Avoiding the Extremes Opens the Middle Way to Peace!

There are, friends, these two extremes, which not should be practiced by any, who has initiated purification: The hunt for sensual pleasures, which is low, vulgar, the common way of ordinary worldlings, ignoble, disadvantageous; and any practice of self-torture, which also is quite painful, ignoble, and rather disadvantageous! Without veering towards either of these extremes, the well-gone-beyond Buddha has awakened to the Middle Way, which leads to assured vision, to direct knowledge, which leads to ease, to peace, to certain understanding, to Enlightenment, to Nibbana. And what is that Middle Way, awakened to by the Buddha, which leads to assured vision, to direct knowledge, which leads to ease, to peace, to certain understanding, to Enlightenment, to Nibbana?

It is this very Noble Eightfold Path, which consists of:

• Right View
  
• Right Motivation
  
• Right Speech
  
• Right Action
  
• Right Livelihood
  
• Right Effort
  
• Right Awareness
  
• Right Concentration
  

It is based on the Buddhist Middle Way, awakened to by the Blessed Buddha. It leads to assured vision, and to direct knowledge which leads to ease of mind, and to certain understanding of the Buddhist sutras. With ease of mind and great understanding, peace of mind becomes bliss and joy, and eventually that pinnacle of enlightenment, Nirvana. Source: The Grouped Sayings of the Buddha. Samyutta Nikaya. Book IV [330-1] Section 42: On The 6 Senses. Rasiya: 12. http://www.pariyatti.com/book.cgi?prod_id=948507 http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/samyutta/index.html