The Middle Way Society was founded to promote the study and practice of The Middle Way. The Middle Way is the idea that we make better judgements by avoiding fixed beliefs and being open to practical experience. We challenge unhelpful distinctions between facts and values, reason and emotion, religion and secularism or arts and sciences. Though our name is inspired by some of the insights of the Buddha, we are independent of Buddhism or any other religion. We seek to promote and support integrative practice, overcoming conflict of all kinds.
The next main meeting of the Middle Way Network will be at 7pm UK time on Sun 22nd Nov 2020. This will be the second of our series of talks and discussions on ethics, and is on the topic of evil. Evil needs to be acknowledged as an important aspect of human experience, rooted in our sense of threats and need for security from danger. Our intuitions about ‘evil’ human qualities (such as cruelty, deception, or megalomania) also often reflect aspects of absolutisation in human judgement. However, we also have a strong tendency to absolutise and project evil, to ‘demonise’ other people or things by treating them as wholly evil, when they are complex. To practise the Middle Way in relation to evil, we need to try to distinguish what is actually a threat to us from the things or people that we may unthinkingly label as ‘evil’.
There’ll be a short talk on this topic, followed by questions, then discussion in regionalised breakout groups. Some other regionalised groups will meet at other times. If you’re interested in joining us but are not already part of the Network, please see the general Network page to sign up. To catch up on the previous session, on responsibility, please see this post. If you would like catch up more with more basic aspects of the Middle Way approach, we are also holding a reading group on 29th Nov which will do this – please contact Jim (at) middlewaysociety.org if you want to join this.
Here is the video from the session:
Suggested reflection questions
What sorts of things or people do you tend to feel are ‘evil’? To what extent do you think you are justified?
Is it possible to identify evil judgements in a person rather than evil character?
The next main meeting of the Middle Way Network will be at 7pm UK time on Sunday 8th November. This will start off our new series of topics, on the Middle Way applied to ethics and politics, with the topic ‘Feeling Responsible’. The practice of the Middle Way is closely related to developing our sense of responsibility, but it’s important to distinguish this from the social institution of holding people responsible. The latter has an important role in society, but it is easy to treat it absolutely by applying the assumptions of total freewill or determinism, and thus interfere with the actual development of felt responsibility.
There’ll be a short talk on this topic, followed by questions, then discussion in regionalised breakout groups. Some other regionalised groups will meet at other times. If you’re interested in joining us but are not already part of the Network, please see the general Network page to sign up. To catch up on the previous session, on integration of belief, please see this post. If you would like catch up more with more basic aspects of the Middle Way approach, we are also holding a reading group on 15th Nov which will do this – please contact Jim (at) middlewaysociety.org if you want to join this.
There is already a video on responsibility which will be embedded below, and you might like to watch either before the session or afterwards for further background:
Here is the video of the actual talk and Q&A on the Network session:
Some suggested reflection questions:
What are some examples of things you feel responsible for, and how do you relate to that sense of responsibility?
Are there any things on the edge of your sense of responsibility, where you feel you could helpfully stretch that sense a little?
What conditions or practices do you think have helped you develop your sense of responsibility in the past?
Are there some things you definitely don’t feel responsible for, or even perhaps that it’s a bad idea to feel responsible for?
My guest today is Gavin Haynes, a freelance journalist, writer, presenter and former editor-at-large at Vice. He’s here to talk to us about the Purity Spiral. How a process of moral outbidding is corroding communities from within.
The next main meeting of the Middle Way Network will be on Sun 25th October 2020 at 7pm UK time on Zoom. This is the last of a series of three talks and discussions focusing on the nature of Middle Way practice: that is, how we can create the conditions for better judgement overcoming conflict in the long-term. We will be looking in turn at the integration of desire, meaning and belief as interdependent aspects of practice, linked to a potentially wide range of specific practices including meditation, the arts, and critical thinking.
There’ll be a short talk on practice as integration of belief, followed by questions, then discussion in regionalised breakout groups. Some other regionalised groups will meet at other times. If you’re interested in joining us but are not already part of the Network, please see the general Network page to sign up. To catch up on the previous session, on integration of meaning, please see this post.
Integration of Belief
Integration of belief is the most important and most lasting form of integration, and the basis of wisdom and compassion. To develop these qualities we need to be able to avoid absolute beliefs but engage with provisional ones. We need to sift absolute beliefs from provisional ones in areas such as religion and politics, but there are also many other everyday ways of practising integration of belief in relation to cognitive biases. A range of practices can help us to develop integration of belief, but especially those that cultivate wider awareness of our beliefs specifically – such as individual reflection, or study and discussion in which critical thinking is applied.
Other resources
There is already an introductory video (21 mins) on integration of belief as part of Middle Way Philosophy, which is embedded below. You might like to watch this for an initial orientation before the session. This is relatively long and detailed in comparison to some of the other introductory videos we have used. A somewhat different approach will be taken in the session.
Here is the video from the actual Network talk:
Some suggested reflection questions:
1. Think of an example of an absolute belief that you have found difficult to integrate (it has caused conflict for you).
2. How can you apply the five principles of Middle Way Philosophy to this belief and its opposite (scepticism, agnosticism, provisionality, incrementality, integration)?
3. When you have avoided absolute beliefs in this example, what are the associated provisional beliefs and meaning, and how might they be used to develop a more integrated belief?
Suggested further reading
Migglism section 4 (5 in the e-book): ‘Critical Thinking’
Understanding absolutisation and why it is a problem is a central issue of Middle Way theory and practice. I’ve tried to distill the key points in this chart (click to enlarge). Feel free to download it, print it, or use it for any other personal (non-commercial) use.
