All of last week, life kept giving me messages about the Middle Path… I identify myself as being on the extremes of any argument. It’s rarely the middle path for me. But I also understand that the middle path is the right way to be. Just difficult to practise.
The following is an excerpt from Osho’s discourses on Vigyan Bhairav Tantra. This particular excerpt is from discourse #11, Vol #1. To read the full transcript click here – Techniques to penetrate the inner centers
“….KEEP IN THE MIDDLE… Buddha developed his whole technique of meditation on this sutra. His path is known as MAJJHIM NIKAYA – the middle path. Buddha says, ‘Remain always in the middle – in everything’.”
“…..The extreme has a fascination for the mind. Why? Because in the middle, mind dies. Look at a pendulum: if you have any old clock, look at the pendulum. The pendulum can go on moving the whole day if it goes to the extremes. When it goes to the left it is gathering momentum to go to the right. When it goes toward the right, do not think that it is going toward the right – it is accumulating momentum to go toward the left. So the extremes are right-left, right-left.
Let the pendulum stay in the middle, then the whole momentum is lost. Then the pendulum has no energy, because the energy comes from one of the extremes. Then that extreme throws it toward another, then again, and it is a circle… the pendulum goes on moving. Let it be in the middle, and the whole movement will then stop.
Mind is just like a pendulum and every day, if you observe, you will come to know this. You decide one thing on one extreme, and then you move to another. You are angry; then you repent. You decide, “No, this is enough. Now I will never be angry.” But you do not see the extreme.
“Never” is an extreme. How are you so certain that you will never be angry? What are you saying?
Think once more – never? Then go to the past and remember how many times you have decided that “I will never be angry.” When you say, “I will never be angry,” you do not know that by being angry you have accumulated momentum to go to the other extreme.
Now you are feeling repentant, you are feeling bad. Your self-image is disturbed, shaken. Now you cannot say you are a good man, you cannot say that you are a religious man. You have been angry, and how can a religious man be angry? How can a good man be angry? So you repent to regain your goodness again. At least in your own eyes you can feel at ease – that you have repented and you have decided that now there will be no more anger. The shaken image has come back to the old status quo. Now you feel at ease, you have moved to another extreme.
But the mind that says, “Now I will never be angry,” will again be angry. And when you are again angry, you will forget completely your repentance, your decision – everything. After anger, again the decision will come and the repentance will come, and you will never feel the deception of it. This has been so always.
Mind moves from anger to repentance, from repentance to anger. Remain in the middle. Do not be angry and do not repent. If you have been angry, then please, at least do this: do not repent. Do not move to the other extreme. Remain in the middle. Say, “I have been angry and I am a bad man, a violent man. I have been angry. This is how I am.” But do not repent; do not move to the other extreme. Remain in the middle. If you can remain, you will not gather the momentum, the energy to be angry again….”
Extremism of any kind is a problem. We are quick to understand that in the world around us, but within us we swing from one extreme to the other – love-hate; anger-repentance; happiness-depression; and so on….Try and be in the middle ….. it’s tough.
Thank You Master 🙏🏿
Disclaimer – I post excerpts from Osho’s books and discourses and sometimes share his quotes. In most of the posts, the link to the full audio or full transcript is given. Osho is the Master, and to understand him, please listen to him or read his books. These excerpts are my limited interpretations with my limited understanding. Nothing original and I could be totally off the mark. The highlights and italics/bold font is also done by me.