Search results for: middle way
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Keeping the Breath in Mind & Lessons in Samādhi
Method 1
… 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 …Show 5 additional results in this book-
Sutta Nipāta
Sn 1:12 The Sage
… 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 …Show 6 additional results in this book
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Udāna
Ud 8:7 A Fork in the Path | Dvidhapatha Sutta
… 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 …Show 2 additional results in this book
- Off the ContinuumThere 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 …
- On an Even Keel… 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 …
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A Chanting Guide
Jinapañjara Gāthā
… 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 …Show 5 additional results in this book
- In the DetailsThe 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 …
- Go in Brightness… 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 …
- Normalcy… 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 …
- Duties… 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 …
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Undaunted
Chapter Six Quotations
… 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 …Show 3 additional results in this book
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Basic Themes
II. Dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi
… 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 …Show 4 additional results in this book
- How to Really Depend on Yourself… 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 …
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Gifts He Left Behind
13. Why do they suffer?
… 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 …Show one additional result in this book
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Handful of Leaves, Volume Two
MN 125 The Level of the Tamed | Dantabhūmi Sutta
… If a middle-aged royal elephant dies untamed & untrained, it is reckoned as a middle-aged royal elephant that has died an untamed death. If a young royal elephant dies untamed & untrained, it is reckoned as a young royal elephant that has died an untamed death. “In the same way, if an elder monk dies with his effluents unended, he is reckoned as an …Show 18 additional results in this book
- Oneness is a Water Snake… 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 …
- The Reasonable Path… 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 …
- Unlimited Compassion, Limited Resources… 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 …
- Mission Possible… This is what the middle path means. It’s not that you avoid pleasure and pain, and go for something neutral in the middle. You learn how to use pleasure and use pain for a higher purpose. There’s precision work in dealing with your defilements that get in the way of your concentration, in dealing with the ignorance that gets in the way …
- Persistence… As Ajaan Maha Boowa likes to say, when we talk about the Middle Way, it’s not a matter of putting in a middling effort. “Middle” means an effort appropriate for whatever comes up. Sometimes you have to be very delicate and very subtle in what you’re doing, because there are delicate and subtle problems in the mind. Other times, as he said …
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