{"id":8849,"date":"2011-03-09T23:55:20","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T15:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/?p=8849"},"modified":"2011-03-10T09:11:03","modified_gmt":"2011-03-10T01:11:03","slug":"middle-path-of-morality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2011\/03\/middle-path-of-morality\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle Path is Morality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8850\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/113.jpg?resize=132%2C186\" alt=\"\" width=\"132\" height=\"186\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/113.jpg?w=189&amp;ssl=1 189w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/113.jpg?resize=68%2C96&amp;ssl=1 68w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 132px) 100vw, 132px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Middle Path means not to take extremes,<br \/>\nwhile it is often mistaken to mean<br \/>\none should be moderate in everything,<br \/>\nincluding observation of moral guidelines (precepts).<\/p>\n<p>But to be so is  to be half good and half evil &#8211;<br \/>\nwhich is not very good at all.<br \/>\nE.g. there is no  such thing as moderate killing,<br \/>\nstealing, lying&#8230; being part of the  Middle Path.<br \/>\nAbstention from killing, stealing and lying&#8230; is the  Middle Path.<br \/>\n(To break the precepts is to be extreme.)<\/p>\n<p>However, following the spirit (instead of blindly sticking to the  letter)<br \/>\nof the precepts is part of the Middle Path.<br \/>\nTo compromise the  spirit of the precepts is to veer to an extreme of laxity.<br \/>\nTo stick  blindly to the precepts while harming others is the other extreme.<br \/>\nE.g.  Not lying to save a thousand people.<br \/>\n(Recall Oskar Schindler&#8217;s List)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Middle Path means not to take extremes, while it is often mistaken to mean one should be moderate in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[513,277],"class_list":["post-8849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mix","tag-middle-path","tag-precepts","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}