In his very first sermon after attaining enlightenment, Buddha talked about the middle way of avoiding two extremes: the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification.
In the East people have a tendency toward self-mortification, while in the West we lean toward self-indulgence. So we all need the Middle Way.
The spiritual paths of both East and West are for the same purpose:
placing the hand of your soul in the hand of your Christ Self and
attaining your Christhood or your Buddhahood.
The Middle Way creates in you six conditions of consciousness:
Buddha is saying you can experience the heaven world while still living on earth. However, whether you do or not is up to you.
Buddha earned his victory over time and space in the sixth century BC. He was born the prince of a kingdom in India, and was named Siddhartha. He was married and had a child before he learned about old age, disease and death. His father, the King had attempted to prevent him from ever learning about these aspects of life on earth.
He then set out on his spiritual path to discover what could be done to overcome these conditions.
He was just like you and me. He knew there had to be a way to overcome the conditions of this world, which haven’t changed for more than 2500 years.
Buddha severed all ties to his birthright, he gave up everything in his world to pursue holy wisdom. After 6-7 years, he became one with divine truth and attained to the Buddhic level of consciousness.
Returning to his physical form, he was known as the enlightened one. He became the teacher of teachers. Buddha taught Truth and expounded on the Four Noble Truths, the Middle Way, and the Eightfold Path.
The way of the Buddha
Is the path of enlightenment
Through self-knowledge—
Knowledge of every aspect of the self,
What the self is,
What the self is not.
When the soul surveys existence and existences—
The round of karma created by desire,
The round of pleasure
Experienced through the physical senses—
And yearns for something more than all of this,
Something within called the eternal bliss,
The soul is ready for the path of the Buddha;
And the Buddha comes quietly.
The First Noble Truth is that all life is ‘suffering’.
The Second Noble Truth declares the cause of suffering is ‘desire’ or ‘thirst’.
The Third Noble Truth is there is an end to suffering: Nirvana, also known by the term ‘extinction of thirst.’
The Fourth Noble Truth says the way to this freedom is through the Eightfold Path.
The Eightfold Path is a path of progression beginning with self and reaching God.
It follows steps, yet is also spiral as you work on several layers at one time:
Right Understanding requires self-analysis. You examine the problems in your life—recognizing you are out of alignment and you make the decision to follow a Path back to integration with God. This requires faith and determination.
Buddha explained the root of Evil as greed, anger and delusion.
You can objectively see the conditions of consciousness of greed and anger, and determine whether they are in you or not.
But when it comes to delusion, the tendency is to be self-deluded by your desires, by your pride and ego.
We are very integrated with our ego, its pride and its desires and we do not recognize a state of delusion until you catch a higher insight and observe a new point of enlightenment.
And if you are wise, you write down the experience and the insight you learned in order to anchor it in your consciousness.
Freedom from self-delusion is a great necessity on the Spiritual Path.
You need to pursue it with intensity in prayer, thought, and daily self assessments.
Next is a meditation to expand the light of your heart. This meditation is to help you with self analysis.
Whenever you have a questions and need a correct analysis, you can go within to your heart chakra. Even in the midst of conflict you can focus your attention deep within your heart.
Now close your eyes and visualize a sphere of white fire. This white light pulsates, moves and scintillates within your heart. Coming out of the top of this white sphere are three flames – the three fold flame of your heart.
The flame is blue on the left, yellow in the center and pink on the right.
See the flames as equal in height. They are the spiritual qualities of God’s power, wisdom and love in perfect balance within you. This is the balanced threefold flame.
Meditate in your heart of hearts and discern which of the flames of love, wisdom or power is the tallest and strongest. Now discern which of the flames of pink, yellow or blue is the smallest and weakest. Silently ask your inner Buddha what you need to do to bring these flames into balance. Listen for the answer.
Go deeper within and listen to the heartbeat of God, listen to the heartbeat of Buddha. Feel the love of Buddha. This love expands from your heart, from your threefold flame in ring upon ring of misty pink light.
This mist will dissolve all hardness of heart within yourself and in those with whom you have conflict. See all conflicts consumed as you visualize this misty pink light surrounding the situation or the person.
Now meditate on the peace of your soul in the heart of Buddha. See your threefold flame and seal this flame and yourself in a sphere of white light. When you are ready, please return to this time and space.
Right Thought is the ray of intelligence defined as the “intent of the heart.”
When you have pure motives in your heart, you have the pure intelligence of your Christ mind. You know and understand we are all one in God. You put off all sense of separateness. Your illumination is right thought towards all life. Harmlessness toward everyone.
Your thought is centered in God—in having right thought, right contemplation upon the law of God and resolve to accomplish your mission in life.
