The Midpoint
- smcculley
- Jun 8, 2024
- 2 min read
The Midpoint
One angle on ‘householder’ that has stuck with me from my early days in the school, is that householder is the midpoint between ‘tramp’ and ‘lunatic’.
The features of tramp and lunatic represent the two extremes on the spectrum of value; lunatic tends to overvalue unimportant things, while tramp does not value anything at all. The midpoint between the two is the point where scale and relativity exist and where one’s personal scale of values gives rise to an ordered and balanced life, both inwardly and outwardly. It is the point from which one is able to live within one’s financial means and also the point from which one is able to maintain a calm and reasonable mind in the face of life’s ups and downs. It is the point from which one can bear suffering and difficulty with patience and humility, the point where one remains unaffected by praise or blame, flattery or insult. It is the point where one’s relationships can be maintained with understanding and external considering; the point where, as Marcus Aurelius said, one does not need to have an opinion about things but can simply experience the moment as it is.
The midpoint is where opposites and contradictions dissolve; duality becomes one Truth.
It is this still, small point from which self-remembering triumphs over self indulgence, where balance, equanimity and evenness reign, and where freedom from identification is possible.
This is the ground from which a conscious being can grow.
“Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.”
“Here the profound lesson of reception, neither preference or denial.”
From ‘Song of the Open Road', by Walt Whitman
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