The Middle Way

Presence, Acceptance, Impermanence

2010-06-29T05:13:51Z

Things happen. Time Passes by. Attaching to an idea or concept, we trap ourselves. Mind is it’s own trap when fed. The acceptance of the present, fully, may bring suffering. The four noble truths. Karma. When letting go and coming to be, Karma comes back. How can it not? We can deny literally anything. It doesn’t make it true.

Not going to the dentist caused my teeth to suffer. Denying my own pain, pushing away my reality, my karma was a root canal. This is not mystical. Our entire lives are like this. Really, intent is what matters. It’s through our intent we become.

In this place we drop humanity’s concept of time. We become realized the second we see. The myriad of teaching all point to one thing—to be here. Accept the entirety of being, not just ego or consciousness as boundaries. We are impermanent, we have finite time, our obligation, humbly to all beings. We are not the first nor the last. This beautiful web. Back to Presence. Where we are we should fully be. It’s the only real place.

Your Thoughts: A Buddhist Response to the Economic Crisis

2008-12-09T06:52:40Z

The current global economic crisis is easily understood through a Buddhist framework. The institutions saw the world as self and other. They saw, and see, it as something to “win”. They focused on Profits and the Trickle Down Theory of economics.

Buddhism teaches us about no self, no other. It teaches us that the “I” thing we grasp isn’t real. It opens us to the world of interconnectedness and interrelatedness. That’s all well and good but the thing is, we’re here now.

There’s little point in “I told you capitalism doesn’t work”. This highlights past problems and mistakes. Addressing past issues is a great cause of anger and frustration. It also goes nowhere. For change to occur, it must be addressed presently, with future action. We must learn from our past, but we can’t stay there.

The question I’d like you to answer is:

As a Buddhist, or through a Buddhist lens, what is our response and action to this Crisis? Where do we go from here? How do we use compassion, at this moment to aid all sentient beings?

I’ve looked through recent editions of Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Tricycle, Mountain Record, Shambala Sun, as well as the Blogroll. No one is addressing this issue. The Dalai Lama yesterday spoke of the causes, but offered no advice out of this Crisis. This global crisis is causing a world wide recession. As Buddhists, what is our message? What is our stance?

It may not be as tangible as the Chinese occupation of Tibet, or the arresting and murdering of Monks in Burma, but this is just as real and important. This is in our own backyard. This is in every backyard throughout the world.

We need to respond. How are we to act? How are we to speak? What stories are we telling?

I’m asking your help to define a Buddhist response. Our formulated responses will be circulated to all the above magazines, with full credit. Please leave your reply below.

(photo mashup)

What Is The Middle Way?

2008-12-01T03:13:11Z

And what, monks, is the Middle Way realized by the Thus-Come-One, which gives vision and understanding, which leads to calm, penetration, enlightenment, to Nirvana?

It is just this Noble Eightfold Path, namely: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. – The Buddha, Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

Since starting this site I’ve always felt too close to write about The Middle Way. I asked a friend, Gary over at Buddha Space, if he’d share what The Middle Way meant to him. This is his fantastic reply. 108 bows to you Gary.

The Middle Way lies at the very heart of Buddhism, as indicated in the words above, taken from the Buddha’s first sermon, given by the Thus-Come-One over two-and-a-half thousand years ago in North India. Since then, Buddhism has transformed itself many times as it has spread all over the Orient from Sri Lanka to Japan, and has now taken root in the Occident, from England to Australia. Yet, despite the global nature of the Buddhadharma these days, and its diverse forms such as the orthodox Theravada, the devotional Pure Land, the esoteric Vajrayana, and the prosaic Zen, the Middle Way remains a central theme that all Buddhists take heed of, one way or another.

