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The Middle Way – Self and selflessness

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  • March 9, 2014 at 10:52 pm #52567
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I was wondering about this paragraph i read –

    Story has it that the Buddha went through a long period of self–denial, mortifying his body in his desperate search. Supposedly (and nonsensically), he ate less and less until his food intake was down to one grain of rice per day. Eventually, sitting under that tree, the – presumably very skinny – Siddhartha Gautama encountered a young girl, who offered him some rice-milk, which he accepted. This acceptance is considered significant, an acknowledgment that we need body as well as spirit, that the body counts, and not simply as offensive flesh that should be mortified. The Buddha’s consumption of rice-milk is thus emblematic of the Middle Way, a denial of dualism, such that correct living is not a question of mind or body, good or evil, all or nothing, self versus the rest of the world.

    Self, versus the rest of the world really struck me as i felt like my progress as an individual would be incomplete if i never touched the lives of others. I feel like sometimes we get so driven by today’s compelling demands of a career and keeping up with the jones’s of the world that we forget that there is a bigger world out there, beyond our pain and suffering..

    What are your opinions on the Middle Way?

    March 10, 2014 at 8:11 am #52579
    Chad
    Participant

    I agree completely, and often feel that we can best serve our own needs, by serving the needs of others and our community.

    Example: If I cut my grass, plant flowers and keep my own home looking nice. What value does it have to me, if my neighborhood is blighted? My home looks good looking from the outside in, but what can I see of it from inside. My view is inside looking out. This is the world I see. If a tranquil environment brings me peace. Then shouldnt I help my neighbors who might be elderly and can not cut their own grass? or plant flowers in their yard as they may not have money for it? If this is what I see, if this is what affects me, in a way. Do I not have a responsibility to it, versus just existing in it, and doing only for my own property or business?

    People are so wrapped up in their own worlds, they stand in their front yards with their backs to their neighbors and revel in their own shallow accomplishments. Not sitting inside by their fire and truly enjoying what it is they have, looking out the window and taking pride that they are having a positive effect on the world around them, not only making it a better place for themselves to live, but for others as well. Its a win win if you think about it.

    March 10, 2014 at 12:15 pm #52586
    Matt
    Participant

    Jess,

    For me, the middle way has come to symbolize the path between extremes into the emptiness/potential of a balanced choice. For the Buddha, it was seeing that transcending suffering wasn’t about wrestling control from body, such as denying its needs. Also, it wasn’t the extreme of giving in to the body’s every whim. Instead, it is about sorting the skillful from the unskillful, such as stopping eating when we are full. What desires are inside us that lead to liberation, freedom, space? What desires are inside us that lead to self denial or self grasping? This allows the 8fp to be a natural erosion of the unskillful in favor of the skillful, gently removing that which is unhelpful, unhealthy.

    In Chad’s example, the cut grass and flowers are more pleasing, stable, beautiful to Chad, which gives him a stable home from which to do compassionate acts. So in that instance, the middle way becomes a balance between planting flowers for his own peace of mind, and planting flowers for others for their peace of mind. Not planting flowers for himself would be self denial, or planting too many (or only) flowers for himself would be self indulgence. Either of those are less joyous for him, less nourishing to him, and so the skillful Buddha inside him looks to plant flowers for him appropriately, and for others appropriately. What a blessing!

    With warmth,
    Matt

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