The premise from which the Buddhist Doctrine of Awakening starts is the destruction of the demon of dialectics, the renunciation of the various constructions of thought, of speculation, which is simply an expression of opinion, of the profusion of theories, which are projections of a fundamental restlessness and in which a mind that has not yet found in itself its own principle seeks for support.
This applies not only to cosmological speculation but also to problems concerned with man, his nature, and destiny, and even to any conceptual determination of the ultimate aim of asceticism.
Have I ever existed in past epochs? Or have I never existed? What was I in past epochs? And how did I come to be what I was? Shall I exist in future epochs? Or shall I not exist? What shall I be in future epochs? And how shall I become what I shall be? And even the present fills [the common man] with doubts: Do I indeed exist? Or do I not exist? What am I? And how am I? This being here, whence has it really come? And whither will it go?" All these, for Buddhism, are but "vain thoughts" This is called the blind alley of opinions, the gorge of opinions, the bramble of opinions, the thicket of opinions, the net of opinions, caught up and lost in which "the ignorant worldling cannot free himself from birth, decay, and death." And again: 'I am' is an opinion; 'I am this' is an opinion; 'I shall be' is an opinion; 'I shall not be' is an opinion; 'I shall be in the worlds of [pure] form' is an opinion; 'I shall be in the worlds free from form' is an opinion; 'Conscious, I shall be' is an opinion; 'Unconscious, I shall be' is an opinion; 'Neither conscious nor unconscious, I shall be' is an opinion.
Opinion, O disciples, is a disease; it is a tumor; opinion is a sore. He who has overcome all opinions, O disciples, is called a saint, one who knows.