Raven 79: The Middle Way

If I tell you that your question is a good one, don't you see that it is now answered?

​Case

One evening Woodpecker asked, "What is the Middle Way?"
Raven said, "Good question."
Woodpecker said, "You're dodging my question."
Raven said, "You're dodging my answer."

"The Middle Way" refers to (a) harmonizing opposites such as the particular and the universal, relative and absolute; (b) the Eightfold Path

Verse

The good question, at home with an apt mind,
Brings forth offerings,
Yet is not put to rest.
Lives on and repeats, repeats.

The apt mind, at home with a good question,
Stays the course between destructions
of one side or the other.
To fix an answer breaks the question.

Case by Robert Aitken, adapted; introduction and verse by Meredith Garmon

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