Middle way

The Middle Way or Middle Path (; Kohn (1991), p. 143.) is the term that Siddhartha Gautama used to describe the character of the path he discovered that leads to liberation. 
In Mahayana Buddhism, the Middle Way refers to the insight into emptiness that transcends opposite statements about existence.David Kalupahana, Mulamadhyamakakarika of Nagarjuna. Motilal Banarsidass, 2006, page 1.
==Theravada ==
In the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism, the expression Middle Way is used by the Buddha in his first discourse (the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta) to describe the Noble Eightfold Path as a path between the extremes of austerities and sensual indulgence. 
Later Pali literature has also used the phrase Middle Way to refer to the Buddha's teaching of dependent origination as a view between the extremes of eternalism and annihilationism.
=== Noble Eightfold Path ===
The term Middle Way was used in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, the first teaching that the Buddha delivered after his awakening. In this sutta the Buddha describes the middle way as a path of moderation, between the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification. This, according to him, was the path of wisdom.
According to the scriptural account, when the Buddha delivered the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, he was addressing five ascetics with whom he had previously practiced severe austerities. Thus, it is this personal context as well as the broader context of Indian shramanic practices that gives particular relevancy to the caveat against the extreme (Pali: antā) of self-mortification (Pali: atta-kilamatha).
===Dependent Origination===
Dependent Origination (Pratītyasamutpāda) describes the existence of objects and phenomena as the result of causes. When one of these causes changes or disappears, the resulting object or phenomena will also change or disappear, as will the objects or phenomena depending on the changing object or phenomena. Thus, there is nothing with an eternal self or atman, only mutually dependent origination and existence.
But the absence of an eternal atman does not mean there is no-thing at all. Early Buddhism adheres to a realistic approach which does not deny existence as such, but denies the existence of eternal and independent substances. This view is the Middle Way between eternalism and annihilationism: 
===Anatman===
Dependent origination views human persons too as devoid of a personal essence or atman. In Theravadan literature, this usage of the term "Middle Way" can be found in 5th century CE Pali commentaries:
In the Visuddhimagga the following is found : 
In the Pali Canon itself, this view is not explicitly called the "Middle Way" but is literally referred to as "teaching by the middle" (majjhena dhamma).
===Rebirth===
Conditioned arising also gives a rationale for rebirth:
In Theravada Buddhist soteriology, there is neither a permanent self nor complete annihilation of the 'person' at death; there is only the arising and ceasing of causally related phenomena.
Conditioned arising also describes the twelve factors of conditioned origin of suffering (dukkha) leading to rebirth, from ignorance (avijja) to aging and death (jaramarana), and the parallel reverse-order interdependent cessation of these factors (see Dependent Origination and Twelve Nidanas).
== Mahayana ==
===Madhyamaka===
In Mahayana Buddhism, the Madhyamaka ("Middle Way") school posits a "middle way" position between metaphysical claims that things ultimately either exist or do not exist.Kohn (1991), pp. 131, 143. Nagarjuna's influential Verses on the Middle Way deconstructs the usage of terms describing reality, leading to the insight into emptiness. it contains one reference to a sutta by the Buddha himself, namely the Samyutta Nikaya's Kaccyanagotta Sutta:
===Chinese Buddhism===
====Tendai====
In the Tendai school, the Middle Way refers to the synthesis of the thesis that all things are "empty", and the antithesis that all things have phenomenal existence.Kohn (1991), pp. 143-144.
====Chán====
In Chán Buddhism the Middle Way describes the realization of being free of the one-sidedness of perspective that takes the extremes of any polarity as objective reality. 
In chapter ten of the Platform Sutra Huineng gives instructions for the teaching of the Dharma. Huineng enumerates 36 basic oppositions of consciousness and explains how the Way is free from both extremes:
==See also==
 
* Argument to moderation
* Buddhism
* Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
* Golden Mean
* Madhyamaka
* Middle Way Meditation
* Mūlamadhyamakakārikā
* Nagarjuna
* Nirvana (concept)
* Noble Eightfold Path
* Tendai
* Via media ‘Middle Road’
==Notes==
==References==
==Sources==
* Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trans.) (2000). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Sayutta Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-331-1. 
* Bodhi, Bhikkhu (ed., trans.) (2005). In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pāli Canon. Somerville: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-491-1.
* Buddhaghosa, Bhadantācariya & Bhikkhu Ñāamoli (trans.) (1999). The Path of Purification: Visuddhimagga. Seattle, WA: BPS Pariyatti Editions. ISBN 1-928706-00-2.
* Dhamma, Rewata (1997). The First Discourse of the Buddha: Turning the wheel of Dhamma. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-104-1.
* Gethin, Rupert (1998). The Foundations of Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-289223-1.
* Harvey, Peter (2007). An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-31333-3.
* Kohn, Michael H. (trans.) (1991). The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen. Boston: Shambhala. ISBN 0-87773-520-4.
* Piyadassi Thera (trans.) (1999). Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth (SN 56.11). Retrieved 2008-01-03 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.011.piya.html.
* Rhys Davids, T.W. & William Stede (eds.) (1921-5). The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary (PED). Chipstead: Pali Text Society. A general on-line search engine for the PED is available at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/. Retrieved 2008-01-03, the entry for "pabbajita" is available at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.2:1:1639.pali.
* Sri Lanka Buddha Jayanti Tipitaka Series [SLTP] (n.d.-a). Ahara vaggo (SN 12.2) [in Pali]. Retrieved 2008-01-03 from "MettaNet - Lanka" at http://www.metta.lk/tipitaka/2Sutta-Pitaka/3Samyutta-Nikaya/Samyutta2/12-Abhisamaya-Samyutta/02-Aharavaggo-p.html.
* Sri Lanka Buddha Jayanti Tipitaka Series [SLTP] (n.d.-b). Dhammacakkappavattana vaggo (SN 55.2) [in Pali]. Retrieved 2008-01-03 from "MettaNet - Lanka" at http://www.metta.lk/tipitaka/2Sutta-Pitaka/3Samyutta-Nikaya/Samyutta5/55-Sacca-Samyutta/02-Dhammacakkappavattanavaggo-p.html.
* Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (1997). Kaccayanagotta Sutta: To Kaccayana Gotta (on Right View) (SN 12.15). Retrieved 2008-01-03 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.015.than.html.
* Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (1998). Maha-Saccaka Sutta: The Longer Discourse to Saccaka (excerpt) (MN 36). Retrieved 2008-01-03 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.036x.than.html.
* Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (2005). Acela Sutta: To the Clothless Ascetic (SN 12.17). Retrieved 2008-01-03 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.017.than.html.
Category:Buddhist philosophical concepts