The importance of rooting out greed, hatred and delusion and not speculating about God and other metaphysical questions

The importance of rooting out greed, hatred and delusion and not speculating about the existence of God and other metaphysical questions is the topic of the Parable of the Poisoned Arrow. The Buddha avoided all cosmological questions concerning God and the universe

• For the Buddha, these issues were of no real signifiance
• The Buddha's indifference to such questions is portrayed throughout Buddhist literature, but particularly in the Parable of the Poisoned Arrow

Pali and Sanskrit texts have clear instances where the Buddha was challenged on such matters

• The Buddha was reluctant to…