The
Middle Path
Yin & Yang are what happens when activity comes from
- Wu
Wu, is the void where Yin & Yang come from.
Buddha's prescription for the cure for suffering is - to walk the middle path.
The central head is the mask of
eternity - this is the mask of God. That is the metaphor through which
eternity is to be experienced as a
radiance . (These other 2 figures)
Whenever one moves out of the transcendent one comes into a field of
opposites.
These 2 pairs of opposites come forth as male and female from the two sides.
One has eaten of the
tree of the knowledge, not only of
good and evil, but of
male and female, of right and wrong, of this and that, and light and dark.
Everything in the field of time is dual. The past and future, dead and
alive, all this; being and non-being, is - isn't.
The mask represents the middle and
the 2 represent the 2
opposites, and they always come in pairs. Put your
mind in the middle. Most of us put our mind on the side of the good
against what we think of as evil. It was
Heraclitus I think that said
for
God all things are good and right and just, but for man some things are right
and others are not. You're in the field of time when you're man, and one
of the problems of life is to live in the realization of both terms.
That
is to say I know the centre and I know that
good and evil are simply temporal
aberritions.
The
perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose. Do not like, do not
dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and
earth are set apart; if you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be
for or against. The struggle between “for” and “against” is the mind’s worst
disease.
Keep
in the middle … Buddha developed his whole technique of meditation on this
sutra. His path is known as majjhim nikai – the middle path. Buddha says,
“Remain always in the middle – in everything.”
…
Japanese temple in
As long as we’re hanging on to the ego, and fear, and desire – hanging on to our own personal problems – we’re not hearing the voice of the universe. So, relax. I’m reminded of a picture showing the figure of Death playing the violin to the artist. Let Death talk to you and you break out of your ego pride. That means you’ve got to put your head in the mouth of the lion. Face the real experience of today. Don’t reread it in terms of past experiences. TMTT 204