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61-530: Middle Way is the term that Siddhartha Gautama used to describe the character of the path he discovered that leads to liberation. Middle way or Middleway may also refer to: Middle Way In the early Buddhist texts, there are two aspects of the Middle Way taught by the Buddha. Scholar David Kalupahana describes these as the "philosophical" Middle Way and the "practical" Middle Way. He associates these with

122-461: A "Middle Way" position between the metaphysical view that things exist in some ultimate sense and the view that things do not exist at all. Madhyamika philosophy, based on the Buddha's Perfection of Wisdom Sutras, was set forth by the great Indian master Nagarjuna . He was later followed by great masters such as Aryadeva , Buddhapalita , Bhavaviveka and Chandrakirti . Nagarjuna's influential Mūlamadhyamakakārikā -‘The Fundamental Wisdom of

183-458: A Chinese parallel at MA 169 as well as in MN 3 (Chinese parallels at MA 88 and EA 18.3). Indologist Johannes Bronkhorst concludes that the first extreme mentioned here "indulgence in desirable sense objects" does not refer to a specific religious movement or practice, but to the actions of common people. However, the other extreme does presuppose ascetics who used "devotion to self-mortification" to reach

244-426: A clear ontological import when they were called for. In the present passage atthita and natthita are abstract nouns formed from the verbs atthi and natthi. It is thus the metaphysical assumptions implicit in such abstractions that are at fault, not the ascriptions of existence and nonexistence themselves...While atthita is the notion of existence in the abstract, bhava is concrete individual existence in one or another of

305-445: A monk has a latent tendency, by that is he reckoned, what he does not have a latent tendency for, by that is he not reckoned. These tendencies are ways in which the mind becomes involved in and clings to conditioned phenomena . Without them, an enlightened person cannot be "reckoned" or "named"; he or she is beyond the range of other beings, and cannot be "found" by them, even by gods, or Mara . In one passage, Sariputta states that

366-477: A religious goal. The Buddhist texts depict (and criticize) Jain ascetics as those who practice extreme self-mortification (Bronkhorst cites MN 14 ). Early Buddhist sources (such as MN 36 ) also depict the Buddha practicing those ascetic practices before his awakening and how the Buddha abandoned them because they are not efficacious. Some of these extreme practices include a "meditation without breathing", and extreme fasting which leads to emaciation as well as

427-504: Is a complete acceptance of all that arises and no confusion about the fact that all patterns of experience are of the same dependent, insubstantial nature. In Mahāyāna Buddhism , the Middle Way refers to the insight into śūnyatā ("emptiness") that transcends the extremes of existence and non-existence. This has been interpreted in different ways by the various schools of Mahāyāna philosophy. The Madhyamaka ("Middle Way") school defends

488-413: Is a condition for choices. The discourse then states that the Buddha teaches by the middle and outlines the twelve elements of dependent origination. Gethin states that for early Buddhism, personal continuity is explained through the particular way that the various phenomena which make up a sentient being are causally connected.143 According to Gethin, this middle teaching "sees a 'person' as subsisting in

549-482: Is cut off. The influential Theravāda doctrinal compendium called the Visuddhimagga states: "Dependent origination" ( paticca-samuppada ) represents the middle way, which rejects the doctrines, 'He who acts is he who reaps' and 'One acts while another reaps' (S.ii.20) ..." The metaphysical import of the "middle teaching" is interpreted in different ways by modern Theravada Buddhists. Bhikkhu Bodhi comments on

610-477: Is established given the existence of either intrinsic nature or extrinsic nature. 5. If the existent is unestablished, then the nonexistent ( abhāva ) too is not established. For people proclaim the nonexistent to be the alteration of the existent. 6. Intrinsic nature and extrinsic nature, existent and nonexistent—who see these do not see the truth of the Buddha's teachings. 7. In "The Instructing of Katyāyana" both "it exists" and "it does not exist" are denied by