According to the Buddha, the Middle Way is a life lived between the extremes of self-denial and self-indulgence. Neither hedonist nor ascetic are to be imitated, for the Noble Eightfold Path weaves its way through life avoiding both these unenlightened lifestyles. To see the world in the light of the Buddhadharma is to have Right View, not only recognizing the suffering that is caused by desire, but also the Path that leads to the ending of all such suffering, based in the Right Intention to let go of lust, ill-will, and cruelty. In other words, to lead a harmless life. Right Speech, Action, and Livelihood grow out of such an intention, directing one’s lifestyle in a more selfless, rather than selfish, direction. Right Effort is the avoidance of unwholesome states and the cultivation of wholesome ones. Right Mindfulness and Concentration take this well-directed mind and hone it to the point where it is on the precipice of the great void that is known as Nirvana. The perfection of the Path (that is, the Middle Way), is the ripening of the spiritual life; it becomes a fruit ready to drop into the infinity of enlightenment…forever.

Living the Middle Way can take many different forms – not surprising when the many strands of the Buddhadharma are taken into account, along with the many types of people there are – but all are ultimately intent on its original and continuous objective: Nirvana. To cultivate a moral lifestyle hand in hand with a mindful meditative practice is to walk the Middle Way, which gives vision and understanding, as the Buddha put it. This vision is to see things as they are, rather than as we think or want them to be, and this understanding is the knowledge that in the things of the world there is no salvation or enlightenment; awakening to the silent wisdom within is to experience the calm mind that penetrates to the core of our being: the Buddha.

The Middle Way is not only the recommended manner of living given us by the Buddha; it is also the realization that beyond these limited erroneous egos and puffed-up personalities we are the Buddha. To truly walk the Middle Way is to traverse this world in the knowledge that we are already enlightened – we just have to enlighten ourselves to the fact! Openly reflecting on the Way is to share with all sentient beings this wondrous hidden truth, helping us to let go a little of our greed, hatred, and delusion, the three poisons that tie us to a life of suffering. For, as the Buddha so wisely taught all those centuries ago, it is in the walking of this Middle Way that one discovers Nirvana, releasing the pain and anguish of the ego into the serenity of our Buddha-nature.

(image)

Happiness is for All Time, Not Just the Future

2008-11-24T07:57:54Z

We get told to work hard for future happiness. When does this future happiness arrive? People work hard their whole lives, saving, so that they can have a good retirement. When we retire is when we’re meant to be relaxed and happy. This is the wool being pulled over our eyes. I feel that as a society, we’ve been brain washed to work, instead of enjoying our lives.

When we’re old enough to retire, often we’re too old to enjoy ourselves. We’ve spent the prime of our lives suffering away, waiting for this magical day, and when it arrives we can’t fully enjoy it. Who wants to be too old to enjoy their life? Why should we wait until we’re past our peak to enjoy ourselves?

Don’t put off your happiness. Live it. The only way to get to the future is through the present. It’s your actions now, your happiness now that dictates your future happiness. Even if we can justify short term hardwork, we have to be careful. By putting off happiness we increase suffering, as well as moving karma (habits) into a pattern of accepted suffering. People who work hard for a few months, when they get to the ‘other side’ often find themselves either bored/lacking or lonely. When they stop suffering, they often chose it again. It makes them feeling important.

By putting off happiness, we increase suffering and anguish. By taking more on, we increase our worry and stress levels. We cause our own suffering. When we suffer mentally, we suffer physically too. When our mind is restless, it has negative effects on our health. It effects our ability to sleep, stopping the body’s ability to repair itself. It effects our ability to absorb nutrients, the blood stream becomes filled with chemicals that attack instead of heal. The result of this is our immunity drops. We get sick easier and for longer periods—the cycle is complete. If this stress-health cycle continues, we reduce the length of our lives, and raise our risk of a stress related death.

This may sound pretty drastic, but it’s real, and often quite subtle to begin with. It’s a creeper. Why would you want to enter into even one round of this cycle? Why put your happiness off at all. Buddhism is big on Acceptance and Action. If you find yourself in a position of putting off your happiness, do something about it. Take the time to work out the root cause of your suffering, and put a plan in place to work through it.

