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Showing posts from July, 2019

Finding the Middle Path

In Buddhism, there exists a concept named the Middle Path. What this essentially means is that each one of us is meant to walk life in the center, without retreating to any extremes materially, physically, mentally, and emotionally. This idea originated after Siddartha Guatama (later to be known as The Buddha) spent several years living an ascetic life, rarely moving and eating only the seeds that fell into his lap. Eventually, the Buddha was on the edge of starvation, and though he was still putting all of his energy into his meditation, his mind was clouded and he was unable to focus. Thus, he came to realize that one should not deprive themself of things they need, just as one should also not live with so many distracting things that, though may cause pleasure in the short term, ultimately only increase their suffering. Learning about this middle path has been very thought provoking for me. While beginning to question whether I really do walk the middle path in my life, I'm

Understanding Yourself (or Lack Thereof)

One of the most difficult concepts for me to grasp since I began studying Buddhism more deeply is the idea of non-self. During the time of the Buddha, one of the major religious ideas making the rounds was the idea on an eternal Self, and that liberation could come only with the stripping away of the ego self and all other wants and desires until one was left with nothing but their purest Self. The Buddha adamantly disagreed with this belief, but rather was convinced that through examining the impermanence of our emotions, sensations, and thoughts, we would find ourselves unable to discover anything about ourselves that is unchanging or everlasting. Essentially, he believed that we have no underlying souls that remain in us and constitute our true essence from birth to death. Consider the physical side of it. Each of our cells is replaced over time, and seven years from now we will be made up of completely different cells, just as we are now made up of complete different c