How to say "The Middle Way"

[waynewalter]

How do you say in Chinese, "You follow The Middle Way" as in Buddhism or maybe "Your believe The Middle Way" or whatever the appropriate phrase in Chinese.

My best guess is:

Ni3men xin4 zhong1 ...

Please help.

[skylee]

Is "The Middle Way" 中庸之道?

I know nothing about buddhism.

PS - I've this on the internet. Seems the Middle Way in buddhism is similar but not the same as 中庸之道. Not really sure what it means, though. Some websites give the Chinese translation "中道".

Avoiding Extremes

The Buddha taught what he referred to as 'the Middle Way, a path that led to enlightenment by avoiding the extremes of sensory self-indulgence and self-mortification. Quite a humorous sutta tells of how two ascetics approach the Buddha and ask what their destiny will be in their next life. One of the ascetics spends his time acting like a dog, the other like an ox. Thus the ascetic who acts like a dog 'eats his food when it is thrown on the ground', whereas the ascetic who acts like an ox does ox-like things (the sutta doesn't explain what these might be!). By acting in this way, the two ascetics expect that they will be reborn in a higher realm, as gods perhaps, but the Buddha quickly disillusions them. The ascetic who acts like a dog will be reborn in the company of dogs or else hell; the ascetic who acts like an ox will be reborn in the company of oxen or else hell too!

Just as the Buddha argued against self-mortification as a practice that is beneficial to spiritual advancement, he also warned against indulgence in sensual pleasures.

A key passage from the scriptures is this one: 'One should not pursue sensual pleasure, which is low, vulgar, coarse, ignoble, and unbeneficial; and one should not pursue self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble, and unbeneficial. The Middle Way...avoids both extremes; giving vision, giving knowledge, it leads to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbana'.

[waynewalter]

Thanks for responding and your help. I'd like to know for sure how Chinese (Mandarin speaking) Buddhist customarily say "The Middle Way".

It might no be a little translation of the "middle" "way" but perhaps one word or an expression that means the middle way idiomatically. I'm clueless. I've searched my dictionaries, websites, books. I can't find the answer.

[zozzen]

Then you mean "中道" , which a Buddha's term for "middle way". This word is seldom used in both ancient and modern Chinese because we have a similar Confucius' concept, "中庸", which tells us not to be extreme.

About the term "中道" , check this dictionary:

http://140.111.34.46/cgi-bin/dict/GetContent.cgi?Database=dict&DocNum=111789&GraphicWord=yes&QueryString=%A4%A4%B9D

佛教用語：

(1)不落入苦行和縱欲兩種極端的修行方法。也就是八正道。中阿含經˙卷五十六：五比丘！捨此兩邊，有取中道。

(2)對現象的觀察不落入實有或虛無兩種思想的極端。中論˙卷四：離有無兩邊，故名為中道。

[waynewalter]

That makes sense because 道 means "way" or Dao4 as in Taoism.

中 as zhōng or middle.

Please, what verb goes most appropriately in the sentence?

Does 信 xin4 (believe) make sense? Like this?

你们信中道.

Wayne

[rootfool]

Does 信 xin4 (believe) make sense? Like this?

你们信中道.

you can use the verb "信仰xin4 yang3" or "信奉xin4 feng4".And "信仰" is likely more religious than the latter.

[zozzen]

i'd use 奉行 (to follow, to pursue), or simply use it as an adjective.

For example:

我處事時奉行中道.

你就是不夠中道.

but i doubt if people would understand the term "中道".