The Middle Way and the Budha Nature
We who are familiar with Master Gautama’s teachings know that he frequently uses the expression of the middle way to contrast with the duality consciousness. (this one related to the linear mind that acts by arguing between 2 opposite qualities , accepting that, if one is «true», the other is «false» and there is no 3rd possibility»).
But the «middle way» is not a reasoning process, dealing with «concepts and categories». The middle way is the experience of the one mind, or the Christ Mind or, using Master Gautama’s words, the «Budha Nature».
To grasp the «truth» of the middle way, we must go out of the linear conceptual binary mind.
When we can’t get out of the linear mind, we tend to see the «middle way» as a point in the middle of 2 extremes, a kind of «compromise» between this 2 extremes. But this is not the meaning of the middle way.
To grasp the middle way’s meaning, we need to access the Christ Consciousness (or Budha Nature) because only through this mind can we grasp what it is.
For a person that is not able to come out of the analytical mind, connected to the mortal self and the processes of the brain, that identify the «mind» with intellectual processes, is not possible to really grasp this.
What is needed is that we spend some time, at the beginning of our path, shutting up the «monkey mind» that is always thinking through arguments, opposing one to the other, doubting, discriminating, trying to define, to conceptualise what it experiences, and instead stay in silence for some time, in meditation .
This is not easy for most of us, that are so used to have words and phrases always popping up in our minds but, if we don’t learn to pause this mind, it will be very difficult to experience the «pure awareness» of our presence, e-g. the Conscious You or localised consciousness of the Presence.
We can only experience the «conscious you» when we open ourselves to the oneness of the Chris mind (or the Budha Nature). With time, we begin to be able to experience It more often because is only the »conscious you» that can contact the One Mind.
Like Einstein’s quotation says, «we cannot solve a problem with the same state of mind that creates the problem»: a separate mind is not able to «see» what the «one mind» is able to see, it is an impossibility.
And when we are focused on the Christ Mind, we see with the «vision» of Christ that is a sudden removing of the blindfold from our eyes, like if a ray of light illuminates us in an undeniable experience of truth. The Christ mind, is in fact, a vision that changes us immediately, and instantaneously. When we experience the Christ Mind, we are no longer the same.
Master Jesus refers often the experience of Saul of Tarsus when he was in his way to Damascus and was persecuting the Christians. And how he suddenly had a vision , described or understood, generally, as an image received by him but in fact, it was the experience in his mind of a vision of Christ that was like a lightning ,shaking him and making him see what he could not see before. And this experience changed him forever.
And with this changed mind- this corresponds to the initiation of the 2nd challenge of Christ- usually associated with higher levels of the path, like 96 degree of conscience and higher, although it can be experienced sooner, because, like the Masters say, the spiritual mind is spherical and this makes it possible to «see» in different degrees of conscience’s development, the «same truth».
But, as we were saying, with this Christ mind, we grasp that the «middle way» is not a «midpoint» between two extreme points, the middle way is the way that transcends the duality consciousness. In other words, we have to jump out of the linear dualistic mind, to be able to really grasp the middle way.
The middle way can also be referred to be the «neutral consciousness». The neutral consciousness is the consciousness of Peace. And why is that? It is because the conscious you and its I Am Presence don’t see the experiences of the world of form in the same way of the linear mind of the mortal self.
The mortal self gets anxious about the material conditions where he lives, and is constantly thinking that the world «should be » or «should not be » this or that, it puts conditions outside of itself to accept that can be in peace.
But our true identity, our spiritual identity, is not making judgments about the experiences in the world of form: from his perspective, it is living an experience, without adjectivizing it with «good» or «bad» , because it can learn anyway.
So, when we are able to connect with our true identity, no matter what is happening in the world or in our personal lives, we can be neutral, we can be in peace.
Peace is the Middle way, always connected with the streaming of Love coming from our I Am Presence and the «river of life».
