Let me tell you about the middle path. Dressing in rough and
dirty garments, letting your hair grow matted, abstaining from
eating any meat or fish, does not cleanse the one who is deluded.
Mortifying the flesh through excessive hardship does not lead to a
triumph over the senses. All self-inflicted suffering is useless as
long as the feeling of self is dominant.
You should lose your involvement with yourself and then eat and
drink naturally, according to the needs of your body. Attachment to
your appetites--whether you deprive or indulge them--can lead to
slavery, but satisfying the needs of daily life is not wrong.
Indeed, to keep a body in good health is a duty, for otherwise the
mind will not stay strong and clear.
This is the middle path.
-Discourse II
From "The Pocket Buddha Reader," edited by Anne Bancroft,
2000.
Quoted with Courtesy to the Publisher to
Shambhala Publications, Boston, www.shambhala.com.