The Middle Way Society was founded to promote the study and practice of The Middle Way. The Middle Way is the idea that we make better judgements by avoiding fixed beliefs and being open to practical experience. We challenge unhelpful distinctions between facts and values, reason and emotion, religion and secularism or arts and sciences. Though our name is inspired by some of the insights of the Buddha, we are independent of Buddhism or any other religion. We seek to promote and support integrative practice, overcoming conflict of all kinds.
The next main meeting of the Middle Way Network will be on Sun 11th October 2020 at 7pm UK time on Zoom. This is the second of a series of three talks and discussions focusing on the nature of Middle Way practice: that is, how we can create the conditions for better judgement overcoming conflict in the long-term. We will be looking in turn at the integration of desire, meaning and belief as interdependent aspects of practice, linked to a potentially wide range of specific practices including meditation, the arts, and critical thinking.
There’ll be a short talk on practice as integration of meaning, followed by questions, then discussion in regionalised breakout groups. Some other regionalised groups will meet at other times. If you’re interested in joining us but are not already part of the Network, please see the general Network page to sign up. To catch up on the previous session, on integration of desire, please see this post.
Practice and the Integration of Meaning
Integration of meaning is important to Middle Way practice, because it provides us with the resources we need to draw on (in the development of synaptic links in our brains or associative awareness in our minds, to consider new alternative beliefs. To be able to think differently from the absolute assumptions we may have fallen into, we need to develop the capacity to think differently by understanding and relating to alternative symbols.
It is likely that we already engage in some practices that help to integrate meaning – for instance the arts, education, reading. However, recognising their role helps us to value these practices sufficiently, and see how they inter-relate to other aspects of the process of integration.
Other resources
There is already an introductory video (22 mins) on integration of meaning as part of Middle Way Philosophy, which is embedded below. You might like to watch this for an initial orientation before the session. This is relatively long and detailed in comparison to some of the other introductory videos we have used. A somewhat different approach will be taken in the session.
Here is the video from the actual Network meeting stimulus:
Suggested discussion questions
1. Give your own examples of integration of meaning that you have developed in the past: these could be internal or external, predominantly cognitive or predominantly emotive.
2. Have you ever experienced temporary integration of meaning? How did you benefit from it?
3. In what ways do you increase your stock of symbols?
4. In what sorts of situation in your experience would it be helpful to clarify, and how would this add to integration of meaning?
5. In what ways could tolerance of ambiguity help you to integrate meaning, and in what sorts of circumstances do you most need to practise it?
Suggested further reading
Migglism section 4, ‘The Arts’
Middle Way Philosophy 3: The Integration of Meaning. (See this link for a summary, this link for full text as part of the Omnibus edition)
The Meaning of the Body by Mark Johnson (University of Chicago Press, 2007) on the embodied meaning approach
The next main meeting of the Middle Way Network will be on Sun 27th September at 7pm UK time on Zoom. This is the first of a series of three talks and discussions focusing on the nature of Middle Way practice: that is, how we can create the conditions for better judgement overcoming conflict in the long-term. We will be looking in turn at the integration of desire, meaning and belief as interdependent aspects of practice, linked to a potentially wide range of specific practices including meditation, the arts, and critical thinking.
There’ll be a short talk on practice as integration of belief, followed by questions, then discussion in regionalised breakout groups. Some other regionalised groups will meet at other times. If you’re interested in joining us but are not already part of the Network, please see the general Network page to sign up. To catch up on the previous session, on integration in general, please see this post.
There is already an introductory video (18 mins) on integration of desire as part of Middle Way Philosophy, which is embedded below. You might like to watch this for an initial orientation before the session. This is slightly longer than the other introductory videos we’ve had so far, but it goes through some key ideas carefully in a way that there probably won’t be time for in the stimulus talk. It is mainly about cake!
Here is the video from the actual talk on 27th Sept 2020:
Practice and the Integration of Desire
The integration of desire is a way of thinking about practice that can help us to bridge the gap that is too often assumed between our “biological urges” and our “values” or “better natures”. Too often, “ethics” has consisted in telling people to repress their desires in the service of a “higher”, sometimes socially-sanctioned, sometimes “rational” rule. In the longer term, this doesn’t work, because repressed desires have a habit of coming back and re-asserting themselves. That seems to happen just as much at the socio-political level (repressing other groups) as it does at individual level (repressing basic desires). We need a better model of moral practice than merely one of rule-following, and the integration model offers one. Such an alternative model can also be symbolically inspired in the stories of the Buddha by his recognition that asceticism (denying and repressing desire) does not work, and him turning instead to the Middle Way.
Meditation is probably also a basic practice in which we can directly experience how integration of desire is possible, at least on a temporary basis. Simply by relaxing our bodies sufficiently, we can sometimes put what at first seemed overwhelming conflicts in a bigger perspective. Other embodied disciplines, such as yoga or tai chi, may have a similar effect. However, to overcome conflicts of desire in the longer-term we need to also address fragmentation of meaning and conflict of belief, which are the subjects of the following two sessions.
Some suggested reflection questions:
1. Which kinds of desires do you most often experience as conflicting?
2. How could those desires be integrated?
Suggested further reading
Migglismsection 4: ‘Integrating Theory and Practice’ and ‘Meditation’
Middle Way Philosophy 2: The Integration of Desire For a summary of this book by section see this webpage. For full text see Researchgate.
