… So you’re learning about feeling, and you’re learning about feeling in
terms of the middle way. Remember, the Buddha said the middle way
avoids the extremes of sensual indulgence and of self-torture. That
doesn’t mean it’s a middling feeling. It means looking for pleasure in
another way, not on the continuum: one, pleasure that has nothing to
do with …
… Inferior sensual pleasures, middling sensual pleasures, and superior sensual pleasures are all simply reckoned as ‘sensual pleasures.’
“It’s just as if a stupid baby boy, lying on its back, might—through the heedlessness of his nurse—take a stick or a piece of gravel into its mouth. The nurse would attend to him right away. Attending to him right away, she would take …
… Remember, this is the middle way, and finding the
just-right point in the middle is a lot harder than going to extremes.
With extremes you just push, push, push. It doesn’t require much
discernment. But finding and maintaining the just-right point in the
middle: That requires a lot of discernment. You’re going to be going
back and forth, back and …
… The Buddha talks about the middle way, this unexcelled victory in
battle, as being a middle way between two extremes. If we could find
our way to true happiness simply by being extremely accepting or
extremely effortful, again it would be very easy. It wouldn’t take
much discernment. But to get results requires finding the middle way
between those two extremes. What’s …
… Are you doing
things in an awkward way? Are you do things in an efficient way? In
this particular case, it means noticing how you breathe: Does it
really feel good? Or could it be better? Which parts of the body are
not feeling good? How could you make them feel better by the way you
breathe? Which parts feel like they’re being …
… Avoiding both of these extremes, the middle way realized by the Tathāgata—producing vision, producing knowledge—leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to unbinding.
Katamā ca sā bhikkhave majjhimā paṭipadā Tathāgatena abhisambuddhā,
Cakkhu-karaṇī ñāṇa-karaṇī upasamāya abhiññāya sambodhāya nibbānāya saṁvattati.
And what is the middle way realized by the Tathāgata that—producing vision, producing knowledge—leads to calm, to direct …
… So, what way of breathing would lead to that
sense of refreshment and ease? What way of thinking about the breath
would lead to that sense of refreshment and ease? This is where it’s
useful to perceive the breath as a full-body process, something that
can saturate all the nerves. That way, when the sense of ease comes,
say, in the middle …
… Whatever beings there may be—
weak or strong, without exception,
long, large,
middling, short,
subtle, gross,
seen & unseen,
living near & far away,
born or seeking birth:
May all beings be happy at heart.
Let no one deceive another
or despise anyone anywhere,
or through anger or resistance-perception
wish for another to suffer.
As a mother would risk her life
to protect her child …
… Whatever beings there may be,
weak or strong, without exception,
long, large,
middling, short,
subtle, gross,
seen & unseen,
living near & far away,
born or seeking birth:
May all beings be happy at heart.
Let no one deceive another
or despise anyone anywhere,
or, through anger or resistance-perception,
wish for another to suffer.
As a mother would risk her life
to protect her child …
… In this way, you have a home wherever
you go. And keep remembering that while you’re here, this is the
middle way.
And where does the middle way lead from here? It just leads deeper and
deeper in here, more and more solidly in here. This is the place where
everything you’re going to need to know, everything you’re going to …
… Then move up to the solar plexus, the middle of the chest, base of the
throat, middle of the head; then down the shoulders, starting at the
back of the neck; going down the back, through the hips, out through
the legs. Focus, relax.
You can make this survey a couple times, and then see if you can focus
your attention in one spot …
… In the middle of the mountain the ground opened down into a deep chasm. Going down into the chasm, I came to a piece of teakwood placed as a bridge across a crevice. Edging my way across to the other side, I found myself on a wide rock shelf. As I walked on a ways, it became pitch dark, so I lit a lantern …
… Let’s live in such a way that the Blessed One will be gratified by our way of living.”
“As you say, friend,” the monks responded to Ven. Yasoja. And so, living secluded, ardent, & resolute, every one of them realized the Three Knowledges [remembrance of past lives, knowledge of the arising & passing away of living beings, and knowledge of the ending of mental effluents …
… From the solar plexus you can go
to the middle of the chest, the base of the throat, the middle of the
head; then down the spine, out the legs; back to the back of the neck
and then go down the shoulders and out the arms.
This way, you gain a sense of how the breathing feels in the different
parts of the …
… But if you realize even when things get
difficult that you have the power to change the way you breathe,
change the way you think, change the way you label things, change the
way you evaluate the potentials of your situation, so that even in the
midst of difficult situations you can be free from suffering, then you
can make a difference, because you …
… Of course, the problem with desire is that sometimes it gets in the
way. You have to learn how to temper your desire. You realize that
there are causes and there are effects, so you focus your desire on
the causes.
In the case of getting the mind to settle down, the causes are
thinking about the breath, evaluating the breath, and being with …
When the Buddha called his path of practice a middle way between the
extremes of indulgence in sensual pleasure and indulgence in
self-torment, he didn’t mean that it was going to adopt a neutral
feeling-tone. He was offering a different kind of pleasure and a
different way of relating to it. The different kind of pleasure is the
pleasure of concentration …
… But if the middle pilings—a centered mind—aren’t firmly in place, how will you ever be able to bridge the flood of suffering?
There is only one way we can properly reach the qualities of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, and that’s through the practice of mental development (bhāvanā). When we develop the mind to be centered and still, discernment can …
… Try to breathe
in a way that feels really good. The parts of the body that are tense:
Try to breathe in a way that’s relaxing and soothing for them. If
there are parts that feel weak, try to breathe in a way that feels
more energizing, because well-being isn’t just relaxation. There also
has to be energy—not nervous energy …
SN 15:10 Puggala Sutta | Person
… Vulture’s Peak, a secluded rock outcrop in the middle of the ring, was a spot frequented by the Buddha.
Dhamma-cakkappavattana Sutta | A Chanting Guide
… Avoiding both of these extremes, the middle way realized by the Tathāgata—producing vision, producing knowledge—leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to unbinding. Katamā ca sā bhikkhave majjhimā paṭipadā Tathāgatena abhisambuddhā, Cakkhu-karaṇī ñāṇa-karaṇī upasamāya abhiññāya sambodhāya nibbānāya saṁvattati. And what is the middle way realized by the Tathāgata that—producing vision, producing knowledge—leads to calm, to direct …
