… The noble path lies
in the middle way. Now, the middle way is not half way between
indulgence and torture, in other words, a middling level of pain and
pleasure. It lies outside of that continuum. It’s able to see pain and
pleasure as tools—not as ends in and of themselves, but as things you
can use. Or you can think of …
… In this way you find the pleasure of the middle way. Sometimes the
descriptions of the middle way sound like you’re avoiding pain on the
one hand and pleasure on the other hand, and that you’re trying to
develop a neutral state in the middle.
But again, remember: What is that middle way? The heart of the middle
way is right concentration …
… Make sure that you use equanimity in each of these ways at the
proper time, in the proper way. That’s how it becomes part of the
path. It is a tool.
All of the emotions, or all of the feeling tones, are tools in the
middle way. Another misunderstanding that I’ve heard sometimes is that
equanimity itself is the middle way between …
… Instead, he
taught the middle way. This was his first teaching.
There are two striking images in the teaching. One is the name of the
teaching, which is Setting the Dharma Wheel in Motion. The other is
the image of the middle way. This is a middle way between the extremes
of devotion to self-torture or devotion to sensual pleasures—but it’s …
… When he gave his first sermon, he talked about how this path is a
middle way between two extremes: indulgence in sensory pleasures on
the one side, and self-torture on the other. Now, the fact that this
is a middle path doesn’t mean that it’s a neutral feeling midway
between pleasure and pain. It’s a different kind of pleasure that …
… After all, we’re following the path called the Middle Way. Extremes
are easy. You just go for the extreme, as extreme as you can. With the
Middle Way, though, you have to be sensitive. What kind of middle is
the Buddha talking about? One extreme is indulgence in sensuality. The
other extreme is self-torture. But the middle doesn’t mean a neutral …
… It’s only in that way that you
get a sense of sort of the just rightness of the middle path.
The word samma in front of all the factors—sammaditthi,
sammasankappo—in each case means “just right.” After all, this is the
middle way. But where exactly in the middle? Is it right on the
six-inch mark, or is there a little …
… Sometimes you
read about the middle way as being halfway between intense pleasure
and intense pain as if it were sort of a middling pleasure and
middling pain: pleasure but not too much pleasure, pain but not too
much pain, kind of a neutral gray state, as if we were right in the
middle on the continuum between extreme pleasure and extreme pain. But …
… The issue of suffering is something we create, and once
it’s there, we react to it in ways that continue more suffering.
As he said, there are two extremes: either sensual indulgence or
self-mortification. But then there’s another course of action, the
middle way. Now, it’s not middle because it’s half indulgence and half
mortification. It actually lies off …
… But if you learn
how to use it, it can help you along your way. That’s where the
difference lies: using the results of your good kamma as tools.
This is the way in which the middle path is a middle path between
indulgence in sensuality and self-torture: It doesn’t pursue either
sensual pleasure or pain. It uses them both. You …
… So have a clear sense of where you want to go, what’s helping you
along the way, and what’s getting in the way. That’s what it means to
be on the middle way. It’s a path that requires discernment. Extremes
are easy—easy in the sense that they don’t require much thought. But
finding the point of just right …
… When the Buddha said that his path was a middle way, it wasn’t between
pleasure and pain. It was between being devoted to self-affliction and
being devoted to sensual pleasures. The middle way is not simply a
halfway point between the two of those. In other words, you don’t
devote yourself to finding middling pleasures and middling pains. You
devote yourself …
… It was only after going through both extremes that he found the middle
way. Now, the middle way was not a halfway feeling or a middling
feeling. It involved another way of getting away from pain and
suffering apart from sensual pleasure—and that was the pleasure of the
mind in concentration. That was one of the first factors of the path
that he …
… We hear that the Buddha taught a middle way, but it’s not a middling
way between pleasure and pain. It’s a way of practice that looks at
pleasures and pains, and learns how to use them properly. Pleasures
and pains come partially from past karma, but partially from what
we’re doing right now. We have the choice as to which ones …
… He was looking in the wrong way, in a very shortsighted way.
His discovery was that you still search for happiness, simply that you
do it by the middle way. In fact, the two extremes that he said the
middle way avoids were criticized because they created suffering. The
search for happiness among sensual pleasures creates suffering.
Self-torment creates suffering. The only path …
… We hear about right effort, or the middle way, and we have the idea
that it must mean a middling way where you put a little bit of effort
into it, but not too much. But that’s not what the middle way means at
all. It means a way that’s appropriate for the situation at hand. For
example, when the mind is …
… This
path is admirable in the beginning, admirable in the middle, admirable
in the end.
In other words, you look at the theory, the way he describes it in the
very beginning, and you see that it starts with a problem that really
is worth solving: the problem of suffering. There are so many other
philosophies, so many other religions that start with stranger …
… The image of the middle path can be the middle point of a spectrum or it can be off the spectrum entirely. Release comes in getting off the spectrum. In balancing between excessive energy and deficient energy, you bring the mind into the middle of the path, the middle point of the spectrum. That’s the point where you can get off. Most of …
… Otherwise, you think that in order to get the breath all the
way down to the toes you have to breathe really long. But it turns out
there are many levels of breath energy and some of the really subtle
ones are very fast. As soon as the in-breath has started, the breath
has gone all the way down. So to get sensitive …
… That’s the middleness of our middle way right now. The word middleness also applies to the appropriateness of what we’re doing. Sometimes we have to be very protective of what we’re doing when there are lots of external distractions, or when the mind itself seems to be rambunctious and hard to control. We have to make an extra effort during times …