Be happy now. No one, No Thing, and No Time are going to make you happy. The only way to be happy, is to Accept where we are, and work from this place to where you want to be. Take responsibility for your happiness, and make it a priority in your life. In a future post soon, we’ll look at a few Buddhist methods to becoming happy now.

Supporting video from Alan Watts on Music and Life

(photo by tripp-e)

Beyond Words and Phrases

2008-11-18T09:40:11Z

“Explanations of mind and explanations of the nature are not affirmed by the Buddhist patriarchs. Seeing the mind and seeing the nature is the animated activity of non-Buddhist. Staying in words and staying in phrases is not the speech of liberation. There is a state which has got free from states like these.” – Master Dogen, Shobogenzo, Sansuigyo

What is Dogen discussing here? ‘Not affirmed’? How does the speech of liberation sound? How does one access the states beyond Explaining and Seeing?

This Sutra is called Sansuigyo, which is our first hint. Sansuigyo means Nature. It means the natural world is the true Buddhist Sutras. Anything outside of ‘being’ is not yet Perfected Enlightenment. Using Nature as the store of Sutras says that by looking at and examining Nature, we look at Truth itself. Dogen points us to a world before thought, by pointing us towards Nature.

‘Not affirmed’ is interesting. It evokes images of philosophers and psychologists offering the Buddhist patriarchs complex theories. The patriarchs, however, they’re cool. They simply smile. They don’t deny the explanations, they don’t affirm. The key, however, is that they do answer the question. Their answer is timeless, with their very non-affimation pointing to reality itself.

When ‘staying’ in words and phrases, we are trapped. When we have fixed ideas and concepts, we stray from the real, and bounce around in man-made concepts. The Speech of Liberation, in this context, I feel isn’t so much our speech, but our listening. The Speech of Liberation is Nature’s voice. When we become wholly present, when our minds are settled, we are open to listen. When we are open and listening, we hear Nature is constantly singing her Speech of Liberation.

Nature exists in states beyond words and phrases. It’s before Ego. What Dogen is not saying, however, is that Nature is not without. This is the very first Zen Koan: does a Dog have Buddha Nature? Mu, or nothingness is the answer. Through meditation, we rest in the space that transcends all ideas and words. In this space we are no different to Nature, we are not just in Nature but are Nature.

By sitting and ‘not-doing’, we share the timeless smile of the Buddhist patriarchs. We realize our true nature, and go beyond words.

For more reading on this Sutra, there’s online commentary by the Book’s translator here. (I’m amzed and thankful that the translator is not both alive and blogging. We live in amazing times.)

Update:The Alan Watts Podcast has just started a series on The Wisdom of Mountains, which is what this post is about. Well timed.

Keep Sitting

2008-11-06T12:57:21Z

Sitting is hard. Sometimes you feel good, but often you feel a little stiff or sore. You don’t notice how it affects your life. You get busy. Stuff comes up. Somehow daily sitting becomes less of a priority. Somewhere along the line you pick up the saying that “a few moments of mindfulness each day is good enough”. “Good Enough” is different to “Good”. We need to Keep Sitting.

The mantra of “Keep Sitting” has been ringing in my head for months. I started making short cuts and excuses. I observed myself making these short cuts and excuses. Now I’m re-learning a lot of lessons. It feels like beginner’s mind all over again. I’m re-finding the importance of a solid daily practice.

I thought that because I observed it all, it was fine. That it’s okay, I’m living the Dharma, more so than sitting it. The mind, however, is a bit like a leaky boat. If we don’t empty the water out, eventually it’ll sink.

Meditation is how we remove water from our boat. Part of living, is there is always going to be holes. What we can, and do with meditation is help ourselves. As we keep sitting water empties from boat, and as a result the boat, our mind, starts handles better. Less baggage means our boat is less effected by the waves. It sails more so than it sink. If we stop sitting, however, the water starts seeping in again, and the boat starts sinking again.

