Avoiding the Extremes Opens the Middle Way to Peace!
There are, friends, these two extremes, which not should be
practiced
by any, who has initiated purification: The hunt for sensual
pleasures,
which is low, vulgar, the common way of ordinary worldlings,
ignoble,
disadvantageous; and any practice of self-torture, which also
is quite
painful, ignoble, and rather disadvantageous! Without veering
towards
either of these extremes, the well-gone-beyond Buddha has
awakened
to the Middle Way, which leads to assured vision, to direct
knowledge,
which leads to ease, to peace, to certain understanding, to
Enlightenment,
to Nibbāna. And what is that Middle Way, awakened to by the
Buddha,
which leads to assured vision, to direct knowledge, which
leads to ease,
to peace, to certain understanding, to Enlightenment, to
Nibbāna ?
It is this very Noble 8-fold Way: That is
Right View
Right Motivation
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
Right Effort
Right Awareness
Right Concentration
That is indeed the very Middle Way, awakened to by the
Blessed Buddha,
which leads to assured vision, to direct knowledge, which
leads to ease,
to certain understanding, to Peace, to Bliss, to
Enlightenment, to Nibbāna...
Source:
The Grouped Sayings of the Buddha. Samyutta Nikaya. Book IV
[330-1]
Section 42: On The 6 Senses. Rasiya: 12.
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