In the month of December, we celebrate the Bodhi Day Service commemorating the day that Siddhartha Gautama attained awakening and became a Buddha. Siddhartha was born a prince, and his father King Suddhodana gave him all the things that a person could desire in the hope that he would love the royal life and happily assume the role of king in the future.
Siddhartha was given three palaces, one suitable for each of the three seasons of winter, summer, and the monsoon season, so that he could enjoy comfort all year round. What’s more, during the rainy season when he was stuck indoors, he was surrounded by beautiful dancers. The clothing he wore was made of the finest fabrics from the Kasi Kingdom, and each meal was a delicious feast.
One would think that receiving all the things one might desire would bring him happiness, but Siddhartha found that despite having everything he could want, he still felt a deep sense of unease in his life. He came to realize that chasing after one’s desires leads to little satisfaction, but much suffering and anxiety. With that realization, he set out to free himself from the bonds of desire by pursuing rigorous ascetic practices, which he continued for seven years, often deliberately pursuing discomfort and physical suffering with the goal of realizing inner peace.
In order to eliminate the desire for a comfortable dwelling, Siddhartha lived and pursued spiritual practices in the wilds of a forest. To eliminate the desire for relaxed and comfortable postures, at times he practiced continually standing without sitting at all. Other times, he practiced by crouching down continually without a break. Rather than laying in the comfortable beds of his youth, in the forest he would lay down on a bed of thorns.
To eliminate his desire for food, he reduced his meals from one meal a day to one meal every two weeks. So as not to give in to his desire for delicious food, at times he would only eat raw uncooked rice, other times he only ate grass, cow dung, the roots of trees, or fruit that he gathered from the ground after it fell naturally from the trees. After practicing in this way for some time, he became so emaciated that when he reached for his abdomen, he wound up touching his own spine because there was no distance between the two.
After practicing in this way for seven years with the goal of eliminating all desires, Siddhartha found that he still had not attained liberation from suffering and anxiety. At that time, he resolved to abandon the two extremes of chasing after desires and deliberately seeking out discomfort. This balanced approach to Buddhist practice is called the Middle Way and has profound implications for many aspects of our lives.
In later years, the Buddha provided the following teaching on the Middle Way as a guide for one of his disciples named Sona whose strict ascetic approach to Buddhist practice was reminiscent of the difficult practices pursued by the Buddha:
If the string on your lute is too loose it will not create a beautiful and harmonious sound. Nor will a string that is too tight, create a calm and soothing sound. If, however, the strings are neither too tight nor too loose, the lute will produce a pleasing sound at the perfect pitch. In the same way, if you set out to practice the teachings with too much intensity, your mind will become agitated. Likewise, one who lacks all intensity will become lazy and indolent. For this reason, you must practice in a way that is balanced and not given to extremes.
(Adapted from the Sona Sutta)
I personally have no ear for music and cannot find a perfect pitch on my own. However, if I listen closely to the sound of a pitch pipe or a tuner, I can easily confirm the correct pitch. There are occasions when I also struggle to strike the right balance in my daily life. Sometimes I wind up wasting precious time and energy by stubbornly charging ahead with a project when such vigorous effort is not needed. At other times, my laziness takes over and I wind up putting off important tasks that need to be done right away.
Just as listening closely to the sound of a pitch pipe can help us find the correct tones for a musical instrument, listening closely to the Buddha’s teachings can help us to find the Middle Way in our own lives, so that we can find that ideal balance that will carry us forward on our path to awakening.
Namo Amida Butsu