… We go that way.” And for a third time, the Blessed One said, “This, Nāgasamāla, is the route. We go this way.”
Then Ven. Nāgasamāla, placing the Blessed One’s bowl & robes right there on the ground, left, saying, “This, lord Blessed One, is the bowl & robes.”
Then as Ven. Nāgasamāla was going along that route, thieves–jumping out in the middle of the …
… would open channels leading away from it on both sides, so that the current in the middle of the river would be dispersed, diffused, & dissipated; it wouldn’t go far, its current wouldn’t be swift, and it wouldn’t carry everything with it. In the same way, when a monk has not abandoned these five obstacles, hindrances that overwhelm awareness and weaken discernment …
There are various places in the Canon where the Buddha talked about
the Middle Way, and what’s important to know about it is that it’s not
a path on the middle of a continuum. It actually lies off the
continuum. It’s “middle” in the sense that it avoids the continuum
defined by two extremes, as the Buddha says in the first …
… This is what’s radical
about the middle way.
We hear that the middle way is a way between the extremes of indulging
in sensuality on the one hand, and indulging in self-torture on the
other. It sounds as if it’s a middling way, halfway between pleasure
and pain. But no, you look at the path itself, and you can see that …
The path of practice we’re following here is often called the middle
way. Many of us tend to interpret that as right in the middle of our
comfort zone: not too extreme, not too demanding. But the result of
that kind of middle way is not very effective.
The Buddha says there are two ways of gauging what kind of effort is
just …
… This image would have special resonances with the Buddha’s teaching on the middle way. It also adds meaning to the term samaṇa—monk or contemplative—which the texts frequently mention as being derived from sama. The word sāmañña—”evenness,” the quality of being concordant and in tune—also means the quality of being a contemplative. The true contemplative is always in tune with …
… The Buddha offers
an alternative—what he calls his middle way. We chanted about it just
now. The middle way is not middling. In other words, you’re not going
to be trying to catch the snake right in the middle. You’re going to
stay away from the snake. You’re looking for something better, a way
out.
The heart of the way …
… The second point to remember is that we’re practicing the middle way. We’re trying to stay away from extremes of eternalism, where you expand to become one with the universe around you, and annihilation, where you want yourself to be annihilated, say, as a little drop of water that gets totally swallowed up by the ocean. Instead, we’re trying to find …
… From here, let it move to the Third Base, the middle of the top of the head, and let it settle there for a moment. Keep your awareness broad. Inhale the breath at that spot, let it spread throughout the head for a moment, and then return the mind to the middle of the forehead. Move the mind back and forth between the forehead …
… We talk about the middle path. Lots of people have their middle paths,
and their middles are all over the place. The way you define what’s a
genuine middle path is by asking yourself, “Well, the path to what
purpose, the path to what goal?” If your aim is power or wealth,
certain things will be necessary. But then you find you take …
… These five elders—Puṇṇa, Aṅgulimāla, Upālī, Nanda, & Sīvalī—have arisen as auspicious marks at the middle of my forehead.
Sesāsīti mahātherā
Vijitā jina-sāvakā
Etesīti mahātherā
Jitavanto jin’orasā
Jalantā sīla-tejena
Aṅgam-aṅgesu saṇṭhitā.
The rest of the 80 great elders—victorious, disciples of the Victor, sons of the Victor, shining with the majesty of moral virtue—are established in the various parts …
… The heedless are as if
already dead. — Dhp 21
Not up in the air,
nor in the middle of the sea,
nor going into a cleft in the mountains
—nowhere on earth—
is a spot to be found
where you could stay & escape
your evil deed.
Not up in the air,
nor in the middle of the sea,
nor going into a cleft in …
… keeping the mind firmly centered in the correct way. No matter what we do or say, no matter what moods may strike the heart, the heart keeps its poise, firm and unflinching in the four jhānas.
These eight factors can be reduced to three – virtue, concentration, and discernment – called the middle way, the heart of the Buddha’s teachings. The middleness of virtue means …
… When he came up with a problem, he
had to figure a way around it. It was a long way to go see the
teacher. And as Ajaan Mun and all the ajaans say, the teacher can’t be
there holding your hand all the time. You have to learn how to depend
on yourself.
So how do you depend on yourself? There were …
… That’s why the Buddha called in the middle way.
If you’re looking for logic, you can look at the way the Buddha
practiced for those six years before he found the true path. If our
problem is attachment for pleasures, he had told himself, then let’s
just totally avoid all kinds of pleasure, even to the extent of
denying all the …
… Then King Pasenadi Kosala went to the Blessed One in the middle of the day and, on arrival, having bowed down to the Blessed One, sat to one side. As he was sitting there the Blessed One said to him, “Well now, great king, where are you coming from in the middle of the day?”
“Just now, lord, a money-lending householder died in …
… Let the breath at the base of the throat spread down the central nerve at the front of the body, past the lungs & liver, all the way down to the bladder & colon.
Inhale the breath right at the middle of the chest and let it go all the way down to your intestines.
Let all these breath sensations spread so that they connect & flow …
… This is the middleness of the middle way; or one aspect of the
middleness of the middle way. We use pleasure. We use pain. We don’t
approach them as ends in and of themselves. They’re things we develop.
We develop the pleasure of concentration. Learn how to use it. We find
that there are certain pains that are useful as well as …
… He was laying waste to his parents’ wealth, as well as to their hearts, in a way that was more than they could bear. She asked Luang Pu to advise her on an approach that would lessen her suffering, as well as getting her son to give up his evil ways.
Luang Pu gave her some advice on these matters, also teaching her how …
… And if there is any left over, then it goes to the middling field. And
if there is still some left over then you give it to the poor field.
In the same way, the Buddha said, there are those people who are
really receptive, those who are somewhat receptive, those who are
actually antagonistic. He paid most attention to the first group, less …
Ud 8:7 Dvidhapatha Sutta | A Fork in the Path
… We go that way.” And for a third time, the Blessed One said, “This, Nāgasamāla, is the route. We go this way.” Then Ven. Nāgasamāla, placing the Blessed One’s bowl & robes right there on the ground, left, saying, “This, lord Blessed One, is the bowl & robes.” Then as Ven. Nāgasamāla was going along that route, thieves–jumping out in the middle of the …
Method 1 | Keeping the Breath in Mind & Lessons in Samādhi
… From here, let it move to the Third Base, the middle of the top of the head, and let it settle there for a moment. Keep your awareness broad. Inhale the breath at that spot, let it spread throughout the head for a moment, and then return the mind to the middle of the forehead. Move the mind back and forth between the forehead …
