The middle way and the will to truth (Part 1)
From the book: Encounters with the true dragon, will soon appear
I'm sometimes on human thoughts that come from the west to Japan in order to study Buddhism. I think many of them looking for the essence and the heart of the mysterious East. Perhaps her life in the West has become boring and uninteresting. Can not find the meaning of their social life and the religious institutions of their countries of origin seem essential part of this negative social situation to be. The institutions are there, people might be familiar to them and appear to be ordinary, too boring and offer little new. Therefore they are looking for something else.
Zen Buddhism for them is something different and exotic. He has strange and paradoxical stories and unusual ideas and concepts and a strange exercise practice. Everything seems mysterious and exotic. Such mysteries take some people violent, but I'm afraid these are still largely to illusions. I'm doing in my remarks to be corrected also about such illusions and faulty concepts.
The true Buddhism is not exotic and strange.
The true Buddhism is basically very simple, very practical and very realistic. If we understand the Buddha Dharma really, we find that other religions of the world on the other hand some very strange and mysterious are. They are also mysterious, because they are often restricted to a particular area of the mind or soul, because in the mind and the imagination is really all possible. But the real world has its concrete and practical limitations such as time and space. The real world is not fantastic and strange, but straightforward and simple: reality is "normal".
Reality can not be found in the extremes of thought and feeling in this sense, for it is only in a state of equilibrium exists between such extremes. The reality there is in the middle or at the center, so we speak on Buddhism and the middle way and the fact that by the Buddha Dharma find our center.
The middle way is a very important concept in Buddhism, and like most Buddhist teachings, it can be understood on different levels and from many perspectives out. Most Buddhists understand the middle path as a guide to lead their lives properly - a life that is in the middle between the extremes of too hedonistic, secular life, to an excessive hardship and scarcity spiritual asceticism on the other. I believe that this understanding is very important and I feel very strongly that it is the original concept of Gautama Buddha in what was then India.
The Living was the Buddha, there are many different views, attitudes, mindsets and ideologies about life. One school of thought was led by a group of naturalistic theorists who were also known as the six non-Buddhist priests. Their materialistic attitude supported the pursuit of sensual pleasures as the main goal of life.
the other extreme were Brahmin priests and other idealistic seeker. They urged the people to sensual pleasures and delights of all to take distance and the freedom of the Spirit through faith and prayer to achieve independent from the body. We can therefore in the philosophical sense, the middle way be described as an attitude which is in the middle between materialism and idealism. It is an attitude that avoids the extreme positions, with the goal of a moderate, balanced and harmonious life.
The middle way is actually a simple and straightforward idea. If we study the world and the people around us, we can without difficulty, the confusion and suffering will recognize the result from a life of sensual pleasures, or the unrealistic ideals. We often feel that our life is out of balance if we pursue unattainable dreams, or chasing fleeting sensual pleasures and thus experience ultimately only disappointment and frustration.
It is impossible that we get what we want. Often we can not recognize or even decide what we want. Sometimes we are in high spirits and optimistic, other times we are defeated, depressed and discouraged regarding our future. Once we think we are great and extraordinary people at other times we suffer from feelings of their own smallness and lack of meaning. Through all the ups and downs of such a life, we begin to long for us to have a certain order and clarity. Maybe we should try to bring harmony into our lives. Perhaps we should therefore follow the middle path. This is certainly an excellent idea, but unfortunately it is not easy to achieve. follow
The middle way is in fact not as simple as it first appears and as you might think. This is a very important point that we should not pass over lightly. Why is it now so difficult to follow the middle path? In one respect, but the problem is very simple. The middle way is a spiritual concept, an ideal that we can indeed imagine, it is not the reality itself, it is not our life. Ideals are always easy to think and difficult to achieve. They are just ideas and not reality.
We wonder maybe the fact that Gautama Buddha taught us to aspire, which is not to achieve in the real world. Why did he not told us that we should forget our dreams and ideals to live only in the unfathomable reality and truth? I fear that his pupils had stared at him with an uncomprehending look on her face, if he had taught it. But how can we live in a tangible reality, not with the mind? How can you look for something that has no name and can not be described accurately? In the beginning our study of Buddhism, the teachings of the Dharma and the incredible seem unclear and incomprehensible reality to be particularly important. We therefore need a mental picture that is easier to understand, we need an idea that can be more directly related to our everyday experience. I think that Gautama Buddha knew this well. He knew that people need an understandable target - an idea that can serve as a target or guideline for their efforts in life.
