Beyond the Self: Teachings on the Middle Way focuses on three key Buddhist concepts: Right View (keeping an open mind and avoiding extreme perspectives and dualities), Interdependence (dependent co-arising, the dependent and mutually-created nature of all things), and No-self (the lack of attachment to an individual separate existence).
Our difficulties arise, the sutra teaches, when we forget these teachings and become attached to things, believing that they are permanent. When we embrace the difficulties as well as the pleasures as essential elements of life, we will be on a path towards a more peaceful and joy-filled existence.
In his commentaries on The Middle Way, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh shows us how one of the Buddha’s most central ideas—not being caught in extreme views and transcending dualistic thinking—can change the way we perceive the world and thus transform ourselves. When we practice according to the Middle Way, we don’t exclude anything, including our dissatisfaction and suffering. When we embrace all experiences and aspects of life, we will find tranquility.
