed, hatred and delusion are the origin of deeds, and speaks of the noble disciple who abstains from the ten unwholesome courses of action, cultivates the four immeasurables and gains «four abodes of assurance».
