What does "middle way" mean?

　

    Confucianism has the so-called "中庸之道 (the golden mean)", which has a similar meaning to the "middle way" of Buddhism, but the middle way of Buddhism, in the extension of the theory and the practice of behavior, goes beyond the Confucian way of the golden mean.

　

    The middle way of Buddhism emerged in order to solve the problem of "the world of duality in which we live". What is "the world of duality"? In the time and space we live in, all things are one positive and one negative; they emerge in the form of duality: big and small, cold and hot, there be and there not be, pain and pleasure, good and bad, same and different, existence and non-existence......etc. When we are practicing, we will gradually find that in our dualistic world, no matter what we do or think, we cannot get balance by leaning towards one side, because that is a kind of attachment. The Buddha once said: If the strings are too tight, the sound will be sharp and the strings will easily break; if the strings are too loose, the sound will not be made. The same is true of practice. Using practicing methods of too much suffering or using practicing methods of indulgent desires will not enable us to experience the truth. Only by staying in the middle way of neither suffering nor happiness, can we attain enlightenment. Another example, this is a question that has puzzled philosophers for a long time: Do all things "exist" or "not exist"? Intuitively, things certainly exist, but if you think about it carefully, what we think of as “existence” is only something we can “touch with our hands”, “see with our eyes”, or “feel with our consciousness”...... etc., but medicine has also discovered that the various sensations of living things are just the electrical signals transmitted by the nerve cells to the brain. If we can give the same electrical signals to the brain, then some kind of touch, vision or consciousness can be generated, and it does not require the existence of real things. Speaking of which, here comes the question: Then, do all things exist or not exist in the end? Buddhism adopts the "middle way" to this phenomenon of "seems like existing and seems also like not existing" -- neither "exist" nor "non-exist" or "exist but also does not exist"; this kind of point of view seems unreasonable, But for those practitioners who have been searching for it for a long time, it has become a precious solution, because they know that the endless contradictions and disputes have taken a dramatic turn.

　

    In fact, not only Buddhism has the theory of the Middle Way, but ordinary people can also use the Middle Way. "Less desire and being easy to content" is an application of the Middle Way in daily life; although ordinary people can not abandon all desires completely, that is not appropriate to have too much desire, so using the middle "less desire" to live our daily life is in line with the middle way. In addition, not being attached to both sides is also an application of the middle way. When we encounter important things, we neither put too much pressure on ourselves nor ignore and relax completely. Or, about money, we won’t make daily living become difficult and we won’t be too greedy for wealth. Or, we won’t let ourselves go hungry, and we also won't have to eat precious foods…… etc. These are all applications of the middle way in daily life.

　

    The Middle Way has another explanation in Buddhism, that is, "considering that everything is illusory", like a dream, like a mirage; in a dream, there are clearly mountains, rivers, the earth and other environments, and there are "you, me, and others" as sentient beings, but after waking up from the dream, there is nothing; in the desert, we see a city in the distance, and there are people walking and moving in the city; but, when we walk toward it to see, there is nothing. If we say that the dreams and the cities exist, yet they cannot be found, and if we say that they do not exist, yet they can be seen. We mentioned earlier that everything "seems like existing and seems also like not existing". In Buddhism, there is sometimes another way of expression —— "everything is illusory", which is also a kind of "middle way".

　

    Su Shi (蘇軾) once said in his article that "life is like a dream", using the "illusion" feature of the middle way in our life can greatly improve the understanding of the meaning of life. There is a so-called "illusory samadhi" in Buddhism, which means that we have entered the state of "everything is like an illusory dream". This point of view can make us no longer cling to the imperfections or disputes of the “duality world'', and further, we can start to understand " the truth of life in the universe".

　

    Buddhist Dharma is not just talk, it is doable. The understanding and practice of the "middle way" can help us take one step further on the road of “being away from suffering and obtaining happiness”, and get closer to the goal of achieving "great ease and freedom".