The Middle Way
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Thusness sent me links to the following two videos, though I can't watch it now as I can't install adobe flash in camp.
http://kiloby.com/videos.php?offset=0&videoid=276
NEW The Middle Way, Part 1
The Middle Way is freedom from dualistic extremes. It is freedom from fixed viewpoints about yourself, others, and the world. But it is also freedom from fixed viewpoints that there is no self, no other, and no world. It is freedom from fixed views such as "everything exists separately" and "nothing exists." Freedom from "I am a separate person" and from "All is Oneness," as fixed views. It is freedom from personal viewpoints and impersonal viewpoints. It is freedom from relying exclusively on thinking in your life. Yet it is freedom from denying thought altogether. The Middle Way is, ultimately, the view of this site and Scott's message. Scott's Living Realization text is a Middle Way view. When you have no fixed conception of reality, every viewpoint is allowed to be just as it is. You are not stuck in the belief in separation, yet you do not deny conventional existence. All of this may or may not sound really heavy, conceptual, or transcendent, but it is what the great traditions have talked about for centuries. In Zen, it is the "return to the marketplace." In Advaita, it is Shankara's "Brahman is the World." And in Buddhism, it is the Middle Way. In the Middle Way, love, compassion, joy, peace, and freedom are your constant companions.
NEW The Middle Way, Part 2
Second video in a two part series, view Part 1 first
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Hi AEN, My intention isn’t about the middle path as Scott Kiloby’s explanation isn’t really clear yet. However what is important about the 2 videos is the pointing out of the disease of extrapolating direct experience of non-dual into Global Awareness. The wrong view has the natural tendency of transforming whatever experience into extremes. Realizing the anatta and empty nature of all arising simply liberates them. All diversities are still intact; individual stream of consciousness remains as individual stream of consciousness, there is no collapsing of diversities into One Global Awareness. Experience however is seamlessly whole, non-dual, gapless, stainless and liberating. The experience remains, the view is refined. :)
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I see... thanks for sharing this interesting video.
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In the Middle Way, love, compassion, joy, peace, and freedom are your constant companions
Yes, it is. The entire cosmos is love, compassion, joy, peace, and freedom of serenity bliss
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Originally posted by Amitayus48:
Yes, it is. The entire cosmos is love, compassion, joy, peace, and freedom of serenity bliss
Hi Amitayus,
'What is' cannot really be defined.
The natural tendency is for the mind to find a fixed viewpoint/position, even of transcendental experiences.
So 'what really is' is simply open-ended... There is no way to define it.
Liberating is in keeping it open-ended... there is no definition of any experience as cosmic consciousness, oneness, God, non-duality, emptiness, individual self, etc. All these definitions are just the mind grasping at what is being experienced. It is not letting 'what is' be undefinable...
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Originally posted by Amitayus48:
Yes, it is. The entire cosmos is love, compassion, joy, peace, and freedom of serenity bliss
The nature of reality does not only apply to good emotions.
As the sutra states:
"Good sons, all hindrances are none other than ultimate enlightenment. Whether you attain mindfulness or lose mindfulness, there is no non-liberation. Establishing the Dharma and refuting the Dharma are both called nirvana; wisdom and folly are equally prajna; the method that is perfected by bodhisattvas and false teachers is the same bodhi; ignorance and suchness are not different realms; morality, concentration and wisdom, as well as desire, hatred and ignorance are all divine practices; sentient beings and lands share the same dharma nature; hell and heaven are both the Pure Land; those having Buddha-nature and those not having it equally accomplish the Buddha's enlightenment. All defilements are ultimately liberation. The reality-realms's ocean-like wisdom completely illumines all marks to be just like empty space. This is called 'the Tath�gata's accordance with the nature of enlightenment.' "
~ The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment
note: it does not mean we should remain ignorant, deluded, and suffer... it just means the nature of reality exhibits itself in all experiences.
Anger is equally luminous and empty as compassion. Suffering is equally luminous and empty as peace and freedom.
As an arising sound, thought, feeling, sight, taste, etc... everything is of one taste, luminous and empty.
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i thought i tie the middle view to turbidity of views, especially Prejudiced views è¾¹è§�(ä¸�å�ˆä¸é�“), and 'grasping at views' è§�å�–è§�(é�žæžœè®¡æžœ) .
"The second turbidity is views. In the past, people saw everything as clean. But when the turbid kalpa arrives, people see things as unclean. The turbidity of views is composed of the Five Quick Servants: A view of the body, prejudiced views, views of prohibitions, views of views, and deviant views.
"The view of a body: all living beings are attached to having bodies. They love their bodies. 'I certainly have to take care of myself. I can't let anything happen to me.' They look upon their own bodies as extremely important. They want to wear good clothes, eat good food, live in a good place. They always look upon their bodies as priceless gems. Right, your body is a priceless gem, but if you misuse it, your priceless gem turns into something not even as good as excrement. Why? Because you tend only to its superficial aspects, and don't discover the true gem of you self-nature. All you know is that your body is yours, and you can't put it down. From morning to night you are busy on behalf of your body. That's the view of a body. 身�(执身是我)
"Prejudiced views for one side or the other. If you don't favor emptiness, then you favor existence. In general, it means not being in accord with the Middle Way. è¾¹è§�(ä¸�å�ˆä¸é�“)
"The third 'quick servant' is the view of prohibitions. Precepts an turn into something bad when they are based on mistaking for a cause something that is not a cause. Such a mistake leads to the cultivation of unbeneficial ascetic practices. I explained earlier how some people imitate the habits of cows or dogs, or sleep on beds of nails, or undertake other unbeneficial ascetic practices. People who do this have a view of prohibitions. 'See me,' they think, 'I hold precepts.l None of you can do what I do; you can't compare to me.' They always have this arrogance in their minds. 戒ç¦�å�–è§�(守牛狗戒ã€�é�žå› è®¡å› )
"The fourth is the 'view of views', or 'grasping at views'. This is to mistake for an effect something that is not an effect. People with this problem think that they have obtained effects which they have not obtained. ���(�果计果)
"The fifth is deviant views. People with deviant knowledge and views are always thinking about things in an improper way. These are the Five Quick Servants, which comprise the turbidity of views.
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