2. Finding the Middle Way
The middle way (madhyama-pratipad in Sanskrit) is the foundation of all Buddhist teachings. It was discovered some 2,500 years ago by the young prince Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha-to-be, during his search for the answer to the sufferings of sickness, ageing, death, and rebirth. Having been raised in luxury, he found that indulgence in pleasures is superficial, because a life lived in excess brings no lasting happiness. Therefore, to escape samsara (i.e., cyclic existence), he tried giving up ‘all’ pleasures, hoping that the end of suffering would come if he could suppress ‘every’ desire.
After leaving his princely life, Siddhartha chose a life of extreme austerity along with five other ascetics who were living in the forest, exposed to the elements. However, six years after beginning his spiritual journey, Siddhartha was on the verge of death due to self-mortification and denial of his body’s most basic requirements for sustenance. It is said that at one point, his daily nourishment consisted of just one sesame seed, one grain of rice, and one drop of water. Having taken asceticism to its furthest extreme, Siddhartha’s body wasted away to mere skin and bones, and he no longer possessed the strength to meditate. He had gone too far, and there was still no relief for his existential pain.
Lying emaciated along the side of a riverbank, he overheard an elder musician on a passing boat teaching his pupil how to properly tune a musical instrument: “If you tighten the string too much, it will snap. And if you leave it too slack, it won’t play.” Siddhartha recognized himself in the instruction, for he too had lived both the ‘slack’ life of hedonism and also now the imbalanced life of asceticism which was about to ‘break’ him. Inspired by the lesson of the tempered string, he saw the fault and futility of both extremes and realized a path of moderation (i.e., neither self-indulgence nor self-mortification), which he called “the middle way.”
| Asceticism | The Middle Way | Hedonism |
|---|---|---|
| Self-Mortification | No Self-Indulgence   No Self-Mortification |
Self-Indulgence |
True renunciation has two aspects: recognizing that external objects are not a true source of happiness (i.e., such as when Siddhartha renounced his princely life), and also recognizing that external objects are not the main cause of suffering (i.e., such as when Siddhartha renounced asceticism).
We need inner peace, but we also need good physical health, and for this we need certain external conditions such as food and a comfortable environment to live in. There are many people who concentrate exclusively on developing the material side of their life, while completely ignoring their spiritual practice. This is one extreme. However, there are other people who concentrate exclusively on spiritual practice, while ignoring the material conditions necessary for supporting a healthy human life. This is another extreme. We need to maintain a middle way that avoids both extremes of materialism and spiritualism. (Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Transform Your Life: A Blissful Journey, p. 10, © 2007)
Now abandoning both self-indulgence and self-mortification, Siddhartha accepted his first decent meal in years, and he found that it only helped his mental focus and meditative concentration. Having restored his body and mind to health with this new perspective, Siddhartha now had not only the physical strength but also the correct view so as to reach enlightenment. Having uprooted the root causes of suffering, he taught the world the middle way between the two extremes of existence and non-existence (discussed later), although he knew that few would understand his words.
It is this middle view that seems to have no place in our everyday, dualistic language. We habitually polarize life as being “all or nothing.” Therefore, we say desire or no desire, and we say self or no self. We think that there are only two possibilities, and even among those who study and practice Buddhism, the four noble truths are often read as though nirvana comes through the “extinction of all desires.” This absurdly causes us to characterize the four noble truths as promoting asceticism! What happened to the middle?
Not all desires are desirous attachment. It is important to distinguish between virtuous and non-virtuous desires. Virtuous and compassionate desires are not delusions because they do not destroy our peace of mind. For example, a sincere wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of others is a desire, but it is not a desirous attachment because such a wish cannot confuse and disturb our mind and it cannot harm ourself and others. (Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Joyful Path of Good Fortune: the Complete Buddhist Path to Enlightenment, p. 313, © 2003)
Buddhism posits a moderate view between the two extremes of black-or-white thinking. To maintain this middle view and not fall into either extreme, we need a two-pronged approach whose two aspects, together, can correct our ingrained all-or-nothing bias. The two aspects of the middle way neither contradict one another nor do they have overlap; that is to say, the two aspects of the middle way neither exclude nor include each other. Mutually supporting, each one serves to correct the potential excesses of the other, thus maintaining a perfect balance.
Read next Ultimate Selflessness & Conventional Self.