Extreme Inner Peace
by Chen Dushek
When it comes to Zen Toaism, the middle way dictates that any extreme, even those, wait, especially those involving inner alchemy, is not the right path.The right path is the path of least effort and least resistance. Too little effort yields much resistance, especially from nagging parents. Too much effort yields very little resistance, but wears down the soul to the point of exhaustion, making it impossible to focus on acts of kindness. But the path that is both the least effort and at the same time also the least resistance is the first step in the right direction.
To attain a state of tranquility, one has only to dwell in the present moment, forgetting past and disregarding future. What might happen or what did happen often bind us to our emotions, preventing us from breathing freely. This leads to a person testing some form of extreme to defy the clutches of death and prove himself once more immortal, but that is not the answer. We all have them, whether it’s eating too much, working out nonstop, chain smoking, watching tv, we all have at least one thing we do or have too much of. Thus we remain bound to our physical form.
In the case of Zen Taoism, the Zen aspect, finding its roots in the middle way of Buddhism, provides a mechanism to cap the extremes that may be realized with inner alchemy. I for one am guilty of having tested my own inner alchemy to its limits on occasion, so to be fair, this is not to say you can’t go to extremes in Zen Taoism. But it is fair to say that you recognize when you are doing so and learn to control impulses and drives to overcompensate for what is truly lacking in life, and that will always be inner peace.