This sort of structured discourse found in the Pali literature can seem like linguistic sleight-of-hand, but when one examines it closely and works with it in experience it shows itself to be an insightful and practical guide for finding one’s way among the tangle of views and opinions passing for truth in our world. We cannot help but base much of our belief on insubstantial grounds, but we can avoid the pitfall of regarding our knowledge as definitively true until we have verified it directly. In terms of understanding the dharma, we can see that the first crucial step is gaining confidence in the integrity of a teacher by means of careful investigation. The rest can develop naturally, but is bound to be a gradual evolutionary process. What we see here is not so much a circular argument as a feedback loop that cycles over and over as wisdom gradually emerges from a life of diligently investigating truth.
