Follow the Middle Way, Said Jesus NEVER

 "In the Orthodox Church no act or statement possesses validity merely because it comes from a bishop or patriarch; it can possess validity only if it is Orthodox." -Blessed Seraphim Rose.  

I would add for the sake of this post, "nor from an Abbot or Archpriest." 

When I criticized Abbot Tryphon's premise of "the Middle Way" a friend said,  "Who is this Abbot Tryphon? Glad I'm not under him."
I said, "He is a hero, who refused to get vaccinated and told the story publicly, was removed from Ancient Faith Radio because he would not bow to the medical Marxists, he was fired as Chaplin for his local fire department for the same reason, and by his actions saved a lot of lives. Not every little lesson given even by a saint is universally true."

When I first saw the following message from Abbot Tryphon my first instinct was to remain silent. Abbot Tryphon has faced a great temptation to conform to error, having been beaten up by some fake Orthodox who are, in fact, Philosophical Pacifists and not Orthodox, having separated themselves from the Church by their false teaching of Pacifism. Of course, they are celebrated as great Orthodox Faithful by the demonic forces that always rip and tear inside the Church, to the extent we cooperate with them. Abbot Tryphon, meeting with a group of young men, posed for a photograph holding a fake AR-15. Fake or real is of no import. He was attacked for allowing a picture of him holding a "weapon of death." Whether real or fake made no difference, it was the fact that he violated the leftist prideful philosophy of Pacifism. I would ask him, would you be ashamed to be pictured with a sword and shield, as many of our Saints are depicted in Icons. Was Saint Paul's verbal iconography about taking on the whole armor of God and describing each offensive and defensive weapon a breach of "decorum" befitting a "holy man of God"? Saint Prince Lazar raising his army of hunters and farmers twenty-five thousand strong, armed with the best weapons his country owned; was that abominable in the eyes of God? A sword or a gun, there is no difference. To deny the Warrior Saints is to deny the living history and experience of the Church, and Christ himself, who told his disciples to buy a sword for their own protection as they dispersed to preach the Gospel, even if they had to sell their cloaks to afford the weapon.

Abbot Tryphon

The Middle Way

Do not turn to the right or to the left (Prov. 4:7)

Evil is the sickness of the soul, for it deprives the soul of its own healthy nature, which is virtue. Virtues are in the middle between excess and laxness. It is the middle way that keeps us on the road to salvation. This is why we must not allow our thoughts to tilt either to excess or deprivation, for the middle way keeps the heart upright.

Love in Christ,

Abbot Tryphon

Archpriest Symeon Elias

Shared with Public

When I read a sophism like this that is stated as a universal Christian truth, it always leaves me asking about context because such a sophism can only be contextually valid and not universally true. If these words were given universal status, I would ask, what about the Holy Spirit’s caution against being part of the feckless lukewarm middle? Try as I will, I cannot reconcile this pablum with the Cross of Christ or taking it up?

 

To me, this sounds like the framework where next, the social justice warrior or the politician or the pharisee, explains just exactly what the middle way is and how one must submit to IT. 

 

I would suggest there is a universal truth offered by the Apostle, that we are not all to go by the same worldly way; this was made abundantly clear as to the function of members of the church and has been demonstrated ad infinitum by the Holy Fathers and Saints of the Church. In his admonition to moderation, Saint Paul says, "Let your moderation be known unto all men." His very next statement is, "The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing" it doesn't even hint at a "Middle Way," and the two seemingly opposed ideas have to be taken in their own context. In what are we to be moderate, and in what are we to throw caution aside? And yes, when quoting this scripture, I have ignored the number division created by a medieval monk that destroy the context and meaning. 

 

I don't serve a Middle Way, but the fanaticism demonstrated by the man who found a treasure in a field and sold all he had to purchase the field. Of course, the treasure of which Jesus spoke was the Kingdom of Heaven, our own entrance into that Kingdom. I've yet to purchase the field, but I'm working on it in my own worldly way, just as you should work for it in your own worldly way. There is no static Middle Way to salvation.

If anyone is really interested in this Buddhist idea of "The Middle Way" I would invite you to exist the Orthodox Church and join the Middle Way Society.  Here is an introduction to that society and their gurus.
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The Middle Way Society is an international group, first founded in the UK, for the study, promotion and practice of the Middle Way. For more information about the meaning of the term ‘Middle Way’ as we understand it, please see the Middle Way page.

The aims of the society are as follows:

1. To investigate and promote the Middle Way as a practical and moral philosophy of universal applicability, independent of any appeal to traditional authority and avoiding metaphysical dogma, whether positive or negative.

2. To support all forms of practice that address conditions in a way compatible with the  Middle Way.

We intend to support these aims by various activities: blogging and web discussion here and on the society’s facebook page; creating audio and audio-visual material; retreats for fuller study and training in the Middle Way; supporting local groups; providing face-to-face talks in different places; promotion and support for publications about the Middle Way. You are welcome to suggest further activities that would further our aims.