Through sitting, we engage and enhance life. Nothing is isolated in this world. Everything is related and connected. Our practice is constantly manifested in the world. How we act, how we react. We are our practice. Keep Sitting. I’m off to sit now.

At times, we all struggle with practice. In this world, nothing is permanent. Everything is constantly changing, including our ability to sit…Smile upon your imperfect nature.

Below is a great video from Suzuki Roshi, looking at interconnectedness. This relates to living our practice. Perhaps watch, then join me sitting.

(photo is of one my statues)

Support The Middle Way - An Enso, For You to Own

2009-08-07T06:02:26Z

An Enso is the Zen symbol that represents enlightenment. It’s generally considered an output of enlightened activity. It’s both the symbol and reality of enlightenment. It’s a brush stroke from a master, that in a single thought-less breath captures the moment of non-thought. The brush stroke is a record of reality, the whole world is contained within the stroke.

The Middle Way has been using the Enso as part of the rotating mast header for a while. The Enso runs deep through this site, and through me. I’ve been wanting to share this Enso with the world for a while, Now I can, with you.

I created a stencil based on a Enso seen on Alan Watt’s houseboat. You can see this Enso in a digital version of Alan’s work called Prickles and Goo. There’s a lot of history behind this Enso.

Now it’s your chance to get 1 of 20 limited edition, hand printed, signed Enso for your walls. 11 have already sold.

Black Enso Print #8/20, on A1 Size White Archival Stock

Close up of Black Enso Print #8/20, on A1 Size White Archival Stock

Full View of Red Enso Print #11/20, on A1 Size White Archival Stock

Prints are $50 +S&H, in your local currency. If you are interested in buying a print, please e-mail me, wade@themiddleway.net.

By buying an Enso, you’re donating to The Middle Way. You’re enabling me to send out more Free Buddhist Books. This isn’t for profit, your Dana goes back to ship out books. You not only help me, but around 10 readers of this website who are after a book by purchasing an Enso.

Each print is carefully looked over to ensure no defects are shipped out. They are made in a dust-free environment, after I’ve entered into a deep state of meditation. I have incense burning, far away from the print. No two prints are the same, they are all unique.

By Buying an Enso, not only do you get a fantastic print, but you are helping me cover costs of sending out free books throughout the world. You are also enabling me to spend more time focusing on The Middle Way, allowing more creations and writing. The Middle Way is still Not For Profit.

UPDATE 13/Oct: The draft canvas has gone, and I’ve also put better pictures up. I’ve drastically lowered the number of Enso I’m printing, now 20 in total, of which 4 have already sold. This is now seriously limited edition, and all profits still go to sending books back out.

UPDATE 28/Jan/09: Only 9 Ensos remaining.

UPDATE 6/Aug/09: I am not currently in a position to print the remaining Ensos. I am not taking pre-orders for the moment either. If you are interested in receiving an Enso, if you leave a comment, when I am able to print Ensos again, I will get in contact.

Living Small Stones

2008-07-31T15:39:37Z

Fiona sent me a copy of her book, small stones: a year of moments. I enjoyed the book, and thought I’d write about how the book lived with me whilst I read it, and how I enjoyed the book.

Managing to get a few days off, I went to a place where two mountains meet the sea. A very similar place as described a “powerful place” by Master Dogen in the Mountains and Rivers Sutra. I was reading small stones, whilst I was writing about Compassion and Kannon.

I went and sat by the water, and felt the sun dance at my feet, whilst the water danced with my ears. Sitting here, I begin reading, and immedietly find myself right into the heart of things. Nothing is left out from this very first stone. Opening with “The sun sag…scenting the water with citrus”, very pretty.

We are reminded to learn lessons from a young 11-month old saying “Look!”. She knows the way to reality that we loose from time to time. Each month of the year is a chapter, and each stone in a month has both an individual, but also linked feeling. Each stone feels like part of a whole, a garden of stones.