The middle way is such a goal. It should, in fact, a good goal that we live a balanced, harmonious life and to avoid extreme views and actions. This goal can easily grasp with our minds. The middle way is an ideal, but it reflects the real nature of the universe. It is an ideal that is realistic and improved our lives forever. Our efforts to lead a life on the middle path, we will over time lead to harmony with the world, man and the universe.
then we can forget the ideal of fact and easy in the real world live and act. If we have a simple, realistic goal, this is an important starting point for many human actions and activities. Gautama Buddha took into account this fact, as he taught the middle way. If one accepts the need of a goal, it means that we recognize the importance of idealism and ideals in our lives. This is, I think the deeper meaning of the Buddhist doctrine of the middle way. Also
Master Dogen has recognized the value of idealism, but in a different way. In Shobogenzo he often urges us to awaken the will to truth, to maintain and preserve it. "Will to truth" my translation of the Sanskrit word "bodhicitta" is. It means a very old concept in Buddhism and in the work of Master Dogen takes it up a particularly important place. He says emphatically that it is of paramount importance for the study of Buddhism, have the will to truth and to develop further.
We like an excellent understanding of Buddhist theory and practice, even the exercise, but without the will to truth is such knowledge largely meaningless. On the other hand underlines Dogen that mistakes and wrong actions are in our lives is an important prerequisite for the learning process by which we attain the truth and even the cause may be that we get them out unless we have the will to truth in our life have taken root.
When I first such sentences in Shobogenzo read, I understood that faith was unshakable commitment to the truth of Master Dogen, and did not allow for compromise, but I could not understand why this should be so important. I was surprised that he so high an opinion of the will to truth was. Now, in light of my own experience of a long Life, I can understand the reason for this uncompromising faith. I think we can use it in the history of his life for yourself. He began the study of Buddhism when he was very young. At that time he had no clear idea of what Buddhism really is. He had many ideas and some one-sided idealistic fantasies, but he could finally understand the Buddhism at all.
He could neither understand nor sutras, Buddhist theory and not the teachings of his master really is. His thoughts were mostly about Buddhism Gautama Buddha's intentions completely opposite. He had no measure to assess the truth from falsehood distinction, not a realistic goal, could elaborate on anything. He had in all its confusion really nothing but the will to truth.
Therefore, the will to truth as the standard of his life. His erroneous ideas and fantasies drove him forward. When he met the realities of life, he had to suffer a lot and got into more and more confusion, but the suffering and confusion that reinforced his decision to seek the truth. Meister said Doge finally reached in spite of the countless mistakes, misunderstandings, and personal difficulties, the goal he had previously not seen clearly in his mind. This was for him a very important fact. If he thought of the experiences of his life, he felt no doubt that the only true leader had been his will to truth.
This is the reason I think why Master Dogen underestimated the will to truth as high. He believed that the will to truth is our true allies and our true friend in life. These allies to maintain themselves, is therefore the most important duty in human life. We should not be afraid of suffering, confusion and difficulties, but we should be afraid of losing the will to truth. Without the will to truth we can never reach the highest purpose of human life.
is why the will to Truth for us is fundamental. He is the power and restlessness that drives us forward in search of the meaning of life and the source of a better life and happiness. In this sense, therefore all our efforts are in life in a direct relation with the will to truth.
If we study philosophy or religion, we have initially usually a specific motivation, which is pure, spiritual, and very idealistic. Master Dogen felt that such an idealistic effort to try to understand our own lives, the sincere and natural expression of the will to truth. Therefore, he rejected the idealism and later does not. On the contrary, he saw it as an expression of human will to know and understand something to do. He felt that is the idealistic form of the will to truth is a key stage in the development of the individual and of all humanity.
I therefore believe that Master Dogen and Gautama Buddha had very similar attitudes to the ideals and idealism. They understood that people must first of all be idealists. When people encounter with Buddhism, they are always his first study on the basis of idealistic thoughts.
This is a necessary phase of human understanding, a natural step to learn through the life of the great problems of life itself. Therefore, the Buddhist idealism as a starting point of all thought and understanding it, but he is not the final outcome or the highest truth, but it is an important step on the path to this truth. Without our dreams, ideas and ideals, we can never begin our journey to the truth because we had no idea of the direction, not a goal towards which we might move. The mental pictures, ideas and goals that characterize the first stage of our understanding, are therefore very important to us. They give us a first impression of a complex reality, a reality with many faces. Idealistic images of truth are in fact a particular face of this reality - a Face the real world.
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