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Deva means divine, Madhyama means the middle – the divine middle. The extreme is the disease,
and the mind lives through the extremes. The mind always thinks in terms of either/or, and reality is
just exactly in the middle. It is never either/or; it is both/and. It is neither day nor night, neither life
nor death, neither body nor soul. It is somewhere between the two, exactly between the two.
And exactly in the middle is also the point from where transcendence happens, from where you go
beyond both.
To be in the middle is to go beyond both. Health and great balance, silence, come through this
understanding. Because extremes create tensions and excitements, they create heaven and hell.
And the mind is always a chooser, it lives through choosing. The moment you stop choosing
and allow life to be as it is, you immediately fall into the middle. Let-go is the way of the middle.
Choicelessness is the meaning of let-go; Then you allow life, whatsoever it brings. Buddha calls it
the philosophy of suchness, ’tathata’, the philosophy of as-it-is-ness. Let it be as it is: when it is
night, it is night; don’t hanker for the day. When it is day, it is day; don’t ask for the night. When it is
pain it is pain; when it is pleasure it is pleasure. Don’t choose, allow it to happen. Slowly, slowly a
great understanding arises out of this allowing, out of this let-go. And that understanding makes you
alert, aware that you are separate from both. You are neither life nor death: you are just a witness.
That witnessing is Buddhahood, that witnessing is enlightenment. And to be in the middle is the way
to it.
So let this be your key: never go to the extreme, always keep in the middle, like a tightrope walker.
Slowly, slowly, the knack arises. Once you have understood how to be in the middle the mind
disappears on its own accord, because it cannot exist in the middle; that is the secret of the work.
It can exist only in the extreme, opposite to something, diametrically opposed to something. It is a
chooser: it can either love or hate.