The middle path is not for everyone

I am not a big advocate of taking the middle path. When you take the middle path, you avoid a life of extremes, evade the joys and sorrows, and hopefully live like a monk. My belief is that we cannot live a life following the middle path, but we can only arrive at it. It is a subtle difference that I hope to expand upon in this post.

A life lived on the middle path assumes that we avoid the extremes at the outset; to not suffer the consequences of the extremes later. But, I feel that the middle path dulls a person, makes them full of fear, and thus never lets them explore the world in the way they could have if they were free. Free to live on the extremes, free to see the world with their own eyes, free to live the life that they could live, a life on the extremes, a life full of happiness and suffering, with its highs and lows, love and hate, hope and despair; a life of incredible wholesomeness. No greatness is realized by walking the middle path. No wisdom is attained by treading the middle path.

Living at the extreme comes with its own set of extreme problems. There are incredible and unimaginable highs, numerous mistakes made, lives shattered and destroyed, and families are torn. But does that mean that we should stop living on the extremes?

Have any of the greats of the world lived a life of non-extremes? Think of the most revered gurus, the most talented sportspersons, the most celebrated artists, the most renowned mathematicians and scientists, and the most successful entrepreneurs, and you’ll see that they lived their entire lives to the extremes. They all put in incredible efforts to achieve inconceivable outcomes. The best sportspersons and artists have spent countless hours, days, and years honing their craft to rise above everyone else and expand the boundaries of human capabilities. The world’s best entrepreneurs have always lived on the extremes, dreamed the biggest dreams, and created the biggest empires by building products and services that have helped improve our lives. The most distinguished scientists have worked immensely hard, lived on the extreme edge of knowledge, and have invented and discovered relentlessly to expand our learning of ourselves and this cosmos. If these people didn’t live on the extremes, we would still be in jungles chasing animals to kill and feed ourselves.

No real wisdom in the world would exist if the wise gurus did not live on the extremes themselves. Isolating themselves from the world, living alone in the hills and on alms, spending days and weeks meditating and seeking the truth; a life lived on the utmost extreme. I do not see any of the monks adding to existing wisdom or any followers of any gurus expanding the knowledge shared by their gurus. Why is that? If you live following prescriptions, you will not discover anything new. It is that simple.

Another aspect of this avoidance of extremes is simply avoidance without experience. How do you know what lies beyond if you do not venture? Sure, there may be some dangers lurking behind, but there might also be some great joys unfound. What is wrong with seeking these joys? In avoiding these dangers, we miss out on the most essential aspect of human life - our curiosity and our adventures. Our adventures lead us to new frontiers of experiences, emotions, and knowledge.

The true middle path is the rationalization of all these adventures, the amalgamation of our experiences lived on the frontiers, and the condensation of all emotions felt on the extremes. You arrive on the middle path after having experienced everything possible. The true middle path is not letting the experiencer interfere with the experience, becoming one with life with its twists and turns, its highest highs and lowest lows, and then defining the path that is right for you, middle or slightly astray.

#spirituality #wisdom #joy #happiness