The middle way? What’s that?
The middle way is like a mellow tone. A mellow tone is perhaps melodious, but not too loud, not too soft and not too dissonant. It’s in the middle. The middle way strives to strike a balance between extremes, to stay mellow, and to flow.
Doesn’t finding the middle way sound like the basis of a great spiritual practice or some form of ancestral wisdom? Well, in fact, it is! The middle way is the Noble Eightfold path of Buddhism, leading the initiate to the path between indulgences and ascetism. (Read more about the middle way of Buddhism.)
According to Dictionary.com, the middle way is “a mediating path or compromise between extremes of action or policy.” What awareness do you possess of the extremes and the in-betweens? Do you operate from extremes of yes and no? Or, do you find the mellow tone of Yes-AND!
Today’s Monday Music selections puts the middle way, mellow tone to music with a jazz flow. Take a listen to “In a Mellow Tone” as posted by SwingCla on YouTube:
Find the middle way and you find the mellow tone of joy unknown
“In a mellow tone that’s the way to live
If you mope and groan something’s gotta give
Just go your way and laugh and play
There’s joy unknown in a mellow tone”
After a fashion, the Enneagram also supports this idea of finding a middle way with regards to the Three Centers of Intelligence mapped by the Enneagram. The Enneagram theory is that each of us has access to all three Centers of Intelligence—Head (Mental), Heart (Emotional), Body (Physical)—but access to one Center will usually be more dominate and free-flowing in each individual. The Enneagram idea is to develop equal access to all three of the Centers. In other words to chart a middle way course between your natural and readily accessible habits of attention and your more dormant but equally viable habits of attention from the other two Centers.
Are you living fancy free and in a mellow tone? Do you go your way, laugh and play? You know you are the only one stopping you from finding your own middle way. Why not start that process today? Look for the middle of all situations you encounter this week, and see what your resistances might be to reacting from a middle-way Yes-AND! perspective rather than the black-white perspective of yes or now.
Enjoy the music, and use the Grounded Relating Monday Music Challenge to stay present to yourself today.
Full lyrics for “In a Mellow Tone” written by Duke Ellington and Milt , as posted on metrolyrics.com:
“In a Mellow Tone”
In a mellow tone feeling fancy free
And I’m not alone, I’ve got company
Everything’s okay the live long day
With this mellow song I can’t go wrong
In a mellow tone that’s the way to live
If you mope and groan something’s gotta give
Just go your way and laugh and play
There’s joy unknown in a mellow tone
In a mellow tone
In a mellow tone feeling fancy free
And I’m not alone, I’ve got company
Everything’s okay the live long day
With this mellow song I can’t go wrong
