Avoid Two Extremes; Live in the Present Moment: The Buddha’s Message

Beyond this mythic dimension, the month of Esala traditionally signifies the auspicious commencement of the rainy season across the Indian subcontinent, a sacred period when wandering ascetics and spiritual seekers would traditionally settle in one place for intensive practice and contemplation.

Each year, Vesak arrives with its familiar rhythm—lanterns lighting up homes and temples, children dressed in white visiting Dansal stalls, families tuning into televised sermons. It is a cherished moment of cultural unity, a rare occasion when the island’s often fractured psyche seems to settle into quiet reverence.

But beneath the surface, there is an uncomfortable question we seem determined not to ask: Have we reduced the Buddha to an icon, while forgetting his message?

The Buddha delivered his transformative first discourse, the Dhamma Chakka Pavattana Sutta—Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion. This watershed moment in spiritual history has resonated through twenty-five centuries, touching hearts and minds far beyond the boundaries of Buddhist tradition. The profound simplicity and penetrating wisdom of this teaching found resonance even with Jawaharlal Nehru, architect of modern India, who eloquently reflected: “At Saranath near Benares I would almost see the Buddha preaching his first sermon and some of his recorded words would come like a distant echo to me through two thousand five hundred years. Asoka pillars of stone with their inscriptions would speak to me in that magnificent language and tell me of a man who though an Emperor, was greater than any King or Emperor.”

Buddhist Cosmology and Tradition

This celestial elephant entered her womb from the right side of her abdomen, marking the divine conception of Prince Siddhartha in Queen Mahamaya’s womb—one of the most significant events commemorated on Esala Poya. The white elephant and lotus symbolism foreshadowed the future Buddha’s immaculate wisdom and compassion that would blossom in the world despite its imperfections and suffering.

Beyond this mythic dimension, the month of Esala traditionally signifies the auspicious commencement of the rainy season across the Indian subcontinent, a sacred period when wandering ascetics and spiritual seekers would traditionally settle in one place for intensive practice and contemplation. This period of retreat, known as Vassa or “Rains Retreat,” continues to be observed in Buddhist monastic communities worldwide, creating a tangible link between contemporary practitioners and the Buddha’s original sangha.

The Middle Path: Avoiding Extremes Through Balanced Wisdom

The Buddha’s central message in the Dhamma Chakka Pavattana Sutta represents the quintessential core of his teaching: neither a life consumed by sensual pleasures and hedonistic self-indulgence nor one tormented by excessive asceticism and self-mortification can lead to genuine happiness or authentic spiritual liberation. Only the Middle Path (Majjhima Patipada), skillfully navigating between these two extremes with balanced discernment, guides the sincere seeker to true tranquility of mind, penetrating wisdom of reality’s nature, and complete liberation from the cycle of suffering and dissatisfaction that characterises unawakened existence.

Seven weeks after attaining perfect enlightenment under the sacred Bodhi tree at Bodhgaya, having conquered the tempter Mara and penetrated the deepest mysteries of dependent origination, the Buddha journeyed to Benares where he sought out the five ascetics who had once been his companions in austerity practices. There, in a moment of incomparable historical significance, he expounded the Four Noble Truths to Kondanna, Vappa, Bhaddiya, Mahanama, and Assaji—who would become his first disciples and the initial members of the sangha that continues unbroken to the present day. With compassionate clarity born of direct realisation, he proclaimed:

“Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress: Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.”

This penetrating insight into the nature of suffering (dukkha) forms the foundation stone for the Buddha’s entire teaching edifice, leading naturally to the other Noble Truths that reveal the cause of suffering (craving and ignorance), the possibility of its complete cessation (Nibbana), and the practical Eightfold Path that constitutes the way to its definitive end. By the conclusion of this discourse, the venerable Kondanna had gained the spotless “eye of Dhamma,” becoming the first in a lineage of awakened beings that stretches across continents and centuries.

Beyond Conventional Meditation: Understanding True Bhavana for Genuine Transformation

In contemporary spiritual discourse and practice, meditation techniques often involve deliberately fixing the mind on a specific object or following prescribed techniques and formulas—approaches that undeniably provide temporary peace, relaxation, and measurable physiological benefits. Modern scientific research increasingly confirms meditation’s positive effects on the immune system and neurological functioning, with rigorous studies from institutions like the University of Wisconsin documenting increased neural activity in meditation practitioners, particularly noting “50 percent more neuro-electrical activity in the left anterior regions of the brains of the meditators.”

Common contemporary practices include Samatha meditation for systematically calming and concentrating the restless mind, and techniques like Anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing) where practitioners focus sustained attention on the subtle sensation of breath at the nostrils or abdomen. Vipassana or insight meditation uses methodical awareness of arising and passing thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations to penetrate the true nature of phenomenal reality—its impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and essenceless nature.

Yet the Buddha’s profound teaching of Bhavana transcends these conventional approaches and techniques, however beneficial they may be as preliminary practices. True Bhavana is not merely control or manipulation of thought—which inevitably breeds internal conflict and division within consciousness—but rather a radical, choiceless presence with “what is” in each unfolding moment. It involves perceiving reality directly and immediately, without the filtering lens of accumulated memories, personal preferences, conditioned responses, or conceptual frameworks that inevitably distort perception.

While various meditation techniques may serve as temporary refuge from life’s turbulence and complexity, authentic Bhavana invites us to observe reality without distortion or interference, beyond the influence of personal tendencies, cultural conditioning, or external authorities who claim special access to truth. This capacity for direct perception represents the beating heart of the Buddha’s revolutionary teaching—a liberation not dependent on external authority, sacred texts, or special techniques, but realised through one’s own clear seeing of the fundamental nature of existence.

Living in the present moment through genuine Bhavana means observing “what actually is” rather than what we wish were true, rather than following prescribed patterns offered by those who promise security, certainty, or spiritual attainment through conformity to their particular methods. The Buddha himself warned against blind adherence to spiritual authorities, encouraging instead a direct investigation of reality that transcends sectarian divisions and doctrinal disputes. In the Kalama Sutta, he advised skeptical inquiry rather than acceptance based on tradition, scripture, or charismatic leadership—an approach that remains revolutionary even in our contemporary context where spiritual marketplaces offer countless paths, techniques, and promised outcomes.

The essence of the Buddha’s teaching on this sacred Esala day thus remains as relevant and challenging now as it was twenty-five centuries ago: avoid the extremes of indulgence and mortification, cultivate the Middle Path of balanced wisdom, and develop the capacity for direct, unmediated perception of reality as it actually is. Through this timeless practice, the possibility of liberation from suffering remains eternally present, like the full moon of Vesak illuminating our path through the darkness of ignorance.

MAY ALL BEINGS BE HAPPY!