671-463: Is eternalism; the middle way is that there is only the connectedness, there is only dependent arising. "Dependent origination" also gives a rationale for rebirth : Conditioned Arising is [...] a 'Middle Way' which avoids the extremes of 'eternalism' and 'annihilationism': the survival of an eternal self, or the total annihilation of a person at death. In the Theravāda Buddhist tradition,

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732-521: Is explored in SN 12.35. In this sutta, a monk asks the Buddha the following question regarding the 12 links of dependent origination: "what now is aging-and-death, and for whom is there this aging-and-death?" The Buddha responds: "Not a valid question," the Blessed One replied. "Bhikkhu, whether one says, 'What now is aging-and-death, and for whom is there this aging-and-death?' or whether one says, 'Aging-and-death

793-487: Is found in the Kaccānagotta-sutta ." The Kaccānagotta-sutta (SN 12.15 with Chinese Agama parallels at SA 262 and SA 301 and also a Sanskrit parallel Kātyāyanaḥsūtra ) explains the middle way view as follows: Kaccāna, this world mostly relies on the dual notions of existence and non-existence. But when you truly see the origin of the world with right understanding, you won't have the notion of non-existence regarding

854-535: Is interpreted as signifying that the Tathāgata is beyond all coming and going – beyond all transitory phenomena . There are, however, other interpretations and the precise original meaning of the word is not certain. The Buddha is quoted on numerous occasions in the Pali Canon as referring to himself as the Tathāgata instead of using the pronouns me , I or myself . This may be meant to emphasize by implication that

915-469: Is just suffering arising, and what ceases is just suffering ceasing. Your knowledge about this is independent of others. This is how right view is defined. 'All exists': this is one extreme. 'All doesn't exist': this is the second extreme. Avoiding these two extremes, the Realized One teaches by the middle way: 'Ignorance is a condition for choices. Choices are a condition for consciousness. … [the rest of

976-410: Is one thing, the one for whom there is this aging-and-death is another'—both these assertions are identical in meaning; they differ only in the phrasing. If there is the view, 'The soul and the body are the same,' there is no living of the holy life; and if there is the view, 'The soul is one thing, the body is another,' there is no living of the holy life. Without veering towards either of these extremes,

1037-783: Is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable. Avoiding both these extremes, the Perfect One has realized the Middle Path; it gives vision, gives knowledge, and leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment and to Nibbana . And what is that Middle Path realized by the Tathagata...? It is the Noble Eightfold Path, and nothing else, namely: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. A similar passage occurs in other suttas such as Araṇavibhaṅgasutta (MN 139) with

1098-615: Is the past passive participle of the verbal root gam ("go, travel"). Āgata ("come") is the past passive participle of the verb meaning "come, arrive". In this interpretation, Tathāgata means literally either "the one who has gone to suchness" or "the one who has arrived at suchness". Another interpretation, proposed by the scholar Richard Gombrich, is based on the fact that, when used as a suffix in compounds, -gata will often lose its literal meaning and signifies instead "being". Tathāgata would thus mean "one like that", with no motion in either direction. According to Fyodor Shcherbatskoy ,

1159-679: The Tattvasaṃgraha Tantra there are only four Buddha families, the full Diamond Realm mandala with five Buddhas first appears in the Vajrasekhara Sutra . The Vajrasekhara also mentions a sixth Buddha, Vajradhara , "a Buddha (or principle) seen as the source, in some sense, of the five Buddhas." The Five Buddhas are aspects of the dharmakaya "dharma-body", which embodies the principle of enlightenment in Buddhism . When these Buddhas are represented in mandalas, they may not always have

1220-432: The skandhas (personality factors) that render citta (the mind) a bounded, measurable entity, and is instead "freed from being reckoned by" all or any of them, even in life. The aggregates of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and cognizance that compose personal identity have been seen to be dukkha (a burden), and an enlightened individual is one with "burden dropped". The Buddha explains "that for which

