The Middle Path: Buddhism's Balanced Approach
Summary: This essay explores the Middle Path (Majjhima Patipada) or Middle Way in Buddhism as Buddha's balanced approach between sensual indulgence and extreme self-mortification. It examines the historical context, explaining how Buddha contrasted his teaching with Vedic dharma's focus on pleasure and Jain dharma's severe asceticism. The article discusses why Buddha chose moderation after experiencing both extremes, defines the Middle Way as the Noble Eightfold Path, and explains its logical basis in the natural principle of moderation necessary for life and spiritual progress.
The Middle Way, or the Middle Path is well known in Buddhism. It is called Madhyama Pada in Sanskrit and Majjhima Pada in Pali.
The Buddha coined this word to suggest a way of life that embodied His teaching and emphasized the virtues he believed would lead his followers to Nirvana or the cessation of being and becoming. He defined the Middle Way in his first sermon at Saranath, which a few days after his enlightenment he delivered to the five ascetics (bhikshus) who deserted him previously believing that he faltered on the path and forsook his austerities.
Middle Path defined
Now, what is the Middle Way and why this name has come into existence?
The Buddha defined the Middle Path in his first sermon in following manner.
"Bhikkhus, these two extremes ought not to be cultivated by one gone forth from the house-life. What are the two? There is devotion to indulgence of pleasure in the objects of sensual desire, which is inferior, low, vulgar, ignoble, and leads to no good; and there is devotion to self-torment, which is painful, ignoble and leads to no good."
The following passage from Samyutta Nikaya is often considered the foundational statement of the Middle Way or the Middle Path.
There are these two extremes that should not be followed… Avoiding both extremes, the Tathāgata has awakened to the Middle Way, which gives rise to vision, gives rise to knowledge, and leads to peace, direct knowledge, enlightenment, and Nibbāna.” SN 56.11.
The Buddha also explicitly defined the Middle Path as the Eightfold Path in the following manner.
“And what is that Middle Way? It is this Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.” Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, SN 56.11
Why Buddha preferred Middle Path
The Buddha preferred the Middle Path because he wanted to avoid the extreme ascetic methods that caused pain and suffering to the body. After realizing the futility of self-mortification practices that made him extremely sick, he concluded that such methods were self-defeating and that the path to freedom from suffering could not be through the pain and suffering they caused. Therefore, he declared:
Devotion to sensual pleasure is low, vulgar, ignoble, and unprofitable. Devotion to self‑mortification is painful, ignoble, and unprofitable. Avoiding both these extremes, the Middle Way has been realized.” SN 56.11
Secondly, it appears that he recommended the Middle Path for a historical reason to distinguish his teaching from two other prominent traditions of his time which were popular in India and with which people were familiar, namely Vedism and Jainism. He probably wanted to contrast his methods and teachings with these dominant religious traditions of his time.
Prior to the Buddha, these two traditions dominated the religious scene of ancient India. Vedism is the precursor of present day Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism, and Jain Dharma or Jainism was established by many Jain teachers known as Thirthankaras and is most likely as old as Vedism. However, it is an extremely ascetic tradition which recommends self-denial and extreme spiritual practices for liberation. Both these traditions still exist along with Buddhism as world's major religions, each with considerable following.
In Vedic dharma, the emphasis was on enjoyment of life by performing one's obligatory duties towards God and the world and enjoying the fruit of one's action. This was its earliest stand when the ritualistic philosophy of Purva Mimansa was in ascendance. People propitiated gods to obtain boons to enjoy peace and prosperity and success in their actions. They prayed and offered food to the gods through sacrifices, acting as hosts to fulfill their desires while the priests performed the sacrifices on their behalf wishing to propitiate the gods through mantras, songs, and incantations and charged fees from them for their services, which included healing, wish-fulfilling and protection against enemies, dangers, natural calamities, adversity, and evil omens.
