UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

The phrase “unanswered questions” or “undeclared questions” in Buddhism refers to a set of common philosophical questions that the Buddha declined to answer. 

These included such issues as the origin and nature of the universe, the existence of a permanent self or soul, and life after death.

There were, according to early Buddhist texts, fourteen such questions grouped in four categories:

In the first category were questions on the existence of the world in time:  Is the world eternal, or not, or both, or neither?

The second category contained questions on the existence of the world in space:  Is the world infinite, or not, or both, or neither?

The third category included questions on personal identity:  Is the self identical with the body, or is it different than the body?

And then in the final category were questions on life and death.  Does the Tathagata (a buddha) exist after death, or not, or both, or neither?

The Buddha would not answer these questions, saying that they were like a net, and that he refused to be drawn into such a net of theories, speculations, and dogmas. 
 
He explained that it was because he was free of bondage to all theories and dogmas that he had attained liberation.  Such speculations, he said, caused a person fever, unease, bewilderment, and suffering, not the right choice.