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> Gautama emphasized a practical "middle path" rather than some extremist monastic malarkey If I remember, enlightenment was not found in the extremes under Ka
by elblanco 16y ago
> Gautama emphasized a practical "middle path" rather than some extremist monastic malarkey
If I remember, enlightenment was not found in the extremes under Kaundinya.
That message really seems to be lost I think. Both in the purposeful following of an extreme ideal, or in not being mindful of extreme habits.
Even if one is not a Buddhist, the concept of the middle path can be wonderfully freeing from expectations of extreme ideologies that sometimes ferment under civilizations.
- silentbicycle 16y agoYep, the Buddhist stories say that he spent a while as a rich prince, then some sort of eXtreme(TM) yogi, and neither really worked out for him. The popular American impression of Buddhism is pretty weird - historically, it's heavily skewed towards Japanese Zen Buddhism, but secondhand, from the Beats* . The way people talk about Zen, you'd think it had antioxidants or something. * Due to their infatuation with the San Francisco Zen Center, Shunryu Suzuki, etc.