The Middle Path

I just turned on my internet connection and on 'Yahoo' I see the article 'American Buddhism on the rise'. It's about time, of all the spiritual disciplines, I like Buddhism best. It is the most rational and most practical religion I have ever encountered.

One of the important features of buddhism is the idea of the 'Middle Path', in 'wikipedia' it is defined as follows:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_path

'The Middle Way or Middle Path (Sanskrit Madhyama Marga, Pali Majjhima Magga) is the Buddhist philosophy expounded by Gautama Buddha. Sometimes summarised as the practice of non-extremism; a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and opposing self-mortification.'

Although I like Buddhism, I still make changes to ideas that I read. Attachment or craving is also an important facet of Buddhism. Craving is talked about in 'Four Noble Truths'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_noble_truths

'Nirodha: Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering:

It is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, and non-reliance on it'

When we add the two ideas up, we can also say that the middle path is the path between 'craving' and 'not craving'. This is of course my idea, whether Buddha himself would agree with me is something else. To yet add another idea, I believe that staying statically in the center between 'craving' and 'not craving' is somewhat boring. So I personally 'oscillate between the two extreems' of craving and not craving. For a highly simplified idea of what I do, I go through materiality and live like a hedonist for a certain period of time, then when my mind is about to start getting attached, I withdraw to a period of non-attachment. When the non-attachment makes me regain my 'sanity' and begins to get boring, then I go back to my hedonist phase. (I have replaced 'craving' with 'attachment' since they are similar).

The procedure seems to work well for me, but some of my friends can't figure me out. Attachment to me is the start of suffering. If that is so, then what I did, is enjoy life without getting attached. Enjoy the moment, but don't expect it to happen tomorrow, don't expect your friends or loved ones to even be there tomorrow, but love them just the same. Be sweet and affectionate to everyone and anyone with no attachment on whether they are liars, hypocrits or whatever, just enjoy their company. Attachment need not be only on material things, but also on love, expectations and other personal relationships.

For a more in depth explanation, check out my previously published book which I have placed on the web.

http://rickym3.blogspot.com/2006/09/force-rediscovering-obvious.html.