Our new webinars allow you to explore the Middle Way in relation to a topic that already engages you, meeting members of the society and getting a sense of what we do online. They are all led by experienced members of the society with an understanding of Middle Way Philosophy and teaching or group leadership skills. You can sample a single webinar, pick topics you’re especially interested in, or join the whole series as you wish. The webinars will include a presentation by the leader, plenty of opportunity for questions and discussion, and possibly periods for other activities such as reflection or meditation. They are open to all with a genuine interest in the topic, and do not expect particular prior knowledge.

Dates and times: The first Sunday of each month, 1900-2100 UK time (UTC 0 in winter and +1 in summer). That will mean some time on Sunday morning or afternoon if you’re in the US. You can join from anywhere in the world. There will be a break of around 10 minutes in the middle. The full programme is given below.

Platform: Zoom. When you have booked a place on a webinar we will send you more details of how to join it using Zoom. There are no further expenses from using the platform.

Cost: Free to members of the Middle Way Society with an up-to-date subscription (to join go to this page). For non-members, there is a charge of £4 (approx. US $5.30 or 4.50 Euros) per webinar. The charge helps to pay for our Zoom fees, with any excess going to society funds. If you are planning to join more than 5 webinars, it will be more efficient to join the society!

Programme: The overall theme for this 13 month programme is the Middle Way in relation to various areas of practice, study or interest.

2nd Dec 2018: The Middle Way and Meditation – Robert M Ellis
Meditation offers perhaps the most basic way of directly experiencing the Middle Way. In meditation, every distraction is fuelled by absolutizing that takes us away from a point of embodied balance. We’ll be exploring this, as well as the ways that reflection on the Middle Way can support your meditation practice. Some periods of meditation will be included.

6th Jan 2019: The Middle Way and the Arts – Robert M Ellis This session will explore the ways that all the arts (visual, musical and literary) can boost our resources of meaning, both intellectually and emotionally, and how the exercise of the imagination is not only life-enhancing in itself, but also helps us to make better judgements.

3rd Feb 2019: The Middle Way and Guided Enquiry – Nina Davies Guided enquiry is a way of learning about the difference between direct experience and the interpretation of experience. A simple example of this would be to look at the experience of pain and to consider whether our thoughts about the pain are actually more painful than the sensations themselves. Enquiry has great similarity to cognitive therapy, where distorted beliefs that impact on feelings and behaviour are identified and challenged. However, the aim of enquiry is simply to look directly at thought and belief in order to understand the meanings and realities that we create, rather than any therapeutic outcome. The benefit to Middle Way practice is that we become increasingly aware of our biases and assumptions.

3rd Mar 2019: The Middle Way and Critical Thinking – Robert M. Ellis Critical thinking is a crucial skill that can be taught and improved with practice, not especially about logic but primarily about awareness of our assumptions. Robert, who is an experienced teacher of critical thinking to young people, will introduce some basic critical thinking skills to improve our judgement, using examples, and explain its relationship to the Middle Way.

7th Apr 2019: The Middle Way and Ethics – Robert M. Ellis This session will explore the Middle Way as a genuine and realistic third option between moral absolutism and moral relativism, and get you to reflect on some examples of the ways the Middle Way can be applied to moral judgements in practice.

5th May 2019: The Middle Way and Politics – Robert M. Ellis
This session will explore the different kinds of values that can be applied to political judgements, drawing on the work of Jonathan Haidt, and get you to reflect on the ways you can improve your political judgements by avoiding absolutisation of these values. Those of all political persuasions will be equally welcome, as long as they are prepared to look critically at their own judgements as well as those of others. We will try to avoid both one-sided advocacy and false neutrality.

