The Middle Way

39:01

39:01

The Middle Way

by Mark Westmoquette

Rated

5

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Experienced

Plays

11

In this week’s Dharma talk, I explore the core of the Buddha’s original insight: the Middle Way. Using the famous story of his vision of a veena player and the idea of tight and loose guitar strings, we look at what the Middle Way represents philosophically, mentally and energetically. Most of us spend our lives swinging between two extremes - either pulling our strings too tight through over-striving, or letting them go slack through complacency and avoidance. The Middle Way is a powerful teaching of balance and immediacy. The Middle Way is not a lukewarm, safe compromise. It is a dynamic knife's edge that requires us to practice continuously, making moment-by-moment, day-by-day and year-by-year adjustments to re-find the middle. A 30-minute talk followed by a 15-minute guided meditation on finding your root intention.

Buddhism Balance Meditation Zen Impermanence Non Duality Intuition Breath Awareness Meditation Posture

Meet your Teacher

Mark Westmoquette

London, England, United Kingdom

Meet your Teacher

Mark Westmoquette

London, England, United Kingdom

Transcript

So if we start off thinking about a guitar. Just bringing to mind an idea of a guitar. Now, If you tighten the strings too much, Like really over-tighten them, Then the danger is if you strum the guitar, You'll get a very high-pitched note, But also the strings might break. And if you don't tighten them enough then you're going to get a very kind of low noise and if you're really loose then the danger is that you're just going to have a thwack or just no sound. So we've got a four-year-old here at home not today but usually and he's got a little toy ukulele guitar and you know I tried tuning it up and then within seconds it's untuned and he's twiddled the knobs anyway so I just don't bother but what's important is to get these strings to a point where they're going to produce some kind of sound that he can just kind of play around with Later on, I suppose when he gets older, We can tune it up properly. But if you get it just right, Just in the middle, You get a sound out of the string. So these two extremes too tight too loose they're kind of representing the ways in which we get ourselves into maybe in life you know we spend a lot of our life swinging between things that are a bit too tight so like pushing too hard where really kind of burning the candle at both ends. Or the other side being a bit too lazy, Too complacent, Not really doing enough. And things aren't happening. So then the question is, How do we find the right tension of our string? To produce a beautiful sound. And in Zen, In all of Buddhism in fact. It's been called the Middle Way. And it's not like a sort of safe. Rather lukewarm compromise. It's. . . Walking a knife edge. It's a continuous moment-by-moment practice of finding the middle. My name's Mark Kuren-Wesmaket and I'm a Zen teacher with the Zenways Community Sangha. Based here in London in the UK. And I've been teaching here on these platforms for a little while. We have our regular weekly Dharma session. This is it here, Where I usually give a talk and then we have a meditation practice together. We're exploring topics, Practices around Zen and how Zen can be useful in our daily life. How can we kind of bring it to bear on the problems we find ourselves in? So today we're talking about the middle way. And How do we find a balance between the extremes? Something which I think is extremely important. In life in general, Kind of like a life skill really. So let's go back then to the time of the Buddha. The Buddha lived. In northern India about two and a half thousand years ago and He grew up. As the son of a ruler. Maybe the sort of main ruler of this particular district of northern India. And he had a very luxurious upbringing as far as the conditions at the time were able to give him. So he had lots and lots of the luxuries that were possible. Growing up in a palace. Anything he ever wanted. But as he grew into his mid-twenties, He realised that he wanted more out of life than just living in palaces and being a ruler. So he decided to go out into the forest and follow the ascetic path, The spiritual path. Mmm. Kind of monk's path if you like and there in northern India there was lots of things going on a lot of experimental time in terms of people's spiritual practice so he found a few teachers and they taught him the main practices of the time which were basically very ascetic, Very disciplined, Very austere practices. Long periods of meditation some other things like maybe behaving in a certain way, Denying yourself certain things. Experimenting with and cold and fasting. And actually he got quite into fasting and starved himself pretty much until he was almost dying. He was pushing and striving and punishing his body because that was the kind of thought at the time if we punish the body This is the place of. . . All our desires and cravings, This body, If we can punish the body and weaken it, Then perhaps the spirit or the soul could find a new basis of living. That's a theme that's very much present in lots of religious practices, Not just back in India, But across the world and in different traditions as well. Punishing the body, Weakening the body to let the spirit out. So he was almost dying. He'd been fasting, Fasting and fasting. He was thin as a rake. Something in him was saying this is not working. You know, I'm following. I'm doing all things that my teachers are telling me and I'm not