Ajahn Chah on the Buddha's Middle Way

Ajahn Chah (ajahnchah.org) via Ven. Sujato, Ellie Askew; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Ven. Sujato Bhikkhu, Western Buddhist monk

Walking the Middle Path of the Buddha is arduous and challenging. But reaching its ultimate goal is joyous and satisfying.

There are the extremes of skillful and unskillful (good and bad, profitable and unprofitable). If we are confident, we follow the Buddha's wise guidance.

If we become enraged at someone, we immediately go searching for a stick to attack that person. We have no patient endurance.

If we love someone, we want to caress them from head to toe. Am I right?

These two sidetracks completely miss the middle. This is hardly what the Buddha advised. The Buddha's Teaching, the Dharma, is to gradually put these things down and abandon them.

Samsara (the Wheel of Life and Death) is full of delusion and pain.

.

His path-of-practice is a Middle Way that leads out of continued becoming, toward freedom from rebirth: It is a path free of samsaric duality, birth/death, happiness/unhappiness, good/evil.

Those people who crave continued becoming are blind to what’s in the middle. They fall off the Path on the side of craving happiness then completely pass over the middle on their way to the flip side of disappointment and frustration.

They continually skip over the center. This sacred place is invisible to them as they rush back and forth. They don’t stay in that place where there is no more becoming and no rebirth.

They don’t like it, so they don’t stay. Either they go down out of their home and get bitten by a dog or fly up to get pecked by a vulture. This is existence in samsara [always beset by disappointing, impermanent, and impersonal experiences].

RAW: WHAT AJAHN SAID (translated from Thai) Walking down the Middle Path of the Buddha is arduous and challenging. There are just these two extremes of good and bad. If we believe what they tell us, we have to follow their orders. If we become enraged at someone, we immediately go searching for a stick to attack them. We have no patient endurance. If we love someone we want to caress them from head to toe. Am I right? These two sidetracks completely miss the middle. This is not what the Buddha recommended. His teaching was to gradually put these things down. His practice was a path leading out of existence, away from rebirth -- a path free of becoming, birth, happiness,unhappiness, good, and evil. Those people who crave existence are blind to what’s in the middle.They fall off the Path on the side of happiness and then completely pass over the middle on their way to the other side of dissatisfaction and irritation. They continually skip over the centre. This sacred place is invisible to them as they rush back and forth. They don’t stay in that place where there is no existence and no birth. They don’t like it, so they don’t stay. Either they go down out of their home and get bitten by a dog or fly up to get pecked by a vulture. This is existence.