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| − | The [[Middle Way]] or [[Middle Path]] ([[Pali]] : majjhimā paṭipadā; [[Sanskrit]] : madhyamā-pratipad; [[Wikipedia:Chinese|Chinese]] : 中道 zhōngdào; {{Wiki|Japanese}} : 中道 chūdō) is the term that [[Siddhartha Gautama]] used to describe the character of the [[path]] he discovered that leads to [[liberation]] .
| + | #REDIRECT [[Middle Way]] |
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| − | In [[Mahayana]] [[Buddhism]] , the [[Middle Way]] refers to the [[insight]] into [[emptiness]] that transcends opposite statements about existence.
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| − | ==[[Theravada]] ==
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| − | In the [[Pali Canon]] of [[Theravada Buddhism]] , the expression ''[[Middle Way]] '' is used by the [[Buddha]] in his first discourse (the ''[[Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta]] '') to describe the [[Noble Eightfold Path]] as a [[path]] between the extremes of austerities and sensual indulgence.
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| − | Later [[Pali literature]] has also used the phrase ''[[Middle Way]] '' to refer to the [[Buddha]] 's teaching of [[dependent origination]] as a view between the extremes of eternalism and [[Wikipedia:annihilationism|annihilationism]] .
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| − | === [[Noble Eightfold Path]] ===
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| − | {{Main|Noble Eightfold Path}}
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| − | The term ''[[Middle Way]] '' was used in the [[Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta]] , the first teaching that the [[Buddha]] delivered after his [[awakening]] . In this [[sutta]] the [[Buddha]] describes the [[middle way]] as a [[path]] of moderation, between the extremes of sensual indulgence and [[self]] -mortification. This, according to him, was the [[path]] of [[Prajna]].
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| − | :[[Monks]] , these two extremes ought not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the household [[life]] . (What are the two?) There is addiction to indulgence of sense-pleasures, which is low, coarse, the way of ordinary people, unworthy, and unprofitable; and there is addiction to [[self]] -mortification, which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable.<br>
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| − | Avoiding both these extremes, the [[Tathagata]] (the Perfect One) has [[realized]] the [[Middle Path]] ; it gives vision, gives [[knowledge]] , and leads to calm, to [[insight]] , to [[enlightenment]] and to [[Nirvana]] |[[Nibbana]] . And what is that [[Middle Path]] [[realized]] by the [[Tathagata]] ...? It is the [[Noble Eightfold Path]] |[[Noble Eightfold path]] , and [[nothing]] else, namely: [[right understanding]] , [[right thought]] , [[right speech]] , [[right action]] , [[right livelihood]] , [[right effort]] , [[right mindfulness]] and [[right concentration]] .
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| − | According to the scriptural account, when the [[Buddha]] delivered the [[Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta]] , he was addressing [[five ascetics]] with whom he had previously practiced severe austerities. Thus, it is this personal context as well as the broader context of [[Indian]] [[Shramana|shramanic]] practices that gives particular relevancy to the caveat against the extreme ([[Pali]] : ''antā'') of [[self]] -mortification ([[Pali]] : ''[[atta]] -kilamatha'').
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| − | ===[[Dependent Origination]] ===
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| − | {{Main|Dependent Origination}}
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| − | [[Dependent Origination]] ([[Pratītyasamutpāda]]) describes the existence of objects and [[phenomena]] as the result of causes. When one of these causes changes or disappears, the resulting object or [[phenomena]] will also change or disappear, as will the objects or [[phenomena]] depending on the changing object or [[phenomena]] . Thus, there is [[nothing]] with an eternal [[self]] or [[atman]] , only mutually [[dependent origination]] and existence.
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| − | But the absence of an eternal [[atman]] does not mean there is ''no-thing'' at all. [[Early Buddhism]] adheres to a realistic approach which does not deny existence as such, but denies the existence of eternal and independent substances. This view is the ''[[Middle Way]] '' between ''eternalism'' and ''[[Wikipedia:annihilationism|annihilationism]] '':
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| − | :The understanding that sees a 'person' as subsisting in the causal connectedness of [[dependent arising]] is often presented in [[Buddhist]] [[thought]] as 'the middle' (''madhyama/majjhima'') between the views of 'eternalism' (''śaśvata-/[[sassata-vāda]]'') and '[[Wikipedia:annihilationism|annihilationism]] ' (''[[uccheda-vāda]]'').