finding this. You know, This truth. That I'm looking for. So he was sitting by river one day and he had a dream or vision. Along came a boat and on the boat was a musician and he had a veena, Which was a traditional Indian-style lute. And Maybe he was in this kind of. . . Almost dying trance-like state and he was seeing this boat with a musician coming along I think we're looking. . . At the strings. Of this instrument. And he realised, Ah, If the string is too tight, It's going to snap. And if the string is too loose. Then it won't play. And that's it. Brought up this kind of vision of his whole life. So he lived in the palace, The life of luxury, The life of indulgence and comfort. And he saw that as being the slack string. Then he thought of his years. As an ascetic monk living in the forest. Striving, Pushing hard. Fighting reality. Trying to find something else. And he was literally about to snap. The string was about to snap. He was at death's door. And the middle string or the string that was tightened just right the string that, When it was strummed or plucked, Made a lovely noise. So he thought, What could that be? Look like in life as it is now? What could that look like for me? So you remembered back! To a time when he was seven years old. Or so. So the accounts say, Seven years old, And he'd gone out with his father to a ceremony. And his father was involved in this ceremony. And he left the young boy you know, Under a tree to kind of mind himself. And he'd sat. Lots of kids. Would start playing with twigs and sticks and, You know, Would start messing around, Maybe running around, Would start annoying his father. But this young boy, He kind of fell into a very easy Meditation, You could say, Well that's what. . . That's what he reflected on. Just kind of present, Aware, Quiet and it felt very. . . Easy, Very pleasant. So he remembered this and thought. Well, I wonder if I could try that. Not so much trying, Striving, Pushing, Searching, And also not so much completely relaxed, Not doing anything. Is middle. Option. So he started to practice meditation like that. He started to eat a little bit. And there was something in him that thought if I just sit in a comfortable place where it's pleasurable and easy that can't be right it's not hard enough But then he thought, Well, The hard way isn't working. I'll give this a go. So he started to sit in a kind of Pleasurable. Ease full place. And it didn't take long after that realisation that he Hit on. The kind of great realisation which we call the great enlightenment, Buddha's enlightenment. He realised what he'd been looking for, He found the truth of who and what he was and how he was in relationship to the world and his perception completely opened up. And then all of Buddhism was born. So the middle way, Then. It's evolved into a kind of teaching from that point where he was looking at the two different kinds of guitar strings. Is evolved into an entire philosophy. Of the Middle Way. You look cool. Buddhism, Basically. The philosophy of the middle way. And it's not just about how to do meditation, It's about how we perceive the world. Ourselves in relation to the world. And it's really sitting between the extremes, Positions we can take. On the philosophical dimension, We've got eternalism on one side. Eternalism is the idea that everything persists forever. That we we have within us. A soul? Or in India they would have called it an Atman. Atman is a little nugget, A little piece of the divine which has been embedded in this human body which is, Because it's divine, It is eternal and everlasting and it's trying to make its way back to join with the One. And so over a series of lifetimes, This soul migrates until eventually it finds the point in which it can kind of be released and join oneness with the divine. The eternal and everlasting God or divine idea. Lots and lots of years people perceived the universe like this. The universe as being an eternal, Never-changing place. And then on the other side, We've got the philosophical concept of nihilism. That nothing exists that all is a mirage or hallucination you could say just that there's kind of everything is just, Yeah, There's no reality to anything. And as as philosophical. Extremes really, The Buddha rejected both, He said that neither are true and his middle way takes up this middle position of is nothing is eternal. But also it's not nothing. There's no soul. Or piece of divine that's locked in the body that's not changing. But at the same time, There is something there. And that's something. Is in fact continuous change. So it's not everlasting and it's not nothing, It's actually just change. And so that becomes this idea of impermanence. That all things are just in a constant state of flux changing transforming transducing all sorts of change. This middle way is not saying that nothing exists. But it is saying that things exist in a sort of relationship in fact it's not even a thing really it's a process there are processes that exist interrelating and dependent on each other and existing for a sort of momentary being before they change as a continuous flux. So that is this middle place when we realise that everything is in flow. Then necessarily we have to stop clinging to things. Or, I don't know, We have to try at least. The way the mind works is we still do cling to things, But when we look at it with clarity we realise there's actually nothing to cling to. We try to make things go our way. We want things, We push things away but those things that we want are actually ungraspable. It's like trying to put your hand into water and