Paraphrasing Buddha” The Middle Way is “ the path of moderation to everything is the way to reach Awakening”.
This means avoiding all extremes and excesses that negatively may affect our behavioral /intellectual /emotional /spiritual activities. Going beyond simple moderation, it requires proper understanding, introspection, mindfulness practice, allowing each of us to navigate through the complexities of life with more serenity, wisdom, and compassion.
Practicing the Middle Way requires:
1 Questioning the logic and rationality of our thinking, and feelings in order to achieve a proper balanced approach regarding our behavior, material possessions, thinking, desires, aversions, and socio-professional intercactions.
2 Understanding that everything is interconnected, interdependent, impermanent, and that we do not control too much of anything. Such insight will help in practicing moderation.
3 Being mindful when we deviate too much or too often from the path of moderation, imposing proper re-adjustment or “re-balancing” our actions and thinking.
The best way to practice the Middle Way is to imagine that you are walking on a tightrope using a long pole that you swing slowly up and down to keep your balance while moving forward step by step.. The tips of the pole are the extremes / excesses I was describing previously.
Knowing and applying the 4Th Noble Truth is a great help in practicing the Middle Way.