WALKING THE MIDDLE WAY
~ FREEDOM FROM THE BURDENS OF LIFE ~
The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, colloquially known as The Middle Way, is a direct and unified journey towards the liberation from all levels and all forms of psychophysical suffering (dukkha).
Built upon mental-development (bhāvanā) and ensuing insight (vipassanā), The Middle Way sets out to accomplish the exalted task of achieving our human birthright, the freedom from suffering, by illuminating ultimate reality via the light of mindful awareness (sati). A reality, typically, obscured by the mind’s conditioned drives to seek its own security.
This search for security expresses itself in myriad forms as the mind attempts to curate existence according to its preferences for pleasure and aversion to pain. Based upon the feeling tones (vedanā) of experience, the mind strategically adheres to a dualistic worldview including, but not limited to, the conceptual dualities of pleasure/pain, good/bad, positive/negative, comfort/discomfort.
Although efficient for the survival of the physical body the inefficient psychological outcome of this survival strategy is the arising of suffering, whilst simultaneously rendering the truths of ultimate reality imperceptible and thus ensuring a future ladened with suffering through the continued misperception of reality. In turn, our precious human lives are lived out through the medium of a dualistic (pseudo) reality constructed by the mind’s enslavement to feeling tones (vedanā). An existence inherently burdened with untold forms of mental anguish (dukkha).
Seeing this for himself, within himself, the Buddha-to-be set out to discover a path beyond duality. The result of his courageous efforts gave rise to The Middle Way. An equanimous middle path designed to reawaken the mind’s innate awakened nature, and a template for living available to all beings willing to commit to the process with ardent dedication.
In this two-part workshop series we will integrate Buddhist mindfulness meditation (satipatthāna vipassanā) with the practice of Yin Yoga, using the fertile medium of passive stillness to calm the mind and reawaken the objective awareness necessary for the empirical investigation of psychophysical phenomena. Thus seeing for ourselves the truths of ultimate reality, our collective efforts will lead each of us to the trailhead of the Buddha’s Middle Path, initiating our journey towards liberation from the prison of duality.
Each workshop includes a Dhamma talk and experiential practice, integrating the supportive intellectual understanding of the Buddha’s teachings (Dhamma) with the imperative experiential witnessing of ultimate reality.
For more information and registration please visit: https://jetyoga.nl/
SESSION 1: THE TEACHINGS OF COMFORT
In our first session we discuss and experience the neurosurvival mechanism which we have collectively inherited from our animal ancestors and, how, as a result of it our conditioned relationship to the unpleasant feeling tones of experience (vedanā), such as discomfort and pain, routinely gives rise to our psychospiritual suffering.
Through our continued intellectual and empirical work we will witness, however, that this need not be the case. That mental suffering is not an intrinsic aspect of pain, discomfort and the unpleasant phenomena of life. Seeing this for ourselves we gift ourselves the auspicious opportunity to step upon The Middle Way, empowering the mind to meet the unpleasant feeling tones of our human experience free from mental agitation (dukkha).
This session carries with it the potential to catalyze a radical shift in one’s relationship to discomfort and pain. And, if there were just one Dhammic gift Whit could impart with all beings, The Teachings of Discomfort would be it.
For as we share this privileged experience of aging together, the endemic aches and pains of lives lived within fragile bodies will be unavoidable. However, this does not imply we must endure suffering alongside the discomforts, and it is most certainly within each our innate capabilities to gift to ourselves, and the world, an awakened mind capable of holding space with equanimity for the unpleasant phenomena intrinsic to life.
SESSION 2: THE TEACHINGS OF COMFORT
In the second session of our journey towards walking The Middle Path we will discuss and experience for ourselves the ultimate reality regarding the opposing end of the dualistic spectrum to which the conditioned mind becomes enslaved - the pleasant phenomena.
In a contemporary society built upon the attainment and enjoyment of pleasure, comfort and the unceasing pursuit of that which feels, tastes, sounds, smells and looks pleasing, heeding the Buddha’s council and warnings regarding the pursuit of comfort may, at first, be met with skepticism, even disdain, by the conditioned mind. Nonetheless, in order to liberate the mind and attain our birthright to be free from all forms of suffering, the subtle, yet painful, side of pleasant feeling tones (vedanā) must be seen clearly.
Once applied through practice The Teachings of Comfort begin to implant themselves experientially within the mind, reawakening the innate wisdom that sees clearly the burdens associated with the infatuation with pleasant feeling tones. This realization carries the potential to catalyze a spontaneous awakening of mind, propelling our lives away from the cyclical extremism of duality and towards the equanimous refuge found upon The Middle Way.
The culmination of our workshop series will impart within each practitioner a comprehensive intellectual, and most importantly experiential, understanding of the dualistic pseudo-reality within which the conditioned mind exists. Why this approach leads to a life coloured by discontent and dissatisfaction (dukkha). And how, through a commitment to practice we, just like the Buddha before us, may walk the balanced life path free from all problems and suffering.