pick it up. You know, The more you kind of grab it, There's just nothing there. It just all drains out. Nothing there. So there is nothing to want, In fact. There is nothing to push away, There's just a continuous change. So then. We escape from this trap of feeling like we want things always to stay the same. Like, I wish I was 25 and I never changed. And any time I realise I'm not 25. . . I get sad. Because I realise things are changing but actually I don't want them to change. So that is a form of clinging. And we also don't fall into a kind of despair because. . . Things will end. There is actually nothing substantial there anyway. There's actually nothing there. It's a kind of despair. It's a kind of black hole, Really. Sucks us into, Like, Well, Nothing exists. I don't care. That's not true either. So that's a philosophical place that we find ourselves in when we. . . Explore this middle way. But what about the daily living of a middle way? Well, In order to find the middle. . . We have to know. At least a bit where the extremes are. So you might say childhood and especially teenage years are really experimenting with a little bit more extremes you know we might and do some things which are reasonably unwise from an adult eyes just because we're experimenting we're trying to find where the edge is here and we do this continually through our life, Of course. Trying to find the edges and that's that's okay you know we need to know where the where the, Where the. . . The too tight, The too loose. We can't know how to perfectly tune a string. Until we've heard it. Too loose? Or too tight. And then you're like, Oh, OK, There's a middle place there where it feels just right. And so that means that navigating this middle It's like walking on a knife edge. Nigh on impossible. As soon as you think you've found the middle, Oof, Then we're off again. Like, Actually, The idea of finding the middle and being in the middle is another form of grasping, Like to exist in the middle is. Exists is a kind of form of fixing something. And that's not how it goes. Though the navigating the middle is a continuous process, It becomes our practice. Mere thought that, Ah, This is the middle! In fact. Itself. Takes us off the middle. Does that make sense? We've turned the middle into a concept. We've fixed it into an idea. And then it's no longer the middle. So it's in the walking that we find the middle. Not in the idea of a middle. And that makes. . . Finding the Middle, A wonderful book. Continuous moment-by-moment practice. It makes it extremely challenging. But also wonderfully rewarding to watch. Always. Assess am i a little bit this way a little bit that way where can i come more into balance where can i adjust the way i live so that it feels more and it's just like it's a it's an ongoing unfolding So, For example, Being a little bit. Of a two the string is too tight right so maybe like We're being too intense. We're being too rigid. We're taking everything a little bit too seriously. We're forcing things, We're striving. Pushing. Sometimes we need those things. But then we have to find the other way, Right? So sometimes things are a bit too slack. We feel too lazy or complacent. Bit too unfocused. Treat everything as a joke. We fall asleep because we're just not very energised awake. Present. We some. Now, As I say, We need to know where the edges are. And sometimes we need those edges. For a particular purpose. We need to sleep. Of course we need to sleep. We need to be very focused and concentrated. Of course we need that. We find some things a joke, But not everything a joke, You know? Finding the middle. Is a moment by moment thing but also it has different time scales right so we can work on it in this moment and then we can work in it. Are over us a day and then we could think about it over the course of a year. And over a course of a lifetime, Or maybe even multiple lifetimes. In the case of a business or big endeavour. Government. Finding the middle is a matter of intuition. We have to feel it. Intuition gets things wrong. And we train our intuition. Through experience and through reflection. And Yeah, Just trying I suppose. We're learning to find or to feel what it's like to live in our true centre. Now just as we come to the end, Just to kind of make a note that actually it's a philosophical concept, This middle way, It's a lived concept. So the idea of like. . . Not too not too effortful not too relaxed you know kind of way but it's also a physical pasture. The posture of the middle way is to come into that place of feeling balanced. In the body's energetic system, The middle way is represented by the central channel. We have an energy channel which runs from the pelvic floor through the very centre of the body all the way up to the crown of the head. And right the way through the middle. So if you come from the yoga world they call it the Shushumna if you come from the Japanese or Zen world they sometimes call it the Haraline So a very central channel. It's a place all the way down the middle that has no opposites. So no opposites left, Right, Front or back. So the opposites, Of course, The nihilism or eternalism or the striving or the relaxation, They're all in the world of opposites. But the middle way is in the center where there is no opposites. It's coming into this place of non-duality. Of non-separation. And if we can arrange our body posture to mirror that, Then we're going to be in a best place to find it in our whole being. Bringing our awareness basically into the very centre of our body. Aligning our physical posture so that we feel centred. Now