What is Buddhism? Basics 7 - The Middle Way, the Four Noble Truths, and the Noble Eightfold Paths. - If you understand this part, you will understand the basics of Buddhism. -

 The Middle Way

    The Buddha first taught the essential elements of enlightenment to his old friends. At the time, asceticism, which sharpened the mind by subjecting the body to extreme suffering, was the norm, but to the five companions who had once shared the practice of asceticism, he preached as follows.” One cannot become enlightened by tormenting the body, nor can one become enlightened by indulging in carnal desires.” He likened it to a string on a vina instrument that is too tight and it will break, or too loose and it will not sound good, but only the right amount of tension will produce a good sound. This metaphor for the middle way is very easy to understand, and because it is so easy to understand, many people have come to understand the middle way as a balanced way of life that avoids extremes. It is true that living a balanced life is not an easy task, and it is certainly a big enough challenge in itself. However, if the Buddha had only realized something that everyone could easily understand, he would not have had to worry about whether or not people would understand the contents of his enlightenment from the beginning.

    The Middle Way is the state that Buddha himself attained, or in other words, the state of enlightenment itself. The content of enlightenment revealed in the Twelve Dependent Origination and the state that results from it is the Middle Way. In other words, to reach the Middle Way, one must not adhere to the viewpoint of oneself, but rather, by becoming transcendent, one can realize the interconnectedness and oneness of all things. I believe that such a state of being is the state of the Middle Way. However, the Buddha was troubled by the difficulty of explaining the “Middle Way,” which transcends all relative perspectives, because it is impossible in principle to explain it in “language,” which is based on relative comparative categorization.

    That is why it seems that the Buddha had no choice but to explain the “Middle Way” only to the extent that everyone could understand it anyway.

    As a result, it seems that the true meaning of the Middle Way, which the Buddha attained, was not properly understood even by his disciples after his death. After the Buddha's death, in organizing and categorizing his teachings, the interpretation that certain things had substance was rampant, and such a misunderstanding persisted until the appearance of Nāgārjuna in the second century. Nāgārjuna redefined the Buddha's teaching of the “Middle Way” using the term “śūnya, which means emptiness,” arguing that such a substantivist interpretation was not only contrary to the Buddha's teaching of impermanence and selflessness, but above all to the teaching of the Middle Way.

    He taught that everything consists of relationships and has no substance of its own, and that in order to recognize this, it is essential to have a higher perspective that transcends all perspectives without depending on any one of them. In other words, from assuming one perspective of oneself, many things that are in opposition to oneself are assumed, and the endless competition for survival with them begins. If we do not adhere to one viewpoint, we will not perceive many things other than ourself as opponents, but rather, we will feel a fundamental connection with them. Therefore, if we do not assume or get caught up in the viewpoint of self from the beginning, there will be no competition for survival with many others that starts there, nor will there be suffering that arises from the desire for survival of self only as a delusion.

   Thus, it is precisely the condition of transcending all particular viewpoints without being fixed on one's own viewpoint that the Buddha was trying to convey with the term “middle way.

Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path

    Thus, the competition for survival and attachment confusion with others that results from attachment to the viewpoint of self brings suffering.

    Therefore, for those who do not know the Middle Way and are attached to the viewpoint of self, (1) the world is suffering, (2) the cause of suffering is the desire of self as delusion, (3) if the cause is removed, suffering will disappear, and (4) the way to remove the cause is the Middle Way which means to leave the viewpoint of self and think about the connection and unity with all others. Specifically, we must always remain in the state of the “middle way” (i.e., leaving the perspective of oneself and focusing on the connection and oneness with all others) in the following eight actions: (1) how we see things, (2) how we think, (3) how we speak, (4) what we do, (5) how we live, (6) our efforts, (7) our awareness, and (8) how we focus our minds. The first four truths (1), (2), (3), and (4) are called the “Four Noble Truths,” and the eight right paths (1), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), and (8) that follow them are called the “Noble Eightfold Path. Then what is the right path? As mentioned earlier, it is the “Middle Way,” which does not adhere to any particular viewpoint of oneself, but transcends it. Therefore, the famous “Four Noble Truths” and the “Noble Eightfold Path” must all be understood from the perspective of the “Middle Way,” or else we will lose sight of their true meaning.

#TheMiddleWay #Madhyamā-pratipad #Sarvāstivādin #Nāgārjuna #śūnya

#Four Noble Truths #catur-ārya-satya #NobleEightfoldPath #āryāṣṭāṅgamārga