I drifted through the book over the next few hours, reflecting on each stone for at least a moment. I sat happily reading, whilst sipping tea and burning incense. All the while I had the Sun’s company and warmth, and I also enjoyed the water’s musical patterns.

Reaching near the end of December, it clicks on me that the books about to end, and that I’ll be done with the small stones. And all too soon, a “blackbird on bare branches, his beak a chip of flame”. comes on by, and takes the stone it’s written on.

Again, I thank Fiona for the copy of the book, and I hope you go check out her site for more info on the book.

—
Note, I do not intended in making The Middle Way a reviews only site, but I do support those in the community who have something they would like to share with the rest of the community. I generally donate whatever I get after I’m finished to charity, or it’s passed on to someone else. I have a post on Living the Precepts almost written up. It looks at living in the world, and living with the precepts. May all beings be happy. Gassho

Awake in This Life

2008-07-24T01:03:57Z

Michael McAlister, of Infinite Smile, has just started a new website. It’s an interesting project in which the reader can continue their learning whilst engaging and communicating with the author. This comes on the tail of his new book, titled Awake in This Life.

Having been a long time fan of Michael’s existing podcasts, website, and his personal style of teaching, I was very happy to learn about Michael’s new site celebrating this new book, which I will be reviewing (Thanks Michael!).

Examining a recent post titled The Smile, Michael begins with a personal interaction with a student;-

If humor is totally absent from this practice, then what’s any of this worth?
—Question from a renegade Zen student
Okay… who took my robe?
—Question from the same Zen student some days later

Michael now establishes multiple stories, including his personal experiences, his teaching, and a teaching to a student of his. It’s all very well supported and constructed. A clear line of development and reasoning is shown. This keeps to the lucid teaching Michael is known for.

If humor is totally absent from this practice, then what’s any of it worth?” “Indeed,” he smiled. “What is this worth?” ... It was like I became blind to this teacher, blind to myself, blind to my thoughts, and blind to all I’d ever known to be true. In those moments, with those tears, ...all that was left was, a beautiful silence and a smile.

There’s plenty more in this post, which is just one of many that compliment the wonderful book that Michael is Launching. Go ahead, read some more.

The Middle Way—Happenings

2008-07-18T07:12:41Z

Inspired by a conversation, turned blog post with Albert, I’ve also decided to share with you what’s going on behind the scenes here, and also offer you, dear reader, an opportunity to help grow The Middle Way. If you’re interested in knowing more, or wanting to help, please contact me.

I’m looking at getting a few more writes for the site, casual or regular, that share a similar influence. I’ve been talking to two friend, both who would offer different perspectives, but also both very qualified. One’s got a degree in psychology, the other is a life student, and sometimes formal Zen Student I’ve lived with. I’m also hoping to engage the services of a full time-writer/poet who is also a full time monastic. I’m also looking to you the reader, to turn writer. To engage further and speak your voice.

I’m looking at starting a print on demand magazine based on personal development and spirituality. This will become our feature blog-content, turned into a real world designed print magazine. A collection for all of us and our readers. A real tangible way of engaging with our huge community out there. And, we all gain an avenue of supporting ourselves through blogging and working together. There’s a few blogs expressing interest in collaborating. More interest may get things off the ground, or we might just run it from the blogs I’m talking to now.

I’m also looking at starting a print on demand t-shirt company, serving the Zen/Buddhist segment. Currently looking into names for the company, working on designs, and distribution models. This looks set to be a lot of fun.

There’s also been 1 or 2 people interested in advertising, but both pulled out. I’m really strict about advertising these days, I value you. This means nothing I don’t fully endorse won’t come up. Almost nothing fits this criteria. I can wait, I’ll continue to eat the costs

I’ve also been talking a lot with people engaged on the street whilst I’m a photographer. I’ve also just completed a book review for Fiona’s A Small Stone, which will be posted as part of her ‘blog tour’ on July 31. I’m happy to be part-taking in this event. An excellent book that I enjoyed reading on holidays immensely.