The Buddha is an important source of our historical understanding of the Middle Way, which is reflected both in his life story and many of the parables and teachings he is recorded as giving in the Pali Canon (early Buddhist scriptures). However, in the society we want to emphasise the universality of the Middle Way, which is accessible in everyone’s experience, and thus can be found to a degree in other religions, in science, philosophy and the arts as well as  in Buddhism. The Buddha is by no means the only source of information about the Middle Way, nor does our understanding of it depend on the Buddha’s claimed enlightenment. The Buddha is thus a side-issue. For a more general account of the Middle Way, please go to the Middle Way page.

Buddhist tradition often in theory recognises the universality of the Middle Way, but in practice all the emphasis lies on the particular accounts of the Middle Way given by the Buddha and his followers in the Buddhist tradition. If you start talking about the Middle Way in general, they may say “Ah, but is that the Buddha’s Middle Way?”, as though it was the Buddha that made the Middle Way helpful, rather than the other way round.

If you believe that the Buddha’s enlightenment gave him special insight into reality and thus special authority, this produces a metaphysical belief that is in conflict with the Middle Way.  This is because the claims around the Buddha’s enlightenment are in practice beyond our experience, and only in remote theory accessible to us if we gain enlightenment ourselves. A decisive choice needs to be made here: for if you accept metaphysical authority of this kind, the effect is likely to constantly undermine the practise of the Middle Way, leading to confusion at best.

It is for this reason that the Society wants to make a clear break with any authority from the Buddhist tradition, and thus we do not give first prominence to the Buddha in introducing the Middle Way. This break with the Buddha’s authority needs to be followed through by justifying the Middle Way primarily in terms of its practical usefulness, not by relying on Buddhist scriptures.

Nevertheless, the Buddha should still be credited with offering the most important early source of the Middle Way. The stories and reported teachings of the Buddha can also still be an important (though entirely optional) source of inspiration in following the Middle Way. There is a grey area in which it is often unclear where inspiration ends and justification begins, but that need not stop us being inspired by the Buddha, as we might also be inspired by other figures from other traditions.

Here then follow some elements in the Buddha’s life and teachings that may offer much inspiration for the Middle Way. Let there be no complaints that they are cherry-picked from the scriptures and interpreted in one way rather than another, since it is the Middle Way that makes the Buddhist scriptures worth reading in the first place, so that we can find something  valuable and helpful in them.

The Buddha’s Life Story

The story of the Buddha’s life leading up to his enlightenment illustrates the Middle Way directly. Most importantly it illustrates the Middle Way as an enacted method, rather than (as it often became in later Buddhist hands) another metaphysical belief.

The Buddha was said to have been brought up as a prince, living a very sheltered life in a palace. His parents were said to have protected him from all recognition of suffering, in an isolated sphere of pleasure. However, as a young man he grew restless, and went out for a chariot ride in which he escaped his minders. Out in the wider world he is said to have seen the ‘Four Sights’ – Old Age, Sickness, Death, and a Religious Mendicant. The first three overthrew his repressed awareness of suffering, whilst the fourth made him aware of the possibility of an alternative way of life. Under the impact of this, the Buddha became determined to find a solution to the suffering he had experienced, and left the palace to become a religious mendicant himself, wandering in the forest.

In the forest, the Buddha then spent periods learning from two different teachers, but ultimately surpassed what either of them could teach him, and could no longer stay contented with their limitations. He then took up with five ascetics, who believed that practising austerities (such as extreme fasting or subjecting oneself to bodily pain) would lead to rewards in a future life. After excelling at these austerities, though, he is said to have recognised their limitations, given up fasting, and recognised that to make further progress he needed the Middle Way.

This film version from Little Buddha dramatizes the traditional account of this recognition.

The crucial elements of the Middle Way are present in the methods by which the Buddha gradually discovered it. His home context in the palace was dominated both by the experience of pleasure, and by the belief in conventional views that avoided any path to a more objective morality. In leaving this context, though, he sought absolute alternatives in the metaphysical beliefs of his teachers and of the five ascetics. In each case, it is the belief that a particular kind of view was absolute that restricted the practice of the people around the Buddha. To find the Middle Way, he had to move beyond loyalty to either group and be prepared to use his own experience to find a balanced perspective that addressed conditions better.

The Buddha’s ‘Silence’

The Buddha’s silence, or avyakrta, was his response when disciples asked him metaphysical questions, a story that occurs several times in the Pali Canon (e.g. Majjhima Nikaya 63). As was his custom, the Buddha remained silent when he thought it would not be useful to answer a question, but when pressed would answer it the third time round, and in this case explained that metaphysical views were “unbeneficial, it does not belong to the fundamentals of the holy life”.

The specific metaphysical views on which the Buddha was asked were whether or not the world is eternal, whether or not the world is infinite, whether or not the soul is the same as the body, and whether or not an enlightened person continued to exist after death. The restrictive interpretation that Buddhist tradition often places on this episode is to see it as only being about these specific metaphysical views (which happened to be of particular concern in the Buddha’s context) rather than as examples of the best response to all metaphysical views. But the universal applicability of this story will only follow from the latter interpretation.

The Kalama Sutta

In this famous episode (Anguttara Nikaya 65), the Buddha is asked for advice by a group of villagers who are confused by all the different conflicting religious teachers they have heard. They do not know who to believe, or how to go about judging between them. The Buddha’s advice here is “when you yourselves know” that a particular view is the type held by a wise person, then they should accept that view. In other words, it seems, we should consult our own experience rather than relying on religious authority. The Buddhist tradition has, of course, done its best to neutralise the threat to Buddhist metaphysics that would follow from taking this seriously, by arguing, for example, that this advice applies only to enquirers and not to committed Buddhists.

The Parable of the Raft

The parable of the raft (in Majjhima Nikaya 22) compares the teachings to a raft used to cross the river Ganges. Just as when landing on the other side of the river, one would leave the raft behind rather than carrying it across land, so one should leave behind teachings that are no longer relevant or useful. This contingency of teachings is incompatible with metaphysical authority – for if a metaphysical teaching could be dropped at any stage, it would no longer be “true”.

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This is just a selection of some of the most important references to the Middle Way in the Buddha’s life and teachings. There are many other less obvious ones. For further discussion of this and much other material please see Robert M Ellis’s book The Buddha’s Middle Way.

The key question for Buddhists, then, seems to be this one “Is this insight of the Middle Way the most important of the Buddha’s teachings?” If it is, then to hang onto other aspects of the teachings that contradict it is clearly incompatible with the Middle Way itself. One can participate in Buddhist tradition with this order of priority and also be a practitioner of the Middle Way. However, if one clearly decides that traditional authority is more important, one’s claim to be a practitioner of the Middle Way is hardly likely to stand up to much examination.