The Way Things Are

The Middle Way

Seemorerocks

I have just rediscovered this magnificent cartoon which expresses so well my approach to the predicament which we all find ourselves in today.

I had previously showed must to a member of my family and to several friends, who for some reason that I've never been able to fathom, have been deeply offended by what it has to say.

Perhaps it is because it challenges the dominant 'glass half full'/ 'glass half empty' dichotomy and cuts through the bullshit, and, as such, is obviously highly confronting.

I do not even think these responses are conscious.

The above has evinced emotions that are as strong and irrational as the denial that accompanies climate change and collapse of human industrial society, including amongst those, one might think, would know better

The tendency towards either "hopium", on the one hand, or depression and despair, on the other,  is a strong way.

But it does not have to be that way.

The essence of the Buddhist teaching, as expressed in the Buddha's first sermon, is that of the Middle Path. 

A whole book could be written about this and many books have been written about this. 

Expressed as its most simple it boils down to this.

The discovery of the Buddha was that human suffering (or at least psychological suffering) is given rise to by craving of the human mind -  the craving for sensual pleasure, and the  avoidance of unpleasant sensations and experiences.

We are, it is true, hard-wired as animals to avoid physical pain, but as humans capable of reflection, we can work with our own suffering

The Middle Path in Buddhist teaching, consists in neither following sense pleasures nor suppressing 'negative'  sensations, but in seeing them simply as they are.

They are impermanent and not part of who we truly are.

I also like to extend this concept of the Middle Path into explaining the way in which we see things. 

Our western dualist, binary view of the universe divides things into good vs evil, black vs white and our western mind, by and large, cannot conceive of a reality that is neither one thing nor the other.  

Hence, in looking at the world, we are either an optimist or we are a pessimist - either we see the world with its problems in optimistic terms as  "a glass half full", or we are pessimists and see the world as "a glass half empty". 

We are therefore exhorted to give up our 'pessimistic' worldview and replace it with a positive, optimistic worldview - one we are told, will make us happier and healthier.

As an example, I was sent, the other day, a bit of "friendly advice":

"When you take the problems of the world on your shoulders, your body doesn't feel good. It's just that simple. Leave the problems of the world to the individual problem-makers of the world, and you be joy seeker that you are".

As someone who is not a joy (or pleasure?)-seeker and as someone who is not willing to "leave the problems of the world to the individual problem-makers" (stick my head in the sand) I was mildly offended by this "advice"

The fact is that nobody – almost nobody – can see the simple fact that there is a third way, and that is simply to be a realist, to see the world simply AS IT IS, and not as it SHOULD be or as I would like it to be.

This is so outside the norms of western thinking that it is something that is very difficult to achieve. Firstly, one ends up being attacked from both sides. 

It also implies a degree of spiritual development and  the development of a mind that is uncluttered, that does not latch onto artificial concepts, but remains clear like the clear blue sky and is able to reflect the world without distortion.

So the realist does not say "I'm half full" or "I'm half empty" – but simply "I think this is piss.".

The world is simply THE WAY IT IS. 

We, as humans, have been highly successful in the evolutionary ladder and are bound to go the same way as the highly successful species - that is we have  become too plentiful, too successful and have  outstripped the resources available to us.

We are, putting it simply, on the road to extinction as a species

That is neither optimistic nor pessimistic about this.

It is simply the way things are.

The next challenge is to develop the mind so we can accept this set of circumstances and the whole gamut of thoughts, feelings and emotions that this engenders.

We also do this as realists.

Whatever our cluttered, monkey mind throws up, that is simply the way it is.

We neither follow the contents of the mind, nor try to suppress them, but allow things to be as they are. This is, I believe, called letting go.

Getting back to our analogy, remember also that the glass is half full (or half empty, depending on how you want to see it). If it's not full.

To me, that means to me that as human beings we have the potential for great love and compassion, for acts of great courage in the worst of conditions.

I see this as meaning that every one of us has a choice as individuals how we are going to respond to circumstances

As individuals we can choose to act consciously, even if as a species, our  action is largely unconscious.

We have the freedom to respond to extreme events with kindness and compassion - or we can repond with violence and extreme anger - as we are seeing currently in Iraq and Ukraine.

One of my great influences, apart from Buddhism and Buddhist meditation, was Krishnamurti, who taught all the time uncompromisingly about seeing things the way they were and not as they should be.

He also said that humanity, as a species, has not become the slightest bit wiser and he, back in the 1970s, foresaw much of what we are living today.

I will leave you with a wonderful conversation that he and the physicist David Bohm had on the future of humanity.