Middle Way
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Search complete. 104 mentions across 25 episodes found for "Middle Way".
Sep 12, 2026
Thich Nhat HanhSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Because mindfulness, concentration, and insight is a backbone of the Buddhist teaching.
Thich Nhat HanhSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
And when we have collective insight, and that will help us see the Middle Path that will lead to the cessation of suffering, not only for one person, for all of us.
Thich Nhat HanhSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
So please reflect on this.
Thich Nhat HanhSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
The path of the Buddha is the Middle Path.
Thich Nhat HanhSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
The path that is not caught either by the idea of consequence, nor the idea of rigid goodness.
Thich Nhat HanhSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Because we know that goodness and good and evil are not objective reality.
Daniela BomatterHOST
Yeah, I would say catastrophe and dystopia is on one side, on the other is authoritarianism.
Daniela BomatterHOST
It's like the middle way.
Daniela BomatterHOST
We will talk about the middle way probably between the two.
Daniela BomatterHOST
And this, by the way, today is my 60th conversation about this topic.
Daniela BomatterHOST
So it's very interesting how it has developed.
Daniela BomatterHOST
And I was very much looking forward to talk to you because I don't know a lot about the middle way, but I got a feeling that there must be quite a lot of overlap between what we call, what I call the third attractor.
Daniela BomatterHOST
It's a term, it's not my term, by the way, it's a term that I got from Daniel Schmachtenberger, who was speaking about this.
Daniela BomatterHOST
But I felt like it would be interesting to see where the middle way and the third attractor probably cross paths, where they overlap and where they don't, and what we might be able to learn from each other.
Nathan GlydeHOST
Yeah.
Nathan GlydeHOST
That middle way of care, that middle way.
Nathan GlydeHOST
And so the dana, the financial support, really important when we come to an event like this, that it's supported and, you know, we support the survival of organizations like Sangha Live and like those like myself who come here to support these sessions.
Nathan GlydeHOST
But also there is the gift of non-harming.
Shiryū MoeGUEST
Just like the rose, it's about intimacy.
Shiryū MoeGUEST
Reb tells us that Dogen's poem celebrates the middle way.
Shiryū MoeGUEST
The middle way that passes freely through ever-changing particular phenomena and ever-changing universal principle.
Shiryū MoeGUEST
The seasons and weather are constantly changing, and yet red is just red.
Shiryū MoeGUEST
Our lives are in constant flux, and yet kindness is universal, and each person needs to actualize their own authentic way of being kind.
Shiryū MoeGUEST
Imagine if all the flowers in the world were red roses, if all the trees in the world were cedar trees.
Shiryū MoeGUEST
How awful would that be? Imagine if every monk was a Yangshan, if all persons get conditioned to act the same, even at the expense of their true innermost nature.
Shiryū MoeGUEST
Dogen also taught that practice and realization are one and the same, which I think is another way of celebrating the middle way in how we practice.
GaryUNKNOWN
Uh, I'm glad you mentioned not overdoing it.
GaryUNKNOWN
Uh, you know, [clears throat] according to Pali Canon, the first Dharma talk before Shakyamuni Buddha even got around to talking about the Four Noble Truths, he talked about the Middle Way.
GaryUNKNOWN
Uh, so I'm curious, uh, how you feel about the importance of the Middle Way in practicing, well, all of this actually.
GaryUNKNOWN
Like, for example, is it always a good idea to come closer?
Peter OvertonGUEST
Not always.
Peter OvertonGUEST
[audience laughing] I think the Middle Way pretty much sums it up, uh, when it comes to, uh, come, coming closer and any of the things I've mentioned thus far.
Peter OvertonGUEST
It's kind of like we want to do something, but the very concept of doing might be going too far.
Peter OvertonGUEST
Or we feel the impulse to speak, but we don't do...
Pascal AuclairGUEST
Another extreme would be complete identification with the body.
Pascal AuclairGUEST
And as Anushka suggested, here we're practicing the middle path between extremes.
Pascal AuclairGUEST
So we're not in the extreme of denial of body, and we're not in the extreme of absolute identification.
Pascal AuclairGUEST
We're just recognizing factually, there's a body here.
6 MINS LATER
Pascal AuclairGUEST
Very natural.
Pascal AuclairGUEST
Not rejecting nor clinging.
Pascal AuclairGUEST
That's the middle path.
Pascal AuclairGUEST
Not rejecting or denying,
Bhante JoeHOST
Because the Buddhist path is said to be a Majjhima Patipada.
Bhante JoeHOST
It's a middle path, not a middle path in terms of it's the easy path of averages, but it's the path that's most effective because just like in chemistry, when we mix two chemicals together, it creates a reaction.
Bhante JoeHOST
when we take the various elements of the Buddhist path and apply them at the right time, the right place, in the right proportion, then they create a movement forward that's greater than one expected.
Bhante JoeHOST
So this simple recommendation that we got when we were young monks to know time and place, know the right time to speak, the right time to remain silent, the right time to give a gift, Know the right time to cultivate serenity.
Andy BaconHOST
Anything else you need to say about the story?
Emma BaconHOST
Yeah, I think when I look at Buddha, the thing that I think of most of all is the term the middle path.
Andy BaconHOST
Yeah.
Emma BaconHOST
Because it was at that point... where he reached enlightenment, he'd come away from this idea of giving everything up that he then came to this middle path.
Emma BaconHOST
And when we think about the middle path, we're thinking, I relate that to sattva, I relate that to balance, to compassion, to understanding.
Emma BaconHOST
It's interesting though, isn't it? Because as I say this, and I'm thinking, well, hold on a minute, because...
Emma BaconHOST
Non-attachment and middle path, how do they go together? But I think when you understand about sattva, which we've done a podcast before about the three gunas, tamas, rajas and sattva.
Emma BaconHOST
And sattva is the middle.
Addison AndersonNARRATOR
In a flash, he realized that looking for answers at the extremes was a mistake.
Addison AndersonNARRATOR
The middle way between luxury and poverty seemed wisest.
Addison AndersonNARRATOR
And while meditating under a Bodhi tree, the rest of the answer came to him.
Addison AndersonNARRATOR
All of life abounds with suffering.
speaker_8NARRATOR
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
speaker_8NARRATOR
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Sermons of a Buddhist Abbott by Soyen Shaku Translated by Desetsu Teltaro Suzuki The Middle Way hung jen the fifth patriarch of the diana sect in china who died in sixteen seventy five a d had many disciples one day he made an announcement to them saying that whoever was capable of giving a satisfactory proof of his thorough comprehension of buddhism would succeed him in religious authority and its outcome was the following two stanzas the first by one of his most learned disciples and the second by his humble rice-pounder who however was awarded the prize and came to be known later as the sixth patriarch The body is the holy Bodhi tree.
speaker_8NARRATOR
The mind is like a mirror shining bright.
speaker_8NARRATOR
Exert yourself to keep them always clean, and never let the dust accumulate.
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