Notes for the workshop on 11 October with Siṃhanāda

THE MIDDLE WAY – TOO FAMILIAR?

The Middle Way is the great unifying idea in the Buddhist tradition. Everyone who knows anything about
Buddhism has heard about it. But is it well understood? Could The Middle Way be more talked about than
comprehended?

Siṃhanāda’s practice is based on the assumption that The Middle Way is so familiar that it tends to be
overlooked and underestimated, and so is generally not at all well-understood. Shaking off complacency to examine The Middle Way with fresh and renewed curiosity, vigour and rigour requires significant effort. Once made, that effort pays off magnificently, for this is an idea of limitless power, richness, scale and reach. To open The Middle Way is to engage with and inhabit Dharma.

THE APPROACH

Buddhists are seldom slow to tell you that any worthwhile practice has a strong practical emphasis. Apparently, we must at all costs avoid something called “metaphysical speculation”. So it comes as a surprise, not to say a shock, that Madhyamaka, The Middle Way expressed as philosophy, has little or no history of practical application outside of specifically Buddhist spiritual practice. If the Dharma is all about Reality, where is Madhyamaka applied to the “reality” of the actual mundane Samsaric world of here and now? Missing, it seems. Not to say, conspicuous in its absence.

Siṃhanāda addresses this absence by arguing that the Buddhadharma is a powerful method for the analysis and resolution of complex problems. And not all complex problems are personal-transpersonal, existential-spiritual.

What if Madhyamaka were to be applied to complex problems outside the – essentially arbitrary – “spiritual” domain? Following this reasoning, Siṃhanāda has developed and specialises in Applied Madhyamaka, the practical application of Madhyamaka logic to the analysis and resolution of complex problems wherever they may occur, especially in the mundane world. Which is where we actually live. Entirely (or mostly). This approach might be understood as a strand within Engaged Buddhism.

How has the approach worked out? Here are three examples:

Organisational Development
Siṃhanāda spent his career as a professional consultant facilitator using Madhyamaka logic to design and lead effective interventions in team development and management learning in large, complex organisations.

Dharma against genocide
Siṃhanāda’s work on applying Madhyamaka ethics to the enforcement of International Humanitarian Law
against military atrocity has been supported by the International Committee of The Red Cross and published as The Buddhist Soldier: A Madhyamaka Inquiry in The Journal of Contemporary Buddhism.

“A unique contribution to Buddhist ethical enquiry.”
– Dhivan, for The Western Buddhist Review

“A wonderful paper, beautifully written, very clear… useful and innovative.”
– Kate Crosby, Numata Professor of Buddhist Studies, Balliol College, University of Oxford

Resisting Tyranny
Hear Siṃhanāda’s recent Madhyamaka-based ethical and political analysis, Tyranny: A Buddhist Response.

Homework!
Anyone planning to attend the workshop on 11 Oct will find it useful to have reviewed both of the above.
Reading The Buddhist Soldier paper, in particular, should provide a good initial understanding of how Dialectical Process Analysis works within Applied Madhyamaka.