We welcome new members. Anyone who supports the above aims is welcome to join the society, regardless of background or tradition. The key point is not what tradition you come from, but whether you think the Middle Way overrides all appeals to authority in that tradition. For example, you could be a Catholic practitioner of the Middle Way, but only if you are prepared to subject the Church’s teachings to the scrutiny of experience and to lay aside those that are metaphysical (and thus incompatible with judgement based on experience). You might still find the Pope inspiring, but his edicts will need a critical edit function using autonomous judgement. Similar points will apply to those from other traditions: Buddhists, Secular Humanists, Scientific Naturalists, Hindus, Muslims etc.

To find out more about the society and get to know us, you can join our Middle Way Network Zoom discussions for a trial period for free, before joining the society. For more information about joining the society please go to the ‘join us’ page.

We are an unregistered charity subject to the regulatory powers of the Charity Commission for England and Wales (registration is not required for charities with income below £5000 per annum). Although for the moment the British charity has international oversight, it was agreed in our Annual General Meeting in August 2014 that further independent (but associated) charities could be formed in other countries to enable the spread of the society internationally. For this to happen we just need a viable membership able to form a new committee in each new country.

A copy of our constitution can be found here: (Amended MWS Constitution 2014) and will be reviewed at each Annual General Meeting.  Please contact our secretary with any organisational or constitutional queries.

The Middle Way Society was founded in August 2013, by the agreement of the 5 participants on the Middle Way Study Retreat that took place then in Malvern, England, led by Robert M Ellis. The founding members made contact through the Secular Buddhist UK movement, and although we have some things in common with Secular Buddhists (for example, the practice of meditation), we wanted to move beyond the ‘Secular Buddhist’ label. We wanted to create a society that both has a clearer working philosophy and is universal in scope, taking the Middle Way outside the traditional Buddhist heading and treating it as a genuinely universal principle.

The society is run by a teams of  trustees and office holders. The office holders of the society and other trustees of the society are as follows. Their society email address in each case is their first name in lower case followed by ‘@middlewaysociety.org’:

Robert M Ellis (chair and main website editor, facilitator of UK Western and Wales groups)

Robert is philosophical writer, who has earned a living by teaching and tutoring a variety of subjects. He has been developing Middle Way Philosophy since 1997, initially from a Ph.D. thesis, and has published a number of books on the subject, including the 4 volume Middle Way Philosophy series (2012-15), the introductory book Migglism (2014), The Christian Middle Way (2018) and The Buddha’s Middle Way (2019). He was formerly a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order, but is no longer committed to any one religious tradition, though inspired by elements of both Buddhism and Christianity. Philosophy, Critical Thinking, Psychology, Politics and the arts are also all very important to him. Robert has appeared several times on the MWS podcast, but in this interview he talks personally about his own life.

Barry Daniel (treasurer and podcast editor, facilitator of UK Northern group):

Barry has been a sceptic most of his adult life with what he sees as a healthy suspicion of all things metaphysical. When he came across Robert’s work on the Middle Way in 2012, he felt he had found a coherent articulation of what he has sensed intuitively for a long time (but has been unable to express adequately). He realises that has got a lot to learn about Middle Way Philosophy, however he embraces that challenge enthusiastically. This is because in his mind he feels that moral progress is possible both at an individual and a social level and senses that the Middle Way Society can be an agent for such change. He is presently a guest house owner in the English Lake district, but has been among other things, a sailor, an itinerant busker, a carpenter, a language teacher and a mountain guide – so watch this space. Barry has been running the MWS podcast since 2013. The interviewer was interviewed in turn by Susan Averbach in this podcast.

Jim Champion (secretary, facilitator of UK Midlands group)

As a student Jim specialised in theoretical physics, up to PhD level, and then trained as a secondary school teacher in Birmingham. In 2004 he returned to Hampshire to teach physics. He first encountered the Middle Way Society in 2015, and has been practicing The Middle Way ever since. In addition to husbanding and fathering, Jim also produces the regular quotes on the Middle Way Society facebook page and runs the Middle Way Society Instagram account. Jim did a podcast interview with Barry in 2016 that you can listen to here.

Susan Averbach (facilitator of Pacific group – US and Australia)

Susan Averbach is a secular humanist rabbi and spiritual seeker ordained by the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism (IISHJ). She meditates regularly and has been inspired by a secular modern approach to Buddhism, similar to her humanistic Jewish approach. Although the world of Judaism offers limitless opportunities for learning, the middle way approach adds a dimension that she finds intriguing and beneficial. Susan did a podcast interview with Barry that you can listen to here.

Nina Davies (facilitator of UK South East group)

Nina Davies has been practising meditation for 27 years and a member of the Middle Way Society for 5 years. After leaving a long career in social care, she trained as a CBT Hypnotherapist.

 

Jennifer Wiley (Membership Secretary)

Jennifer is a UKCP registered psychotherapist.