The Arrow of Reactivity

The Buddha tells the story of a man who has been struck by a poisoned arrow and lies bleeding to death on the ground. Before allowing his friends to bring a doctor to remove the arrow, the man insists on knowing the name of the person who shot it, the place where he lives, the complexion of his skin, and so forth, down to such absurd details as the kind of feathers on the arrow shaft: "whether those of a vulture or a crow or a hawk or a peacock or a stork." Gotama compares this man to someone who refuses to practice the dharma until he is given answers to the metaphysical questions . . . whether the world is beginningless or endless, whether it is finite or infinite, whether the soul and the body are the same or different, whether a tathagata exists or not (or both or neither) after death.

The purpose of the Buddha's teaching is not to resolve doubts about the nature of "reality" by providing answers to such conundrums but to offer practice that will remove the "arrow" of reactivity, thereby restoring practitioners' health and enabling them to flourish here on earth.

---Stephen Batchelor, in after buddhism---