1281-462: The Buddhavaṃsa , twenty-one more Buddhas were added to the list of seven names in the early texts. Theravada tradition maintains that there can be up to five Buddhas in a kappa or world age and that the current kappa has had four Buddhas, with the current Buddha, Gotama, being the fourth and the future Buddha Metteyya being the fifth and final Buddha of the kappa . This would make the current aeon

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1342-474: The Kaccānagotta-sutta also state that "the Tathagatha teaches by the middle way " ( majjhena tathāgato dhammaṃ deseti ) which often refers to the doctrine of dependent origination as a view between the extremes of eternalism and annihilationism as well as the extremes of existence and non-existence. Gethin 78 According to Bhikkhu Bodhi , there are two extreme metaphysical views that are avoided through

1403-408: The Kaccānagotta-sutta as follows: In view of these explanations it would be misleading to translate the two terms, atthita and natthita, simply as "existence" and "nonexistence" and then to maintain (as is sometimes done) that the Buddha rejects all ontological notions as inherently invalid. The Buddha's utterances at [SN] 22:94, for example, show that he did not hesitate to make pronouncements with

1464-534: The Sumangalavilasini : Monks, in the world with its devas, Mara and Brahma, in this generation with its ascetics and brahmins, devas and humans, whatever is seen, heard, sensed and cognized, attained, searched into, pondered over by the mind—all that is fully understood by the Tathagata. That is why he is called the Tathagata. ( Anguttara Nikaya 4:23) Modern scholarly opinion generally opines that Sanskrit grammar offers at least two possibilities for breaking up

1525-587: The 12 elements of dependent origination follow] A similar passage is also found in SN 12.47. According to David Kalupahana, the terms "existence" (atthitā) and "non-existence" (natthitā) are referring to two absolutist theories (which were common in Indian philosophy at the time): the doctrine of permanent existence found in the Upanishads and the doctrine of non-existence (at death) of the materialist Carvaka school. "Dependent origination" ( pratītyasamutpāda ) describes

1586-489: The Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta itself, it is clear that the Buddha is the subject of the metaphor, and the Buddha has already "uprooted" or "annihilated" the five aggregates. In Sn 1074, it is stated that the sage cannot be "reckoned" because he is freed from the category "name" or, more generally, concepts. The absence of this precludes the possibility of reckoning or articulating a state of affairs; "name" here refers to

1647-670: The Blessed One, who clearly perceives the existent and the nonexistent. Tath%C4%81gata Tathāgata ( Sanskrit: [tɐˈtʰaːɡɐtɐ] ) is a Pali and Sanskrit word; Gautama Buddha uses it when referring to himself or other Buddhas in the Pāli Canon . Likewise, in the Mahayana corpus, it is an epithet of Shakyamuni Buddha and the other celestial buddhas . The term is often thought to mean either "one who has thus gone" ( tathā-gata ), "one who has thus come" ( tathā-āgata ), or sometimes "one who has thus not gone" ( tathā-agata ). This

1708-462: The Buddha asks him in which direction a fire goes when it has gone out. Vaccha replies that the question "does not fit the case ... For the fire that depended on fuel ... when that fuel has all gone, and it can get no other, being thus without nutriment, it is said to be extinct." The Buddha then explains: "In exactly the same way ..., all form by which one could predicate the existence of the saint, all that form has been abandoned, uprooted, pulled out of

1769-505: The Buddha describes the Noble Eightfold Path as the Middle Way which steers clear of the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification : Monks, these two extremes ought not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the household life. There is an addiction to indulgence of sense-pleasures, which is low, coarse, the way of ordinary people, unworthy, and unprofitable; and there is an addiction to self-mortification, which

1830-425: The Buddha's "teaching by the middle" ( majjhena dhammaṃ ): According to Bodhi, by steering clear of both of these extremes, dependent origination teaches that "existence is constituted by a current of conditioned phenomena devoid of a metaphysical self yet continuing on from birth to birth as long as the causes that sustain it remain effective." One of the most famous and clear expositions of dependent origination