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| − | ===[[Anatman]] ===
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| − | [[Dependent origination]] views human persons too as devoid of a personal essence or [[atman]] . In [[Theravadan]] literature, this usage of the term "[[Middle Way]] " can be found in 5th century CE [[atthakatha|Pali commentaries]]:
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| − | :The [[Gautama Buddha|Tathāgata]] teaches the [[Dhamma]] by the middle without veering to either of these extremes – eternalism or [[Wikipedia:annihilationism|annihilationism]] – having abandoned them without reservation. He teaches while being established in the [[middle way]] . What is that [[Dhamma]] ? By the formula of [[dependent origination]] , the effect is shown to occur through the cause and to cease with the [[cessation]] of the cause, but no agent or experiencer [...] is described.
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| − | In the [[Visuddhimagga]] the following is found :
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| − | :'[[Dependent origination]] ' (''[[paticca-samuppada]]'') represents the [[middle way]] , which rejects the [[doctrines]] , 'He who acts is he who reaps' and 'One acts while another reaps' (S.ii.20) ..."
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| − | In the [[Pali Canon]] itself, this view is not explicitly called the "[[Middle Way]] " but is literally referred to as "teaching by the middle" (''majjhena [[dhamma]] '').
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| − | ===[[Rebirth]] ===
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| − | Conditioned arising also gives a rationale for [[Rebirth]]:
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| − | :Conditioned Arising is [...] a '[[Middle Way]] ' which avoids the extremes of 'eternalism' and '[[Wikipedia:annihilationism|annihilationism]] ': the survival of an eternal [[self]] , or the total annihilation of a person at [[death]] .
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| − | In [[Theravada]] [[Buddhist]] {{Wiki|soteriology}}, there is neither a permanent [[self]] nor complete annihilation of the 'person' at [[death]] ; there is only the arising and ceasing of causally related [[phenomena]] .
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| − | Conditioned arising also describes the twelve factors of conditioned origin of [[suffering]] (''[[dukkha]] '') leading to [[rebirth]] , from [[ignorance]] (''[[avijja]] '') to aging and [[death]] (''[[jaramarana]] ''), and the parallel reverse-order interdependent [[cessation]] of these factors (see [[Dependent Origination]] and [[Twelve Nidanas]] ).
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| − | == [[Mahayana]] ==
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| − | ===[[Madhyamaka]] ===
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| − | In [[Mahayana]] [[Buddhism]] , the [[Madhyamaka]] ("[[Middle Way]] ") school posits a "[[middle way]] " position between [[metaphysical]] claims that things ultimately either exist or do not exist. [[Nagarjuna]]'s influential [[Mūlamadhyamakakārikā|Verses on the Middle Way]] deconstructs the usage of terms describing [[reality]] , leading to the [[insight]] into [[Sunyata|emptiness]] . it contains one reference to a [[sutta]] by the [[Buddha]] himself, namely the [[Samyutta Nikaya]] 's ''Kacc{{IAST|ā}}yanagotta [[Sutta]] '':
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| − | 'Everything exists': That is one extreme. <br>
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| − | 'Everything doesn't exist': That is a second extreme. <br>
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| − | Avoiding these two extremes, <br>
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| − | The [[Tathagata]] teaches the [[Dhamma]] via the middle...."
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| − | ===[[Chinese Buddhism]] ===
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| − | ====[[Tendai]] ====
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| − | In the [[Tendai school]] , the ''[[Middle Way]] '' refers to the synthesis of the thesis that all things are [[Shunyata|"empty"]], and the antithesis that all things have phenomenal existence.
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| − | ====[[Chán]]====
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| − | In [[Chán]] [[Buddhism]] the ''[[Middle Way]] '' describes the [[realization]] of being free of the one-sidedness of perspective that takes the extremes of any polarity as objective [[reality]] .
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| − | In chapter ten of the [[Platform Sutra]] [[Huineng]] gives instructions for the teaching of the [[Dharma]] . [[Huineng]] enumerates 36 basic oppositions of [[consciousness]] and explains how [[Wikipedia:Taoism|the Way]] is free from both extremes:
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| − | :If one asks about the [[worldly]] , use the paired opposite of the saintly; if asking about the saintly use the paired opposite of the [[worldly]] . The mutual [[causation]] of the Way of dualities, gives birth to the meaning of the [[Middle Way]] . So, for a single question, a single pair of opposites, and for other questions the single [pair] that accords with this fashion, then you do not lose the principle.
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| − | {{W}}
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| − | [[Category:Buddhist Philosophy]]
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