I want to revive this a little, and hopefully others can add more too (I was about to post the same topic).
Recently I read the 90’s of MN - Brāhmaṇavagga “Chapter on Brahmins” (Uh oh). When I first took up reading these ancient texts, I did NOT expect to find myself laughing to The Awakened One ROASTING people.
(It’s a longer section because he slowly sets him up) MN99:
“So, student, it seems that there is not a single one of the brahmins, not even anyone back to the seventh generation of teachers, nor even the ancient seers of the brahmins who says: ‘We declare the result of these five things after realizing it with our own insight.’
Suppose there was a queue of blind men, each holding the one in front: the first one does not see, the middle one does not see, and the last one does not see. In the same way, it seems to me that the brahmins’ statement turns out to be comparable to a queue of blind men: the first one does not see, the middle one does not see, and the last one does not see.”
When he said this, Subha became angry and upset with the Buddha because of the simile of the queue of blind men. He even attacked and badmouthed the Buddha himself, saying, “The ascetic Gotama will be worsted!” He said to the Buddha:
“Master Gotama, the brahmin Pokkharasādi Upamañña of the Subhaga Forest says: ‘This is exactly what happens with some ascetics and brahmins. They claim to have a superhuman distinction in knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones. But their statement turns out to be a joke—mere words, void and hollow. For how on earth can a human being know or see or realize a superhuman distinction in knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones? That is not possible.’”
“But student, does Pokkharasādi understand the minds of all these ascetics and brahmins, having comprehended them with his mind?”
“Master Gotama, Pokkharasādi doesn’t even know the mind of his own bonded maid Puṇṇikā, so how could he know all those ascetics and brahmins?”
“Suppose there was a person blind from birth. They couldn’t see sights that are dark or bright, or blue, yellow, red, or magenta. They couldn’t see even and uneven ground, or the stars, or the moon and sun. They’d say: ‘There’s no such thing as dark and bright sights, and no-one who sees them. There’s no such thing as blue, yellow, red, magenta, even and uneven ground, stars, moon and sun, and no-one who sees these things. I don’t know it or see it, therefore it doesn’t exist.’ Would they be speaking rightly?”
“No, Master Gotama. There are such things…”
“In the same way, Pokkharasādi is blind and sightless. It’s quite impossible for him to know or see or realize a superhuman distinction in knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones.
Obviously The Buddha means no harm, and greatly, his disputes always end with him demonstrating what the truth there really is. Another observation: I can see he designed his metaphors to be timeless - did he have high hopes his teachings would last? And/or maybe this was so they worked cross-culture during his own time.
