Finding Balance

In the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, the first teaching that the Buddha delivered after his awakening, he describes the concept of The Middle Way, or the practice of avoiding extremes.

The extremes are the path of self-indulgence at one end of the spectrum, and the path of self-mortification at the other end.  Self-indulgence includes the addiction to sense-pleasures. Self-mortification includes addiction to feelings of pain and unworthiness.  Also known as The Noble Eightfold path, The Middle Way countenances right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

It has become difficult in our modern, fast-paced world, with instant communication, media sensationalism, and social pressures urging us to the extremes, to find and maintain a path of balance.  Cultural pressures impel us toward extreme archetypes of human beauty and success: the thin but busty woman, the man with six-pack abs, the ever advancing and upwardly mobile career, and endlessly increasing earning power, to name just a few.  How then can we find The Middle Way in the midst of these societal demands?

First, we must slow down and become aware of the forces driving us to these extremes. We must learn to recognize when these forces play to our lower ignoble impulses rather that to our higher noble values.  Cultivating the skill to do this in the present moment allows us to make different decisions, to make choices that will manifest our higher self.  And then we must nurture the habit of being proactive in creating opportunities for expressing our higher self rather than doing so only in reaction to what happens.  In these ways, we can take control of balancing our lives along The Middle Way.