1891-694: The Five Great Buddhas, and the Five Jinas ( Sanskrit for "conqueror" or "victor"), are emanations and representations of the five qualities of the Adi-Buddha or "first Buddha" Vairocana or Vajradhara , which is associated with the Dharmakāya . The Five Wisdom Buddhas are a development of the Buddhist Tantras, and later became associated with the trikaya or "three body" theory of Buddhahood . While in

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1952-585: The Middle Way’ (MMK) famously contains a reference to the Kacc ā yanagotta Sutta in its 15th chapter. This chapter focuses on deconstructing the ideas of existence, non-existence and intrinsic nature, essence, or inherent existence ( svabhāva ) and show how such ideas are incoherent and incompatible with causality and dependent origination. The MMK states: 4. Further, without intrinsic nature and extrinsic nature how can there be an existent ( bhāva )? For an existent

2013-571: The Tathagata teaches the Dhamma by the middle: 'With birth as condition, aging-and-death.'" Another passage which discusses personal identity with regard to the middle teaching is found in the Aññatarabrāhmaṇasutta (SN 12.46, with a Chinese parallel at SA 300). This sutta outlines two further extreme views with regards to personal identity and karma: The Timbarukasutta outlines a similar set of two extremes regarding personality: "Suppose that

2074-468: The annihilationist view that might arise in regard to phenomena produced and made manifest in the world of formations, holding "They do not exist." The cessation of the world : the dissolution ( bhanga ) of formations. There is no notion of existence in regard to the world : There does not occur in him the eternalist view which might arise in regard to phenomena produced and made manifest in the world of formations, holding "They exist." Further, "the origin of

2135-486: The arahant, both before and after parinirvana , lies beyond the domain where the descriptive powers of ordinary language are at home; that is, the world of the skandhas and the greed, hatred, and delusion that are "blown out" with nirvana. In the Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta , an ascetic named Vaccha questions the Buddha on a variety of metaphysical issues. When Vaccha asks about the status of a tathagata after death,

2196-466: The causal connectedness of dependent arising". Therefore, thinking that there is something unchanging and constant in a person is eternalistic, while thinking that there is no real connection between the same person at different points in time is annihilationist. As Gethin writes: In other words, if we deny that there is a real connectedness between events this is annihilationism, but if we understand that connectedness in terms of an unchanging self this

2257-534: The compound word: either tathā and āgata (via a sandhi rule ā + ā → ā), or tathā and gata. Tathā means "thus" in Sanskrit and Pali, and Buddhist thought takes this to refer to what is called "reality as-it-is" ( yathābhūta ). This reality is also referred to as "thusness" or "suchness" ( tathatā ), indicating simply that it (reality) is what it is. Tathāgata is defined as someone who "knows and sees reality as-it-is" ( yathā bhūta ñāna dassana ). Gata ("gone")

2318-433: The concepts or apperceptions that make propositions possible. Nagarjuna expressed this understanding in the nirvana chapter of his Mulamadhyamakakarika : "It is not assumed that the Blessed One exists after death. Neither is it assumed that he does not exist, or both, or neither. It is not assumed that even a living Blessed One exists. Neither is it assumed that he does not exist, or both, or neither." Speaking within

2379-600: The context of Mahayana Buddhism (specifically the Perfection of Wisdom sutras), Edward Conze writes that the term 'tathagata' denotes inherent true selfhood within the human being: Just as tathata designates true reality in general, so the word which developed into "Tathagata" designated the true self, the true reality within man. In Vajrayana Buddhism, the Five Tathāgatas ( pañcatathāgata ) or Five Wisdom Tathāgatas ( Chinese : 五智如来 ; pinyin : Wǔzhì Rúlái ),

2440-593: The current kappa (kalpa) and three are from past ones. One sutta called Cakkavatti-Sīhanāda Sutta from an early Buddhist text called the Dĩgha Nikãya also mentions that following the Seven Buddhas of Antiquity, a Buddha named Metteyya (Maitreya) is predicted to arise in the world. However, according to a text in the Theravada Buddhist tradition from a later strata (between the 1st and 2nd century BCE) called

