Amarāvikkhepikas

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Amarāvikkhepikas (Pāli, ‘eel-wrigglers’). A name in the Buddhist Nikāyas for a school of sceptical philosophers who were contemporaries of the Buddha. They are supposed to have refrained from giving any categorical answers on questions relating to ethics and speculative knowledge. They adopted the stance that things are intrinsically unknowable, and that, as a consequence, the only remaining worthwhile goal is the pursuit of subjective states of tranquillity.