Episode 128 - The Middle Way

KimChiu

32 min

Religion

Description

The Buddha sometimes spoke in metaphor to convey very deep and complex truths. In this episode, we examine a beautiful verse that describes how we can attain freedom from suffering and difficulties. In particular, the episode is devoted to understanding the meaning of eternalism and nihilism. This refers to avoiding the extremes of eternalism and nihilism. This wisdom of the Middle Way avoids the extremes of thinking things exist inherently or eternally (i.e., the way things normally appear to us) as well as the other extreme of thinking nothing exists (nihilism). We begin by examining emptiness, which describes how our reality does exist. Emptiness means that nothing exists inherently, eternally, concretely, independently of its causes, conditions, name, etc. The practical application of this is to not readily accept how things appear to us— good, bad, fortunate, unfortunate. Things in our reality don’t exist in a fixed way. We don't fall under the spell of believing that the experiences and people in our life are inherently good or bad. But things do exist! Buddhism teaches us to avoid a nihilistic view that thinks nothing exists. We do exist, with a name, a body, and ways that we function. Our self and all things exist in dependence upon causes and conditions. Understanding that things are empty, we can change the label we give something, and it changes. We can change the label from “They are a BAD person” to “they are a suffering person,” and the person appears very different. We can also change the way things function. As a person, we can start to function more compassionately, more kindly, or with more integrity,

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Episode 128 - The Middle Way

KimChiu

32:45