2nd Jun 2019: The Middle Way, Gender and Feminism – Nina Davies Nina: “The term ‘Feminism’ does not hold universal appeal. Although a 2018 YouGov poll have shown that very large percentages of the population believe that men and women ‘should be treated equally in every way’ (between 80 an 91% across Europe), much smaller numbers identify themselves as feminists (between 27 and 40% of respondents). In America, feminism seems to have less appeal, with only 12% of US Hispanic Millennials identifying themselves as feminist in the 2018 GenForward Survey. Apparently, feminism has an image problem and certainly does not hold universal appeal. In a 2015 YouGov survey, 19% of people seemed to believe being called a feminist was an insult. My experience in the last year on-line is that many men have called my views ‘marxist-feminist extremist ideology’, in a manner clearly meant as an insult but which I have found rather interesting and reassuring. Is it actually beneficial that feminism is still viewed as a marginal radical activity in public perception? Is the unfortunate image in the public imagination actually a fortunate position to hold? In this Webinar I will question whether it is possible or even desirable for the image/representation of Feminism to be ‘Middle Way’. However, I will also present a grass-roots and very much a ‘Middle Way’ history of feminism, which is constantly negotiated and about each community reinterpreting the values of feminism for its own benefit. I will also ask whether an ‘extreme edge’ with an accompanying grass-roots re-interpretation is how social change happens.”

[July webinar has been rescheduled]

4th Aug 2019: The Middle Way and Systems Theory – Robert M. Ellis Systems theory requires us to see all our judgements in the context of complex systems, in the process both implying and requiring the Middle Way. It is vital if we want an adequate understanding both of ourselves and of our relationship to the planet. Robert will introduce some of the key ideas of systems theory, expecting no previous knowledge.

1st Sep 2019: The Middle Way and the Buddha – Robert M Ellis
The Buddha is not the sole source of the Middle Way, which is universal, but he is nevertheless an important source of inspiration for it. Following the publication of his new book ‘The Buddha’s Middle Way’ by Equinox, Robert will introduce some of those key sources of inspiration in the Buddha’s life, metaphors and teachings.

6th Oct 2019: The Middle Way and Christianity – Robert M. Ellis Using a principle of interpretative responsibility, we are entirely at liberty to focus on the many aspects of Christianity that can inspire us in the Middle Way, rather than Christian absolutes. We will discuss archetypal interpretations of God, the symbolic role of Christ, and Christian mysticism. Robert is the author of a book on this ‘The Christian Middle Way’, published in 2018.

3rd Nov 2019: The Middle Way and Judaism – Susan Averbach Midrash, the interpretation of biblical text, offers a middle way approach to ancient stories, creating and finding meaning, often provisional, personal, and in community. This practice has been at the core of Judaism throughout the ages. The ancient sages forged a path that we are able to expand and build upon to further explore our questions about meaning and action. We will discuss biblical stories from the Hebrew Bible freely and creatively sharing our own interpretations. All are welcome!

8th Dec 2019: The Middle Way and Jungian Psychology – Robert M. Ellis It’s little known that Jung himself used the term ‘Middle Way’, and there are many ways in which his insights can contribute to our understanding of it. The concepts of integration, archetypes and projection are Jungian in origin, and working to appreciate archetypes positively without absolutizing them can be an inspiring Middle Way practice. Robert has been particularly inspired by Jung’s ‘Red Book’ in recent years, and will be drawing particularly on it to help you reflect on archetypes in your own life. Please note date change (previously 1st Dec)

5th Jan 2020: The Middle Way and Science – Jim Champion Middle Way Philosophy offers a radically different paradigm to mainstream scientific naturalism because of its crucially different attitudes to ethics, scepticism, meaning and objectivity. Jim’s scientific specialism is in theoretical physics, and the approach here will be less ‘knowing the mind of God’ (a la Stephen Hawking) and more ‘trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible’ (a la Richard Feynman).

Leaders: Robert M. Ellis, Nina Davies, Jim Champion and Susan Averbach. For brief biographies of the leaders, please see the ‘About MWS’ page.

Link to discussion group: In addition to the open webinars, there will be an ongoing discussion group, meeting two weeks after each webinar (3rd Sunday of each month), discussing follow-up issues from the webinar topic. This is open to those who wish to join the discussion group on an ongoing basis to explore Middle Way Philosophy more widely, but not for one-off participation. Please email Robert (at) middlewaysociety.org if you’re interested in joining the discussion group.

To book: please fill in the online form below. Fees need to be paid with your booking, using the Paypal facility that will load after you submit the form (or you can alternatively use a bank transfer). Fees will be fully refundable in the event of cancellation of the seminar for any reason. They will only be refunded at the webinar leader’s discretion if you withdraw from the webinar after booking, are not available for connection at the appointed time, or are disconnected for any reason beyond our control.

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