2.
The Discourse on Answering Questions
42.
"There are, monks, these four ways of answering questions.
What are the four?
There is, monks, a question to be answered definitively;
there is, monks, a question to be answered analytically;
there is, monks, a question to be answered with a counter-question;
there is, monks, a question to be set aside.
These, monks, are the four ways of answering questions."
"One is a definitive statement, another an analytical statement;
The third one should answer with a counter-question, but the fourth one should set aside.
"And whoever knows the conformity with the Teaching in each case regarding them;
Skilled in the four questions, they call such a monk.
"Difficult to approach, difficult to overcome, profound, difficult to assail;
And he is proficient in both what is beneficial and what is harmful.
"The wise person avoids what is harmful, and takes up what is beneficial.
By attaining what is beneficial, that intelligent one is said to be a person of wisdom. The second.