557 The Middle Way Part 1 Introduction

The Middle Way? Part 1: What is it? An introduction

Historical background: 

As a Prince, the Buddha got it all, and yet he was experiencing a deep sense of emptiness. 

His courtly lifestyle inspired him to seek more about what life is all about.

Leaving his father’s palace at ~19, he met the inevitable truths of life, like suffering, ageing, sickness, and death, which led him to realize that material wealth couldn’t bring lasting happiness or freedom from suffering. Motivated by a deep desire for understanding, Siddhartha abandoned his royal life to go after spiritual enlightenment. Despite experiencing extremes such as self-denial and guidance from spiritual teachers, he found no peace. Therefore, his quest for understanding the sources of suffering, achieving inner peace, and liberation continued. He understood that neither extreme indulgence nor extreme denial could bring true serenity and wisdom. 

During meditation, he realized that the Middle Way was “the path of moderation to everything was the way to seek Awakening,” that is, avoiding both the search for extremes such as self-indulgence and self-mortification.                                                                             

Taught by the Buddha, the Middle Way is the foundation of his teaching, advocating a balanced approach to life that is applying moderation in our behavior, or thinking, or feeling, and our spiritual practice, therefore avoiding all extremes of any sort, such as too much of this, not enough of that.  Without this practice, the Buddha realized that achieving Awakening was impossible. As mentioned already, the Buddha himself had experienced both extremes before realizing their futility. He found that neither extremes nor their pitfalls will bring true Awakening. This middle path is often associated with the Noble Eightfold Path, which includes right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.                                                              The middle way is not about compromise or mediocrity, but rather about finding the optimal balance in all aspects of our life, such as behavioral, thinking, feelings, and spirituality. Such an optimal balance is helping to achieve a state of inner peace, serenity, and wisdom.  (Remember the tight rope walker.)

The middle way is not only a practical path of moderation but also a philosophical concept in Buddhism. It is applied to many various dualistic concepts or extremes called opposite pairs. Here are 3 examples of dualistic concepts. They are among zillions of others.

1. Subject vs Object: or me vs others. The middle way challenges the dualistic perception of a separate self and the external world. Instead of getting caught up in the illusion of a solid, independent, permanent self and others, we are encouraged to see the interdependence, interconnectedness, and impermanence of all beings. 
2. Good vs bad; Black vs white; Peace vs war, etc…The genuine interdependence between extremes is obvious. They are entangled. What you consider “good” is perceived as “bad” by others, and so on. Extremes generate their opposite extremes like a mirror image. The middle way helps us to be mindful of the fact that nothing is black or white, and to develop a non-attached and yet compassionate attitude towards various opposite components of life.
3. Samsara/Nirvana: The middle way rejects the extremes of getting entangled in the cycle of suffering (samsara) vs the absence of suffering ( Nirvana). Instead, it embraces the interplay between the two and recognizes that liberation from suffering can be found amid proper behavior and understanding

Next time, we will see how to apply the Middle Way in our day-to-day life to achieve serenity.