The Middle Path

I would like to share a reading from one of the spiritual texts I read from on a regular basis, paraphrased from Pandit Rajmani Tigunait. PhD.

This is about "The Middle Way," also known as the middle path or right direction in Buddhism.

It was discovered by Buddha experientially - as is the case with all embodied teachers. This is as opposed to simply reading and studying. Some have deemed the former “unearned wisdom," and the latter, "earned wisdom."

Buddha was born a prince and was introduced to kama shastra, the art of sensory pleasure. His father, the king, made sure he was only introduced to the best teachers practiced in wordly manners. He was also kept away from any trace of grief or sorrow. As fate would have it, he came upon a sick person, an old man, and a corpse. He began to question his life filled with pleasures. He saw how sorrow, grief and wanting more when these pleasures went away would appear.

So he resolved to discover the root cause of this sorrow and grief. He committed to self study which led him to the renunciate path. He believed this path would burn his inner impurities, allowing his mind's brilliance to come forth. As many of us know the story, he sat under a bodhi tree for 39 days without food, drink or sleep. Upon noticing his near-death state, a woman named Sujata gave him some water and rice and he regained consciousness.

He concluded that extremes lead nowhere. That indulgence nor extreme restraint aided in self-discovery. From this moment of understanding, he began his practices and conducted his life in moderation, even interacting with people in moderation. He discovered that he no longer was numbing and indulging his senses nor was he restraining them. In this process, he discovered effortless effort not only in his spiritual practices, but in life in general.

This allowed him to reach higher samadhi - the highest state of meditation in yoga. The division between lower and higher samadhi is a transition from duality to non-duality; from being ruled by the phenomenal world (time, space, and the law of cause and effect) to the realm of transcendental. The practiced yogi or bodhisattva has reached this state and is able to move freely from one world to the other. He or she is simultaneously "here" and "there." They are able to be the witness to their own strengths and weaknesses; to positive and negative tendencies. They are able to discern uplifting tendencies from afflicting ones and transcend both. They understand through their experience that fulfilling a craving gives birth to more cravings, which creates a cycle (samsara) and negative karmas and Samskaras…addiction in western terminology.

We all have the inner workings to get to this state. It's a practice of discipline to devotion: committing to a daily practice (sadhana) and staying with it until it becomes embedded in your system, i.e., secondary, so that life becomes one filled with ease and enjoyment. We do our practices not to make negative feelings and sensations go away. We do our practices to build capacity to be in right direction (better relationship) with ALL feelings and sensations.

Sending you lots of strength and love, LB