What Is The Middle Way

by: Depabhasadhamma

Publication date: 2021-11-06

Usage: Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Collection: opensource

Language: English

Discovering the Middle Way, taught by the Buddha, requires first a willingness to want a better life right now. This Middle Way is a working model outlining a specific method for how life ought to be lived in order to achieve actual happiness. The "Middle Way," is not about improvement. It is about changing how we think, but also understanding why we think what we do think. The Middle Way requires an examination of our cyclical and habitual ways of thinking, which is the source of suffering.

Pema Chodron, an American Buddhist nun, provides the following explanation of the Middle Way: “As human beings, not only do we seek resolution, but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However, not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from resolution. We don’t deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the Middle Way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity. To the degree that we’ve been avoiding uncertainty, we’re naturally going to have withdrawal symptoms; withdrawal from always thinking that there’s a problem and that someone, somewhere, needs to fix it. The Middle Way is wide open, but it’s tough going, because it goes against the grain of an ancient neurotic pattern that we all share. When we feel lonely, when we feel hopeless, what we want to do is move to the right or the left. We don’t want to sit and feel what we feel. We don’t want to go through the detox. Yet, the Middle Way encourages us to do just that. It encourages us to awaken the bravery that exists in everyone without exception, including you and me.”

The "Middle Way," is not about improvement. It is about changing how we think, but also understanding why we think what we do think. The Middle Way requires an examination of our cyclical and habitual ways of thinking, which is the source of suffering.