2501-410: The effect is shown to occur through the cause and to cease with the cessation of the cause, but no agent or experiencer ( karaka, vedaka ) is described. Regarding the Kaccānagotta-sutta, the SN commentary glosses the key statements as follows: The origin of the world : the production of the world of formations. There is no notion of nonexistence in regard to the world : there does not occur in him

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2562-406: The existence of phenomena as coming about due to various causes and conditions. When one of these causes changes or disappears, the resulting object or phenomena will also change or disappear, as will the objects or phenomena depending on the changing object or phenomena. Thus, there is nothing with an eternal self, essence or atman , there are only mutually dependent origination and existence (hence,

2623-412: The feeling and the one who feels it are the same thing. Then for one who has existed since the beginning, pleasure and pain is made by oneself. I don't say this. Suppose that the feeling is one thing and the one who feels it is another. Then for one stricken by feeling, pleasure and pain is made by another. I don't say this. Avoiding these two extremes, the Realized One teaches by the middle way: 'Ignorance

2684-429: The former appear outwardly superior to the latter, simply because they are allowed to remain impassible, whereas the latter must in some sense appear to rediscover "a way" or at least recapitulate it, so that others, too, may "go that way," hence tathā-gata . A number of passages affirm that a Tathāgata is "immeasurable", "inscrutable", "hard to fathom", and "not apprehended". A tathāgata has abandoned that clinging to

2745-446: The ground like a palmyra-tree, and become non-existent and not liable to spring up again in the future. The saint ... who has been released from what is styled form is deep, immeasurable, unfathomable, like the mighty ocean." The same is then said of the other aggregates. A variety of similar passages make it clear that the metaphor "gone out, he cannot be defined" ( atthangato so na pamanam eti ) refers equally to liberation in life. In

2806-544: The middle doctrine avoids an eternal substance or being). However, the absence of an atman does not mean there is nothing at all (hence, the middle doctrine avoids nihilism). Therefore, according to Rupert Gethin, the "middle" doctrine of early Buddhism, when applied to the question of personal identity is closely connected with the Buddhist understanding of causality and with the doctrine of not-self ( anatta ). 143 The connection between dependent origination and personal identity

2867-445: The mind of the Buddha cannot be "encompassed" even by him. The Buddha and Sariputta, in similar passages, when confronted with speculation as to the status of an arahant after death, bring their interlocutors to admit that they cannot even apprehend an arahant that is alive. As Sariputta puts it, his questioner Yamaka "can't pin down the Tathagata as a truth or reality even in the present life." These passages imply that condition of

2928-419: The ontological status of the world. They are simply describing the types of concepts that do or don't occur to the mind when regarding the world in different ways. Similarly, according to Ajahns Amaro and Pasanno, the Kaccānagotta-sutta "more describes a method of meditation practice than merely another philosophical position". The Ajahns further state that: The advice given in the last passage closely matches

2989-518: The origination or cessation of the data of the senses. A person in that state of mind would see nothing in that mode of perception that would give rise to thoughts of existence or non-existence with regard to those sense data. However, when people are engaging in discussions about things that do or do not appear in the world—as the Buddha is describing in SN 22:94—then the terms "exist" and "do not exist" would naturally occur to them. In other words, this sutta and SN 22:94 are not making different claims about

3050-422: The practice of vipassana (insight) meditation: this consists of, firstly, the calm and attentive observation of the arising of all patterns of experience. Secondly, it involves the seeing of all such patterns through the reflective lens of anicca-dukkha-anatta (impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self). Lastly, in the culmination of the process, there is the remainderless relinquishment of all experience. There

