Dhamma Talks - Majjhima - Patipada - The Middle Way :: Buddhapadipa Thai Temple

A synonym for what we can call Buddhist practice is what the Lord Buddha called, “The Middle Way”, or Majjhima Patipada. In fact, this idea is central to what Buddhist practice constitutes. When the Buddha talked about the middle way, he was talking about the path to awakening lying right in the middle, between all opposite extremities. The middle way is also another way to refer to the Eightfold Path, the Noble path leading to the cessation of suffering.

The Buddha’s teachings show us that understanding is not necessarily to be found in books or mere speculation, but through direct experience. Many hundreds of books can be read about how a mango tastes, how many different ways there are to peel it and to present it, all the recipes and variations of the flavours of different varieties, and speculation with colleagues as to what a mango is really like, but until one takes a chunk of mango and tastes it oneself, one will never know the truth of how a mango tastes. As the Buddha experienced the middle way for himself he began to understand and thus realise the truth. Before he was a samana, the Buddha was known as the prince Siddhartha. He was given wealth, beauty, and every conceivable material happiness, but he still wasn’t satisfied. Then, he left the luxurious surroundings of the palace, to take up the robes of an ascetic and practice austerities in the forests. Those ascetics were well known for the austerity of their observances, and many believed that to transcend suffering was simply to suffer right up to the extremes of suffering. One account says, that as the former prince, the ascetic Gotama, was sitting under a tree on the banks of the Neranjara river in his sixth year of practicing severe austerities, he happened to hear a musician teaching his student how to play the Sitar, a type of Indian stringed instrument, whilst passing on a boat . The teacher instructed his student, that tightening the strings of the Sitar too much will cause them to snap, and leaving them to be too loose they will cease to make a sound. It is at this point, it is said, that the ascetic Gotama realised the unskilfulness of practicing in such a manner, and resolved to walk the middle path, which in the Pali language we call the Majjhima Patipada.

As mentioned earlier, the importance of experiencing this Majjhima Patipada for ourselves in our practice is paramount. Of course, these days, we are not in precisely the same cultural situation as the Buddha, and there are not all that many Indian ascetics wandering around Wimbledon or even Mitcham. However, we have just the same traps to fall into, with our own practice, as the ascetic Gotama did with his

In the first discourse or Sutta expounded by the Lord Buddha, the Dhammacakka- pavattana Sutta or the “Discourse on Setting in motion the wheel of Dhamma”, the Majjhima patipada is explained thus:

"There are these two extremes that are not to be indulged in by one who has gone forth. Which two? That which is devoted to sensual pleasure with reference to sensual objects: base, vulgar, common, ignoble, unprofitable; and that which is devoted to self-affliction: painful, ignoble, unprofitable. Avoiding both of these extremes, the middle way realized by the Tathagata -- producing vision, producing knowledge -- leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding.” (Trans. Thanissaro Bhikkhu)

The calmness and tranquillity of practice is to be found here and now by stepping up, out of the storm, not by following the winds wherever they blow. Calmly observing whilst being unmoved by them. As a great Thai meditation master once said, “It all comes back to this – just let it be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle.” The Majjhima Patipada is the path of observing and letting be. It is the practice of not allowing the storms, torrents, infernos, and earthquakes of ignorance, greed and hatred, to push us around. For far too long now, we have all been pushed and pulled here and there by these forces, which we believe are uncontrollable.

I remember once, on an aeroplane trip I made in Thailand with my Venerable teacher, we were flying up to the northern city of Chiang Mai, when there was some quite severe turbulence. I have never been a great fan of flying, but the pilot said over the intercom that he would try to get above the storm and that he had switched the seatbelt sign on. Within a few minutes, the plane had climbed up out over the turbulence and onto what felt like a soft cushion of air. Out of the window I could see the storm clouds but from where I sat they could not push me around. Climbing up out of the turbulence of our minds can offer us tranquillity, but also the chance to observe and understand. This is the essence of meditation. Being aware, and observing the mind. Like a scientist, we sit and watch the way things work without jumping in and getting swept away.

The mind we are dealing with is not uniformly still. It moves and sways with the winds of desire and attachment, and the winds of fear and aversion. As soon as the mind comes into contact with something, it immediately forms either desire for more of it, or aversion towards it. I experienced this in quite an obvious way, the first time I had to observe the rules of refraining from food after midday. My mind was completely on food all day long and even at night. Not just on normal everyday food, but on every single type of food that it is possible to imagine. I dreamt about cream puffs and sweet things with jam, pasta, pizza and chips, mangoes and succulent fruits, Thai kanom sweets as well as my favourite noodles in a thick gooey soup. It must have been many hours of sitting there thinking about all these mouth-watering snacks. I didn’t put up a fight at all, I didn’t resist, I just jumped in head first into those swirling waters of desire, prolonging my suffering if only to get to dream about the food in exchange. The more I dreamt about them, the more I wanted them and the more the desire grew, although it could never be quenched by merely dreaming. The next day at breakfast, I was still in the same frame of mind and I put as much delicious looking food into my bowl as I could. I didn’t even concentrate when I began to devour what I had taken; I just wanted to satisfy myself - that was it. Within twenty minutes I had finished, and was feeling as sick as I have ever felt. Someone came to offer me another plate of freshly made Kao-Dtom (Rice porridge), a favourite of mine, and even though my body was telling me that my stomach was full, my mind told me to keep going! After breakfast was over, I felt even more bloated and sick, so much so that the mere thought of the food I had eaten or what was going to come tomorrow, was enough to make my stomach churn. I had a constant image of myself for the rest of the day, as a “opposite-hungry ghost”! I wasn’t hungry anymore but completely bloated! I felt like a dead body that had been left to bloat itself in water for a few days. Now I can sit here and observe it all, but if I had done so at the time I could have saved myself a lot of suffering! Instead I let myself be carried away first by desire and then by aversion! All I had to do was to watch it arise and then watch it pass away. All I had to do was to watch Anicca or impermanence do its job. Notice that it was unsatisfactory (dukkha), and notice that it is not self (anatta). It is like a fish caught in a fisherman’s net, wriggling and squirming, all the while just getting itself more and more tangled.

We learn by observing and noting the way our minds and bodies change. They never stop, not even when we are sleeping. They are constantly being born and constantly dying. Constantly changing, like a swollen river they surge on through. We can either sit on the bank learning in peace and tranquillity, observing and developing wisdom, or we can jump in head first, get swept away and drown.

The Dhamma of the Lord Buddha is referred to as Ehi-passika Dhamma. What this is translated as is, “Dhamma inviting verification”, but what it really means is “come and have a go”. The Buddha invites us to practice, and to experience the Dhamma for ourselves, not just to take someone’s word for it, so what are we waiting for? There is no better time to start than right now.