Which questions did the Buddha refuse to discuss?

Answer 1

The Buddha refuse to answer certain questions: Sometimes the Buddha was silent on questions which are guaranteed to trap the intellect of the asker. The Buddha would not answer these questions because they inevitably led the mind away from, not toward, awakening. These questions are the curiosities which really do not have answers - even 2500 years later in our time. It is speculation such as this which occupies the mind in a circular endless way when realization needs stillness and silence to arise. It only takes a moment for this realization to break through and the Buddha was doing people a favor by not engaging more mind noise. He did answer some of the same questions for followers whom he knew had already achieved a degree of stillness and silence and who knew how to maintain it, and additionally, who would actually be able to understand the answer in depth. This is called the Buddha's Noble Silence.

It's said that the Buddha would not answer these questions because they were simply intellectual diversions and not concerned with the true knowledge that could end suffering and bring enlightenment. The Buddha compared those who ask such questions to a man wounded by a poisoned arrow. Instead of allowing a doctor to remove the arrow, the injured man insists first on finding out the caste, name, and clan of the man who shot him. He wants to know if he's dark or fair, and whether he lives in a town, village, or city. The injured man is also obsessed with the weapon used to shoot him and must know if it was a longbow or a crossbow and what the bowstring was made of. What kind of wood was the arrow made of, the man asks, and what bird did the feathers come from which lined the shaft?

I agree with the Buddha quote about transient matters however these are not transient matters, these are some of the most central questions one can ask about the nature of reality and that knowledge is necessary to become enlightened. Buddha may have avoided answering these because often it's better for people to discover a truth on their own than to have someone else tell it to them, in fact sometimes someone telling it to them robs that truth of its wonder and is actually a bad thing, however I think these questions are all relatively easy for a philosopher to figure out and I don't see anything wrong with answering them.