The fullness of life blossoms along the middle-path. As I mindfully walk along the middle-path, I get to experience life in all its glory. By walking the middle path, there is no compromising of experience, as the word “middle” may seem to suggest; the middle way is where the full wealth of life lies.
The middle-way is not a specific path. It is not an anxiously calculated, exact average or any point between two extremes. It is not a pathway to meticulously lay out on the perfect map. It is not a specific position between two positions on a spectrum of beliefs. These are external and superficial to what the middle path truly is. The middle-way is something that is experienced within, from a feeling of balance that is sensed intuitively and in an organic way.
Anxiety to obtain perfect balance, to find an exact middle, is just another extreme—another form of one-sidedness. The extremes are a harsh form of purity which could be on either end of a spectrum, in the middle, or anywhere along it. All the effort to calculate an exact position or path in life is stressful on the body because it is attached to an external answer.
The extremes in life thirst relentlessly for certainty—it is felt as definitiveness, rigidity, and righteousness. It is carried as a hefty sack of attachments on one’s back, that keeps one’s head narrowly pointed downward on a singular path ahead, rather than open up to the landscape.
All that sureness that exists in the extremes cramps one’s ability to inhale and exhale calmly along the journey of life, stifling the ability to take full breaths and take in all of life. These breaths not only needed to experience life, but to fully access intuition. When we breathe well, we see well.
To get to the middle-way, look within, rather than without. Wherever extremism is, it is felt as a heavy energy, one that suffocates life. Wherever the middle-way is, it is felt as a light energy—one that allows space for intuition to arise. It is not a lax energy; instead, it keeps focus, and mindfully persists with a soft grace, rather than exhaust itself with harshness.
The middle-way’s true center is found in ourselves, rather than outside ourselves. When I find my center within, my actions naturally become moderate and reasonable, for they are in line with intuition. When I am driven by anxiety, self-criticalness, and attachment, this is when my actions become extreme. They arise from the abyss of desperation, rather than from the well of one’s center. When I show myself compassion, the energy with which I treat myself naturally become lighter, and the middle-way opens back up as I am brought closer to my center.
I may travel a path in my external life, I may choose a belief on a spectrum of beliefs—there is nothing wrong with these these actions, and in fact they are a part of life. In the middle way, there are times to choose stronger positions and beliefs, and times to choose milder ones. It is primarily my attitude that determines whether I act from extremism or from my center, not as much the specific path or belief in themselves. It is the energy that I carry in myself and with I treat others that primarily determines true moderacy and temperance.
Whenever I am extreme, I paradoxically end up feeling compromised and lacking within. Whenever I am at my center, thus following the middle way, I naturally feel complete and full.
