Music by Lisa Thiel - Kuan Yin's Mantra
Hello there.
Thousands of years ago,
Siddhartha Gautama who would come to be known as the Buddha,
stumbled upon a truth about this universe.
That truth was about the danger of extremes.
The point at which he stumbled across this truth,
he was very much living a life of extremes.
He had committed his life to asceticism.
In this particular path of practice,
he had become so emaciated,
that when he placed one hand on his back and one on his stomach,
he could feel his hands touching.
It was while he was doing this particular practice,
that he was overhearing a musical teacher
teach his student about the proper tuning of an instrument.
That's what changed the world for him.
He heard the teachers say:
"If the strings on an instrument are set too tight,
then the instrument will not play harmoniously.
If the strings are set too loose, the instrument will not produce music.
Only the middle way,
not too tight and not too loose,
will produce harmonious music."
This perspective changed everything for the Buddha.
As a result of his awareness,
he developed an entirely new spiritual practice,
that he called "the middle path".
One could easily say that the middle path,
is a practice of achieving balance through moderation.
But I want you to just say the word:
'moderation'
to yourself right now.
You can feel that there is a kind of limitation
inherent in the idea of moderation to begin with.
It's the idea that you can achieve balance
by taking away something,
or by limiting something,
so that you don't get too much of it.
Now as a spiritual teacher myself,
any kind of limitation or moderation
is a direct affront to the concept of expansion.
Trying to find or create balance in your life through moderation
is a difficult task
and it's a task that slows expansion
and causes people to temper themselves.
For example, if I want balance between work and play in my life,
I must cut back on work.
Often when following the traditional practice of the middle path,
it feels internally like you are putting the brakes on.
Some months ago,
I had the pleasure of meeting with a particularly gifted somatic therapist
named Diane St. John.
During this particular meeting,
what she explained to me
was that it's a very important part of emotional development,
to come into what she's calling
"And Consciousness"
Essentially, it's a state of mind where you develop the ability
to hold space for extremes.
For example, if I'm starting a new job,
I may be afraid and reluctant to start that new job,
but also excited and ready to start that new job.
If I have not developed the capacity to be present with that contradiction,
I will be desperate to side or line up with one or other
of these contradictory truths.
It will lead to confusion.
I will want to make rash decisions
that release me from the feeling of wanting to swing to either extreme,
instead of feel torn.
Long story short,
this meeting with Miss St. John,
got me to thinking about "And Consciousness" in general,
in a more expansive way,
where it doesn't just apply
to the way that we deal with emotional aspects of our being,
but the idea of extremes in general.
It got me to thinking about,
how it might apply to the middle path.
I began to see that that feeling of being torn between two extremes,
feels very much like being stretched too far
or beyond your own limits.
But that got me to thinking,
quite often when we're in the process of expanding,
of becoming more,
we feel that sensation of stretching within us.
So what if, when we are torn between two extremes,
we're being called to expand?
What are we being called to expand to?
I now believe that "And Consciousness"
may in fact be the replacement
for the long term practice
of the middle path.
Instead of a path of moderation,
it is a path of expansion.
Instead of seeking to find balance
by limiting an aspect of something,
you are finding balance as the natural result
of stretching yourself far enough
to be able to hold space for
two contradictory truths or two extremes.
This, in fact,
makes contradictions, complimentary.
But what I found through meditation
about the concept of "And Consciousness"
that is perhaps the most promising,
is the fact that in the moment that we expand wide enough
to be able to hold two extreme aspects within our being,
we no longer identify with either of them.
It means that we have quite literally become the embodiment
of the practice of non-attachment.
We are neither extreme,
because we are both extremes.
And when you have detached enough
to be the thing that is holding the space for two extremes,
you are now the unifying factor.
In other words, by holding both,
instead of aspects of ourselves being separated by the extremes,
we have created a state of integration or wholeness within our being.
Now before you fly into a frenzy,
thinking: "Teal has just tried to unseat
the spiritual teachings of a grand master."
let's consider that potentially this is what Buddha had in mind all along;
Was the idea that it is possible to live in a state of perfect non-attachment
to any extreme.
Middle means upright, unbiased, neutral or centered.
This is the very mindset one achieves
when practicing "And consciousness".
For example, in life I could say:
"I am both living and dying every day
and so I am neither living nor dying."
So what does all this boil down to?
Whenever you feel torn between two extremes,
to the degree as if you must pick
one or the other extreme
or strike a balance between them,
I call you to practice "And consciousness" instead.
Instead of taking the approach of moderation
and tempering either extreme,
which is a control tactic,
consciously imagine yourself expanding large enough,
to accomodate or hold both extremes.
And ask yourself:
"If it was ok to contain, hold space for or embody both extremes
and thus be attached to neither extreme,
what would I think or say or do that was different?
Traditionally, the middle path
has been a path of finding balance through moderation.
But what if balance naturally arose,
as the result of expanding far enough
to be able to hold space for two extremes?
Have a good week.
Subtitles by: Tanya Duarte www.tanyaduarte.com