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.