The term Middle Way rejects extremes in approaching both individual and collective issues. Among others, the Buddha promoted moderate, skillful approaches. In economics and society, this refers to finding a middle ground between big and small scale, between government and private sectors, between specialization and the “big picture,” between freedom and ethics, and between long-term and short-term perspectives. Currently, the Middle Way is lost. We proceed from one extreme to another, losing the sense of balance and consensus.
References to the Middle Way occur frequently in Nondualism (or nonduality). Nondualism argues that reality is not divided into separate entities, but is an indivisible, unified whole. It originates from Indian traditions like Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, but is also present in Sufism, Taoism, mystical Christianity, and A Course in Miracles (radical nondualism). It suggests that the perceived separation between subject and object, or self and world, is an illusion. The experience of perceived reality is illusory and addictive.