This was the popular and well known side of Vedic religion in Buddha's time, which subsequently declined from its lofty heights and degenerated into a religion of superficial rituals and caste based privileges, discrimination, and inequalities. The Buddha's parents practiced Vedic religion and the Buddha himself must have been familiar with Vedic beliefs and practices prior to his renunciation. There was an ascetic side to the Vedic religion, which was practiced by seers and sages and householders in the final phase of their lives. However, it was not well known to the general populace, due to the secrecy and exclusivity maintained by the upper castes. Further, the Upanishads, which advocated a life of renunciation to achieve self-purification and liberation, was deemed secret knowledge and taught in person to a select few who dared to enter the secluded areas to learn from the ascetic teachers who shunned worldly life and lived in forests. Even those who learned the knowledge under an oath, kept the knowledge to themselves unless they came across worthy students. .
Thus for the Buddha, the popular Vedic religion represented one end of the religious spectrum as a tradition that aimed to enhance human happiness through sacrifices, spells and popular methods of worship which helped those who sought to fulfill their desires through them.
At the other end of the spectrum was Jain Dharma. It was an austere religion in which the emphasis was on renunciation, self-denial, total self-control, suppression of all forms of desires, detachment, self-torture and even self-mortification.
The Vedic religion considered the body divine. It was viewed as a vehicle of divine sacrifice, which housed God in the form of immortal, individual Self, and represented a microcosmic aspect of the body of the Cosmic Person (Purusha) Himself. It upheld the bodily organs as the subtle forms of the gods of heaven who needed nourishment or offerings in the form of food, breath and sensory enjoyment.
Jain dharma held the body the biggest obstacle to liberation, a formation of impurities, which need to be disintegrated and destroyed eventually through self-mortification in order to get rid of the karmic substance that accumulated in the body because of the actions performed by the individual. Since it was impossible to avoid karma while the body was alive, the only solution was to waste away the body gradually through austerities and self-purification until the Self was liberated and allowed to reach the highest realm of the universe.
Thus we had two traditions, which were poles apart. One represented enjoyment of human life in the service of gods and God Himself as an offering and the other advocated complete renunciation of pleasure, desire-ridden actions and enjoyment of worldly pleasures to stop the accumulation of karma in the body.
The Buddha followed the Vedic dharma in his early days. He led a very luxurious life as a prince and a householder until he realized that the enjoyment was a mere distraction from the deeper sorrows of life from which none could escape. Therefore, he left behind everything and went out in search of a lasting solution to human suffering. After renunciation and spending some time under various masters, he resorted to the austere methods of Jainism and tortured and starved himself to near death, before realizing that suffering was not a solution to suffering and self-torture was not going to help him in achieving enlightenment.
The Middle Path is logical and realistic
The Buddha also understood that moderation was imperative for the survival and continuation of life and the existence of all beings. Life cannot survive the extreme dualities of heat and cold or pain and pleasure. Life continues on the principle of moderation in eating, sleeping, speaking, and in the choices people make to perform actions. Therefore he renounced extreme methods of self-mortification and resorted to the Middle Way of moderation, which eventually led to his enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree. For him the Middle Way was a logical, reasonable and realistic solution for human beings, whether they lived as householders or monks, based upon the very nature of the human body which was made to thrive on moderation rather than extreme pleasure and pain or conditions of life. This is well expressed in the following passage from Anguttara Nikaya.
“Sona, when the lute strings are too tight, they do not sound well. When they are too loose, they do not sound well. When tuned neither too tight nor too loose, they sound well. In the same way, energy should be balanced.”
He explained the advantages of the Middle Way in these words in his First Sermon.
"The middle way discovered by a Perfect One avoids both these extremes; it gives vision, it gives knowledge, and it leads to peace, to direct acquaintance, to discovery, to nibbana."
The Buddha also applied the principle of the Middle Way as the standard approach to discern the truths of existence amidst the reality that is defined by impermanence, dualities, and extremities as is evident from the following passage.
“This world, Kaccāna, relies on a duality— existence and non‑existence. But for one who sees the origin of the world as it really is, there is no notion of non‑existence. For one who sees the cessation of the world as it really is, there is no notion of existence.” Kaccānagotta Sutta, SN 12.15.
Thus, the Middle Way of the Buddha Dharma was actually a compromise between Sanatana Dharma and Jain Dharma, between a tradition that promoted fulfillment of human desires and a tradition that believed in their complete suppression.
He asked his followers to avoid the extremes represented in these two traditions and follow the Middle Way in which the emphasis should be on living a life of restraint with an eye to the eight virtuous practices, which are known as the Eightfold Path, consisting of the right view, right intentions, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.