For discussion of the issues in relation to Buddhism, see The Buddha’s Middle Way 1.e (on the Buddha’s renunciation of asceticism) and 6.c (on craving).
In our latest podcast, the chair of the Middle Way Society, Robert M Ellis talks about his latest book ‘The Thought of Sangharakshita: A Critical Assessment.
The next main meeting of the Middle Way Network will be on Sun 13th September at 7pm UK time on Zoom. This is the fifth of the series looking successively at five principles of the Middle Way (scepticism, provisionality, incrementality, agnosticism and integration), followed by three levels of practice (desire, meaning and belief).
There’ll be a short talk on integration, followed by questions, then discussion in regionalised breakout groups. Some other regionalised groups will meet at other times. If you’re interested in joining us but are not already part of the Network, please see the general Network page to sign up. To catch up on the previous session, on agnosticism, please see this post.
There is already a short introductory video (9 mins) on integration as part of Middle Way Philosophy, which is embedded below. You might like to watch this for an initial orientation before the session.
Integration
Integration is the process by which conflicting desires, meanings and beliefs can be reconciled. It is central to the Middle Way, because it is absolute beliefs that prevent different desires being integrated and thus maintain conflict. We can see how absolutisation creates conflict in all sorts of contexts, from an individual trying to give up smoking to a global conflict between nations. In all cases, it is the ability to reframe the assumptions with which conflicting beliefs are based (as in the story of the two mules on the video), that makes it possible to reconcile these conflicts. A basic attitude is required of reconciling ourselves with our shadows (hated objects) rather than merely trying to eliminate them.
Integration thus forms the basic framework for Middle Way practice that can change our conditions of judgement over a period of time. There are three levels of integrative practice, each of which will be discussed in more detail in the next three stimulus sessions: integration of desire, that unites conflicting desires in the immediate situation; integration of meaning that makes it possible for conflicting selves or people to communicate; and integration of belief that questions our frameworks of assumption and seeks better, more adequate ones. Mindfulness, the arts and critical thinking provide examples of key practices at each level.
Some suggested reflection questions:
Can you think of an example of a recent process of integration you have gone through, whether with someone else or just within yourself?
Try to identify the different stages of that integration that has occurred in your experience, and whether it can be related to the process of the two mules.
What are the desires, meanings or beliefs you find most difficult to integrate?
Middle Way Philosophy 1, section 6: summarised here, full text available here.
Middle Way Philosophy volumes 2, 3 and 4 give a much more detailed account of the different levels of integration. These can all be found in the Middle Way Philosophy Omnibus.
The next main meeting of the Middle Way Network will be on Sun 30th August at 7pm UK time on Zoom. This is the fourth of the series looking successively at five principles of the Middle Way (scepticism, provisionality, incrementality, agnosticism and integration), followed by three levels of practice (desire, meaning and belief).
There’ll be a short talk on agnosticism, followed by questions and discussion in regionalised breakout groups. Some other regionalised groups will meet at other times. If you’re interested in joining us but are not already part of the Network, please see the general Network page to sign up. To catch up on the previous session, on incrementality, please see this post.
There is already a short introductory video (9 mins) on agnosticism as part of Middle Way Philosophy, which is embedded below. You might like to watch this for an initial orientation before the session.
Here is the video of the actual network talk, followed by Q&A:
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is an aspect of Middle Way practice that is interdependent with scepticism, provisionality and incrementality, but involves the distinctive challenge of decisively resisting absolute beliefs on both sides. Once we recognise that we ‘don’t know’ and can’t know anything perfect or infinite, the challenge is that of not being either unnerved or seduced by those with absolute beliefs who will constantly try to either dismiss or appropriate any kind of Middle Way position. These absolute beliefs may be about God, or about a whole range of other claims of infinite scope. Resisting these absolute beliefs requires having confidence in our embodied experience as a basis of judgement, as well as the application of critical thinking skills.
Agnosticism, like scepticism, has been much misunderstood and straw-manned by many philosophers and theologians, who then influence others’ views of it. It has been unfairly associated with indecisiveness, when it actually requires a good deal of decisiveness. It has been appropriated by those on both sides, who use its arguments, but then over-extend them into a claim that it positively supports their own absolute position. Agnosticism about God’s existence has also often been appropriated by atheists, who conflate the mere failure to believe in an absolute with belief in the opposite, often by redefining the terms in a way that tries to make any Middle Way unthinkable.
Alongside the avoidance of belief in absolute claims, we can maintain even-handedness by also having a full acceptance of their meaning. This means that we can engage as fully as we wish with the archetypal power of absolute ideas, or of the images and concepts associated with them, as we encounter them in experience. In our attitude to religious traditions, a Middle Way thus allows us to combine a resolute agnosticism with a practical appreciation of all the valuable inspiration and practical guidance that can be found in these traditions. A further video exploring the distinction between absolute belief and archetypal meaning can be found here.
Some suggested reflection questions:
What are the absolute beliefs that you need to be most decisive in remaining agnostic about?
Are there some negative absolute beliefs you may hold that you need to separate from agnostic ones?
Have you experienced the difference between strong and weak agnostic positions?
Do absolute beliefs remain meaningful to you even when you avoid belief in them? How could you make them meaningful if they aren’t?
