The Middle Way of Life 

中道的人生

One day, a Zen master was meditating in his room with his personal attendant standing beside him. Outside the door, the two disciples of the Zen master were arguing intensely. They decided to seek the answer from the Zen master.  The elder disciple asked the Zen master: "The key to practice is not be influenced by honor and disgrace, right and wrong, good and bad in the world. This way one can reach the stage where the mind is not abided and unhindered, right?" The Zen master replied, "You are right!" The younger disciple came in immediately and asked the Zen master, "The mind is our master. The key to practice is to distinguish between the world's honor and disgrace, right and wrong, good and bad with a clear mind, right?" The Zen master nodded and said, "You are right." Seeing this, Zen master's personal attendant asked inexplicably, "The two of them had completely opposite views on practice, how could they both be right?" "You are also right!" the Zen master replied.

一天,一位禪師在蒲團上靜坐, 身旁站着一位侍者。門外, 禪師的兩個徒弟在激烈的爭論, 各執己見, 互不相讓, 最後只好請禪師裁斷。師兄問禪師: 「修行的要領是, 對世間榮辱、是非、好壞一概不動心, 達到『心無牽掛』的境界, 對嗎?」禪師答道,「你說得對!」師兄得意洋洋的走出門外, 師弟急不及待地進來問禪師:「心為主宰。修行的要領就是要用心 ,明明白白地分辨世間的榮辱、是非、好壞, 對嗎?」禪師點頭說道: 「你說得對!」禪師旁邊的侍者見狀, 不解地問:「剛才他們兩人對修行的看法完全相反, 怎麼可能兩個人都對呢?」「你也說得對!」禪師答道。

Ignorant sentient beings mistakenly think that win and loss, right and wrong, birth and death, human and saints are all opposed to each other and are true. Therefore, they often attach to either side and induce discriminative conception, resulting in unnecessary struggles and troubles. But if we can understand that the world we live in is only a relative one and stay away from attachment to both extremes - this is the truth of the "Middle way" of life.

糊塗的世人誤以為勝負、是非、生滅、凡聖等皆為互相對立而且真實不虛, 因此往往偏執一邊而起分別心, 造成無謂的爭鬥與煩惱。但若能了知我們所處的世界只是相對的世界, 遠離對兩邊的執着-------這就是「中道」的真義。若能參透這個道理, 人生還有什麼好執着的呢 ？

The "Middle way" has become a way of life, advising people not to go to extremes, but to be just right. At the same time, it is also a kind of wisdom in life, by not compromising or following the trend, but to achieve harmony and unity in the contrary. It is also a kind of philosophical speculation where we do not fall into either of the two extremes and manage to see the true nature of all things.

「中道」成為一種生活方式, 要求人們凡事不走極端, 而能拿揑得恰到好處; 同時也是一種處世智慧,但並非折中妥協或隨波逐流, 而是要取得對立面的和諧統一; 它更是一種哲學思辨, 能夠不落兩邊,更可破邪顯正。