Study the first 5 chapters of Chandrakirti’s Introduction to the Middle Way
• listen to a weekly teaching by Khenpo Tashi Tsering of Namdroling Monastery
• discuss the meaning with fellow dharma students.

When: 7.00-8.15pm AEST each week from Monday 4 Sep - Mon 18 Dec. (11am CET, 5.00am US East Coast)
https://tmp.rigpashedra.org/

#khenpotashiTsering #namdroling #chandrakirti #middleway #madhyamaka #bodhicitta
#TibetanBuddhism #Philosophy #spirituality #shedra

Yes, it is just a meme & ment as a pun/joke 😉
When we look into his life story in more detail: Zen master Ikkyü showhed us that as a Buddhist it is good to walk/practice/act according the middle way, and sometimes it might appear as extreme, but its wierd looking actions can connect us to our inner rebel... 😇🙏🪢

#buddhism #middleway #rebel #dharma #ikkyu

"What happens to us is that whatever appears to our mind seems to have its own independent objective existence, and we need to check whether things exist in that way or not. And in that critical analysis we should try to search for emptiness... With the reasoning of dependent origination, we are able to dispel both the extremes of #nihilism and eternalism." - His Holiness the #DalaiLama

#HHDL #Buddhism #MiddleWay

Saturday May 6, 6-8pm and 10pm-12midnight & Sunday May 7, 6-8pm. Australian Eastern Standard Time
The Manjushri empowerment: Sunday May 7, 2pm-4pm European Central Time exclusively on site.
Online participation: live or time-shifted as video-on-demand.

https://pretix.eu/rigpa/LR-23/
 
#lingrinpoche #Buddhism #TibetanBuddhism #prajnaparamita #manjushri
#wisdom #contemplativescience #philosophy #middleway #contemplation
#drepung

I wonder what it is about the human condition that makes our default setting to drift toward extreme perspectives? According to Russell Stewart in his book Human Compatible, social media platforms have definitely helped with this. People with extreme views are more predictable, making it easier to put clickable content in front of them. Therefore, the platforms drive us toward more extreme positions because it is more profitable for them.
#middleway #balance #calm

"The brighter the light, the blacker the shadow" - Carl Jung (1950)

#Quote #HsiangSheng #Taoism #MiddleWay #Zen #Buddhism

How to find the middle way

At the beginning of last year I wrote about how everything is connected, everything is changing, and how you might just need to pay attention, and the dredger out on the Fens. It was in our local newspaper, so you won't have seen it. My follow on below didn't make it into the rag this year, so here it is...

Here is another dredger, disguised as a fishing boat, banked up in Wells-next-the-sea at the year's turn, the photo was taken by D Bradley.

In that photo, the idealist might see a scene of colour, a picture to hang, and assume those boats will do what they do tomorrow, and fish (and chips) will appear in the shop.

The materialist will know the tide is coming and set those boats free into their respective jobs, fuelled with diesel, with engines serviced with the right amount of oil, ready to keep the waterway open and the fish supply open for net profit.

It seems that the serious modern world is, for many people, about creating and highlighting division, and about winning. Idealists vs materialists, rights vs lefts, strikers vs travellers, in-the-office vs work-from-home, royals vs not-so-much, winners vs losers. The list goes on…

Is it possible to see both views through the eyes of a middle way, a kind of quality way of looking at things? I think so. The hardest-held views are the most brittle, the most likely to crack. Maybe it is time to soften up those opinions. Nobody has won if someone else loses. Remember, everything is connected. And no, I am not saying you should avoid trying to win at sport, or working as hard as you can, you can be stoic. But, imagine if you could do that and still bring your ‘opponents’ with you, congratulate them, see their world, teach them something, and learn from them.

My view is we need to seriously stop being so serious. We need to lighten our touch. The harshness of mass layoffs, driving certain knowledge into children at a younger and younger age and extending that further, the diminishing of play (could we risk a little bit of playing in the snow!?) are all detrimental to humanity. So too our increasing reliance on technology to make important decisions for us, the accusatory finger pointing at those in the spotlight, the applause for the failures of others, and a general sense of growing hatred in some quarters.

This brings me to a quote from Alan Watts: 'Real religion is the transformation of anxiety into laughter'. A non-secular spin on that would be to say ‘real life is the transformation of anxiety into laughter’. If you are succeeding at that, then my hat is duly tipped your way!

A Stewart

Other quotations from Alan Watts, you might enjoy:

'We do not dance to reach a certain point on the floor, but simply to dance'

'When no risk is taken, there is no freedom'

#middleway #division #zen

#poem by @shonin Risa Bear. #poetry #aging #grief #MiddleWay

"Before sorrow, anger, longing, or fear have arisen, you are in the center.
When emotions appear and you know how to see through them, you are in harmony.
The center is the root of the universe; that harmony is the Tao, which reaches out to all things.

Once you find the center and achieve harmony, heaven and earth take their proper places and all things are fully nourished." - from the Zhonhyong. trans. by Steven Mitchell

#Taoism #Tao #philosophy #quote #MiddleWay

Explaining 'the middle way' to my son.

Dad: There is a middle way between video games all day and no video games at all. No video games is an extreme. Video games all day is an extreme. Some video games is 'the middle way.' #middleway #taoism #philosophy

It's not everything is black and white. If you can really #reaslise it.
You will have more peaceful mind in your life.
- This is the idea probably #Buddha talked about with #middlepath #middleway.