A Ramble About Extremes

The “middle path” is a foundational concept of Buddhism. It comes from an epiphany which Gautama Siddharta had after having first as a youth experienced unrestricted wealth and hedonism, and then later as an Indian ascetic years of intense, extreme fasting and denial of the body. As he was fasting and near the point of death, and coming no closer to the enlightenment he was seeking, he heard a man instructing someone on the use of a sitar, a one stringed guitar-like instrument. The man said, “If you wind the string too tight it will snap, and if it is too loose, it will not play.” From this came Siddharta's foundational revelation of the middle path, the point which lies between all opposite extremes, as leading to enlightenment.

Unbeknownst to many, the middle path is not just a Buddhist concept, but it is a very Christian one as well. Proverbs 30:8-9 (ESV) says:

Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the LORD?”
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.

I've been contemplating these things since we returned from Arkansas to Southern California. My family and I have spent the last five years living in isolated rural areas in Tennessee, Idaho, and Arkansas here in the United States (Yes, we lived in Arizona for a few months too). Most of that time, we've been living in what most people would consider poverty, even extreme poverty, but over those years we adjusted to each new challenge and it just became the way life was as we learned to give up the things we didn't actually need. Depending on who reads this, you might be surprised about what you don't actually need and what are luxuries. Things like running hot water, constant electricity, flushing toilets that run into a sewer system all became luxuries that we learned to do without and to live more or less happy regardless.

Now, my family and I are having to adjust back to “civilization.” To say the least, we are in culture shock and are feeling overwhelmed. For me, it is actually very strange to have constant, regular internet access again. Or to be around so many other people, or cars, or going from a few choices of food at a grocery store to thousands of choices at the grocery store. And the pace of life in SoCal is much, much faster than where we've been living. I feel like I haven't been able to just stop and breathe since we got here two days ago (after spending two days in transit on Greyhound buses). I grew up here and yet it now feels foreign and strange.

The thing about the middle path is that, in order to avoid all opposite extremes, you have to be aware of what those extremes are and where the boundaries lie. Is a poor man who doesn't realize he's poor by other people's standards really poor? Is a wealthy man who believes he's in poverty because he doesn't possess as much as his neighbor really wealthy?

One of the problems with most Americans and Westerners is that we as a civilization are so wealthy we don't know what are really necessities and what are luxuries, or what are basic needs and what are mere conveniences. Food is a basic need, but heat and serve meals, fast food and pizza are not. Clothing is a basic need, but binging at Macy's or two closets full of nothing to wear is not. It is hard to really understand what the middle way is when you think luxuries are basic needs or when you believe basic needs are luxuries.

So is the middle way then relative? No, not necessarily. St. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6:6-8 (ESV):

“Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”

As I was contemplating all the changes which have happened to us in the last week, the thought struck me that the key to the middle way is being satisfied with what you already have access to, whether or not you can claim ownership of it. If you should lose that access, just let it go. If you should gain access to more than you previously did, only use what is offered and do not desire more.

St. Paul also writes in Philippians 4:11-13 (ESV):

“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

Finding the point between all opposite extremes for the follower of Jesus Christ means being satisfied with what you already have access to in any given moment, no matter how much or how little, by Grace through faith in Jesus Christ. It means seeking neither more nor less than what God gives you to work with at the time. If you have nothing but the clothes on your back, then this is what you need at that moment. If you have been entrusted with millions of dollars, then God has determined this is what you need to accomplish His purposes in that moment (and be warned, the money is His and not yours to do with as you please).

Be neither attached to wealth nor averse to it. Be neither attached to extreme poverty nor averse to it. Both conditions are useful to God in our personal, individual processes of deification (and often extreme poverty is extremely useful to Him for our instruction). Ultimately, neither condition will be permanent in our lives as God uses both to transform us by His energies through faith in Jesus Christ into what He is.