3111-501: The same colour or be related to the same directions. In particular, Akshobhya and Vairocana may be switched. When represented in a Vairocana mandala, the Buddhas are arranged like this: In the earliest strata of Pali Buddhist texts , especially in the first four Nikāyas , only the following seven Buddhas, the Seven Buddhas of Antiquity ( Sattatathāgata , or "The Seven Tathāgatas"), are explicitly mentioned and named. Of these, four are from

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3172-459: The scorching path includes numerous "ways of mortifying and tormenting the body" including going naked, restricting their food intake in various ways, wearing various kinds of rough clothing, "they tear out their hair and beard," "they constantly stand, refusing seats," they maintain the squatting posture, and "they lie on a mat of thorns". The middle path meanwhile is described by listing the thirty seven aids to awakening . Other early sources like

3233-505: The sutta states "without entering either of the two extremes" ( ubho ante anupagamma ). A sutta from the Anguttara Nikaya (AN 3.156–162) also discusses the middle path as well as two other "paths", the addicted practice and the scorching path, referring to the two extremes. The addicted path is described as when someone thinks that there is nothing wrong with sensual pleasures "so they throw themselves into sensual pleasures." Meanwhile,

3294-470: The teaching is uttered by one who has transcended the human condition, one beyond the otherwise endless cycle of rebirth and death , i.e. beyond dukkha . The word's original significance is not known and there has been speculation about it since at least the time of Buddhaghosa , who gives eight interpretations of the word, each with different etymological support, in his commentary on the Digha Nikaya ,

3355-530: The teachings found in the Kaccānagotta-sutta and the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta respectively. In the Early Buddhist Texts , the term "Middle Path" ( Majjhimāpaṭipadā ) was used in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11, and its numerous parallel texts), which the Buddhist tradition regards to be the first teaching that the Buddha delivered after his awakening. In this sutta,

3416-671: The term has a non-Buddhist origin, and is best understood when compared to its usage in non-Buddhist works such as the Mahabharata . Shcherbatskoy gives the following example from the Mahabharata ( Shantiparva , 181.22): "Just as the footprints of birds (flying) in the sky and fish (swimming) in water cannot be seen, Thus ( tātha ) is going ( gati ) of those who have realized the Truth." The French author René Guénon , in an essay distinguishing between Pratyēka-Buddhas and Bodhisattvas , writes that

3477-399: The three realms. Bodhi also argues that what the noble disciple does see when reflecting on his personality with wisdom is "a mere assemblage of conditioned phenomena arising and passing away through the conditioning process governed by dependent origination." Regarding the Kaccānagotta-sutta, Thanissaro Bhikkhu writes: this sutta is describing the state of mind of a person focusing on

3538-415: The total suppression of bodily movement while standing and refusing to lie down. According to the scriptural account, when the Buddha delivered the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta , he was addressing five ascetics with whom he had previously practiced severe ascetic practices. As noted by Y. Karunadasa, this middle path "does not mean moderation or a compromise between the two extremes" rather, it means as

3599-532: The usage of the term "Middle Way" is discussed in 5th-century CE Pali commentaries . The Pali commentary to the Samyutta Nikaya (SN) states: The Tathāgata teaches the Dhamma by the middle without veering to either of these extremes—eternalism or annihilationism—having abandoned them without reservation. He teaches while being established in the middle way. What is that Dhamma? By the formula of dependent origination,

3660-436: The world" is direct-order conditionality ( anuloma-paccayākāra ); "the cessation of the world," reverse-order conditionality ( patiloma-paccayākāra ). The Pali sub-commentary to the SN states: The notion of existence is eternalism because it maintains that the entire world (of personal existence) exists forever. The notion of nonexistence is annihilationism because it maintains that the entire world does not exist (forever) but

3721-451: The world. And when you truly see the cessation of the world with right understanding, you won't have the notion of existence regarding the world. The world is for the most part shackled by attraction, grasping, and insisting. But if—when it comes to this attraction, grasping, mental fixation, insistence, and underlying tendency—you don't get attracted, grasp, and commit to the notion 'my self', you'll have no doubt or uncertainty that what arises

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