that may mean a kind of uprightness, But it depends on your body, If you've got certain physical limitations which stop you from coming to sit properly. Upright that's okay we can find our energetic centre. Where we feel centred. So I thought that perhaps next time we meet. . . We'll talk a little bit more about the posture of meditation and what this means in a little bit more depth. The importance of the posture and how the body and the mind are related to our physical orientation. But for now, We're done. Considering this middle way in our meditation posture as we come in to do some meditation together. So, As we come to the end of this talk, If there's been any. . . Resonances or questions or Anything, Reflections, Any comments? I'd love to hear from you. Just go ahead and write in the chat or write in the comments. Feel free to contribute. Even if it's just a thanks or hi or whatever it is it makes us all feel like we're joining together in this practice rather than just kind of spectating and we're here practicing together our shared intention brings us together in a group so Lovely, Yeah. Thanks Antonina. And so. What you're writing or. . . Just as your Sitting there, We're going to prepare to do some meditation practice together. Coming into a comfortable meditation posture. So we're talking about coming into something upright so you might want to just As you're sitting there, Sway from side to side. And the side-to-side here is representing coming off to the two extremes, You know. Off the middle one way and off the middle the other way. You can feel the weight shifting from side to side, You can feel your body moving left and right we're going to move less and less and less just swaying slowly slowly coming into the middle like a pendulum coming to rest. You can do something similar front to back, So go forwards and backwards. You can feel when you're off balance and you can feel it come through the middle where you're on balance. And then we can come right into the middle. Where you feel right on the middle. I would recommend closing your eyes and don't worry about what you look like. Don't worry about whether you really are centred. What matters is how you feel. The feeling of being centred, The feeling of being upright. Extending all the way up to the crown of your head. Tucking your chin down and in slightly. So that the back of your neck feels really long. Relaxing your face around the eyes. Around the mouth. Softening your tongue so that it can rest on the roof of your mouth softening your shoulders. So we have our central axis. This uprightness and length balance. Some people call it a poise. And then around this centre we can relax. Softening all the muscles we don't need are soft. Alertness. And then. . . Becoming aware of this central channel. From the middle of your pelvic floor between your legs. Tracing your awareness up through the middle. Of your hips. The middle of your belly up through the middle of the diaphragm. Past your heart through the middle of your neck. Through the middle of your brain. And all the way up to the crown of your head. And back down through the middle of your brain. Your neck. Chest. Belly. Pelvic floor. This is our middle way. Just by bringing awareness to it. Helps us to come into that. Center. To feel scented. Along that centre line, If you bring your attention down to the belly. And from here, Noticing the feeling of breathing. Breathing in, Breathing out. Easy. Relaxed breathing. And our awareness of the feeling of breath can also be in the middle way. Tents. Focused. Sometimes we can concentrate so hard that our whole body tenses up, Jaw tenses up. Laser beam. That would be tightening the string too tight. Then sometimes we can have such a loose hold on our attention that the mind just wanders all over the place we get caught up into thinking and thoughts and Daydreaming. So easily. And that would be like having our string too loose. Remembering the little child Buddha when he was around seven years old in the field where his father was off doing the ceremony and he just very naturally. Came into a comfortable relaxed, Easeful place. Measurable. Focusing on your breath, Feeling the movement of the breath, Not too intensely. But also not too lightly. Staying with it enough Necessarily. We will sometimes. Overly Concentrate and sometimes we will just let go a little bit too much and then we're off in a daydream. Then it's about resetting or re-evaluating. Re-finding the middle, Walking this knife edge. What does the middle mean? Look like for you right now? How does that feel? Just enough. Not too much. Not too little. Breathing. Totally relaxed. Perfect amount of breath. Your body knows just let it breathe And if we find that sweet spot. . . The middle. It can feel really good. Easy. Pleasurable. We're not striving, We're not trying to get anywhere. There's no goal? But at the same time not just. . . Idling daydreaming complacent. We are. Simply being. And how wonderful is that, To sit here. . . Being who you are. No more, No less. Being a flow of continuous change, Breathing in, Breathing out. And as we come to the end of our practice together. We'll just come back to swaying our body a bit from side to side we'll come off the middle and finding the edges again. Swaying side to side. Taking a deeper breath. And when you're ready, Letting your eyes lift. We offer the merit of our practice today to all beings. May they be safe. May there be well. Male beings. Be content and happy. May they find Realisation. Thank you so much for joining today, It's really lovely to practice together as always.