This resolution is the use of desire constructively—setting one’s desire, setting one’s sail and moving in that direction consistently, day after day after day.
You pursue right speech by raising the energies of your heart and releasing them through your throat chakra. You modulate your voice for comfort and avoid harshness to any part of life. Always guarding the flow of your energy, you strive to be the “Compassionate One.”
It is possible to create more karma with your voice, with the words you say and the way you speak, than in almost any other way.
Gautama said to his disciples,
“What, Brothers, is Right Speech? A man, Brothers, has overcome lying and he abstains from telling falsehood. He speaks the truth, he is devoted to the truth, he adheres to the truth, he is worthy of confidence, is not a deceiver of men…. Thus he brings together those that are at variance; establishes those that are united;… he delights in concord; it is concord that he spreads by his words.
“He has given up harsh language. He speaks words free from rudeness, soothing to the ear, loving, going to the heart, courteous, rejoicing many, elevating many.
“He has overcome vain talk. He speaks at the right time, speaks in accordance with facts, speaks to the point. He speaks about the Dharma [the law and the teaching] and the Discipline of the Order; his speech is of real value and agrees with its object.
“He bears in mind the injunction which says: ‘In meeting one another, Brothers, there are two things that ought to be adhered to: either conversation about the Truth or holy silence.’
“This, Brothers, is Right Speech.”
Buddha talked about Truth- it is key to right speech so let’s listen to
A musical meditation on how to perfect truth – One of the ten perfections of the law.
Right Action is the practical application of the Law.
Right action is prompted by right motive, by being selfless and charitable.
Gautama gave five precepts of right behavior: do not kill; do not steal; do not lie; do not be unchaste; do not drink intoxicants.
Right action or Right behavior is the discipline of the Law for being purity in action.
Right Action and right conduct are the physical out picturing of all you contain in your heart, in your mind, in your soul, in your desires, in your being. It is the energy by which life is sustained and continued.
Right Livelihood is working in the right job for you.
You cannot accelerate on the spiritual path and precipitate the abundant life of God if your occupation pulls you in the opposite direction.
Buddha listed certain occupations not in keeping with the Eightfold Path: poison peddler, slave dealer, prostitute, butcher, hunter, brewer, armament maker, and fortune-teller.
Right livelihood is your work, what you do in life, how you give of yourselves to one another, to society, to your nation. So you want to live honorably working in a profession that does no harm and choose an occupation conducive to spiritual progress.
Do you know what the Buddha meditates on? He meditates on the Mother.
The mother is all of the earth – we are all mother, because we are here in the plane of Mater and we all have a soul, which is our feminine nature. It is your soul who must come up higher and reunite with her God Presence, become one with her Christ Self, her Buddha self.
Through Right Effort—exerting yourself for good through a strong will and steady “plodding” on your Path. Right effort is the way of proving in action the previous five steps of the Eightfold Path; it is the going over and over again—expressed in the life of constancy and dedication to your sacred labor.
Right effort is based upon a direct relationship with God. Right effort includes self-training, self-control and eventually self-mastery.
Right Mindfulness is total self-awareness. All that you are is the result of what you are doing at a particular moment.
Here is a mantra you can use to fulfill right mindfulness in you:
“Let that mind be in me which was also in Christ Jesus.”
You can have an active, watchful mind, an alert mind which tends to details and masters them.
Right mindfulness is the captain of your ship.
You can use the fires of transmutation, the violet flame, to invoke energy to consume all blocks to the fusion of your mind with action and words at the moment they happen.
Right Concentration or Right Absorption. The eighth step is when you consciously work on integrating with God. The eighth step includes all the great spiritual techniques such as meditation, proper breathing and the practice of the science of the spoken word. Right concentration means to gain integration in all of your chakras and your I AM Presence through direct personal experience of God.
Right concentration is when your attention is placed upon your Higher Self and your God Presence. It is earnest contemplation on the deep mysteries of Life.
You work on achieving mental tranquility and focus, by not letting yourself be distracted. Right concentration is absorption of your mind and soul in God and in the Teacher. Without right concentration and absorption, you do not attain the full bonding of your soul to your Christ Self, to your Buddha nature.
The secret chamber of the heart is the place where you meet the Master, the Guru, the Lord Buddha and your God Presence.
As you pursue your path to the heart of Buddha, you will go through many testings and trials and temptations, just as he did. In this world, they frequently happen through the people and situations you encounter during your day.
These tests never end – this is the situation when you pursue a path back to God. However, it is possible to get to the place where they no longer effect you, when you have achieved a balanced perspective and tranquility of heart and mind.
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