user7290: All the teachers and people I have read, talked with and listened to, emphazises that Buddhism is the Middle Way. 
Is this the right way to see it? If so, what is the most important or central aspect of The Middle Way?

user-1: Householder, interested,
Bhante Thanissaro generously dedicated effort to make the meaning of the Middle Way more understandable: The Middles of the Middle Way and one point is surely important that the Buddhas Middleway does seldom fits to personal ideas of balanced or even that this was meant to walk a way of compromises in regard of gainings and turning on in the world.

In his very first sermon, the Buddha introduced his path of practice as a middle way that avoids two extremes: a commitment to sensual pleasures related to sensual desires, and a commitment to self-affliction. On the surface, this statement makes the path sound like a middling way, at a bland halfway point on the continuum between pleasure and pain. But if you read further in the Canon on the middle way, you realize that its middleness is much more complex than that....

It's also that many advocate equanimity as the highest virtue but actually the Buddha gives clear black and whites whereas the whites describe the middle and not something in between them or gray.
So much pleasure and much pain, both can be the middle path as well, depending on the individual.
Since the middle path, the Ariyamagga, is actually one of leaving home and stand, the world and not meant, not for samsaring around, possible good to count the main aspects of the middle path for those, out of duties or valid hindrances, living the path in white, as householder:
Generosity:

There is the case of a disciple of the noble ones, his awareness cleansed of the stain of stinginess, living at home, freely generous, openhanded, delighting in being magnanimous, responsive to requests, delighting in the distribution of alms. 
So when the world is on fire
  with aging and death,
  one should salvage [one's wealth] by giving:
      what's given is well salvaged.
What's given bears fruit as pleasure.
  What isn't given does not:
      thieves take it away, or kings;
      it gets burnt by fire or lost.

Virtue:
The Eight Precepts, as often as possible.
Meditation
Recollections (anussati), to possible access borderlands to/and the Noble Domain (homelessness).

Recollection of the Buddha (buddhanussati)
Recollection of the Dhamma (dhammanussati)
Recollection of the Sangha (sanghanussati)
Recollection of one's own virtues (silanussati)
Recollection of one's own generosity (caganussati)
Recollection on the devas qualities (devatanussati)
Mindfulness of death (maranassati) (see also Satipatthana).
Mindfulness of breathing (anapanasati)

At least such inclinations and practice, even if still "left and right" Kamma may lead toward the middle path, right view and purification of virtue and arrival on the Path of no return into this world.
(Note that this gift of Dhamma is not dedicated for trade, exchange, stacks or entertainment but as a means to make merits toward release from this wheel)

user43: It would be very arrogant on my part to assume I can explain exactly the very same true meaning of the Middle Path... but I can share what I think:
Remember what I said about existence and nonexistence. I think most people fall into all kinds of extremes. Taking a simplistic position of any kind, however small, is already a kind of extreme. When you fall into an extreme, you are no longer free. Your choices are now defined by that position, by that extreme. In a way, you are now controlled by a position. When you are controlled by a position, you are not free.
We can identify ourselves with the bodies, made of the physical elements, lacking free-will, governed by the laws of nature... We can assume we are the clusters of memes - using the bodies as our media... We can think we are simply humans - suffering, dying, making wholesome choices or unwholesome choices... Or we could equate ourselves with the Infinite, Eternal, Spontaneously-Existing Absolute Totality of Everything... We can believe in reincarnation, or in annihilation, or in endless transformation... We can see gods and demons around - or we can see latent potentials and informational phenomena...
That's what happens to most people, they give themselves away to mercy of ideas. As a result people are getting dragged around by their ideas, here and there and everywhere until they die. Or they are held hostage by their ideas and waste their lives away with their hands tied. There is no freedom in that.
Instead, if you are wise, if you are analytical - then you can balance the forces against each other. You don't fall into either extreme, into either simplistic position. You get smart. The attachments, positions, ideas - they no longer have power over you. You effectively disappear, you become invisible, ungraspable, impossible to nail.
You are free from raging emotions - because you are free from attachments, you have no triggers, no hot buttons. You are free from hopes and fears. You are free from theories. You can juggle them any way you want. You are free from obsessions, from antipathies... You are free from identity. You have no fixed form.
This could be a real definition of Freedom. In a deterministic universe governed by the laws of cause-and-effect and characterized by the Three Marks of Impermanence, Corelessness, and Dukkha - you can be free in your mind! You can even be free from death, if you can drop the viewpoint in which the concept of death makes sense.
I think this is what's meant by The Middle Way - the way of mastery over ideas. It's not simply mid-way or lukewarm - it is the way of freedom via insight.

user193: The central aspect is to avoid any extreme. So, for instance do not go for extreme ascetic practices or for a life of extreme pleasures; seek the middle path of a balanced life. 
The same principle is then applied to any other aspect of life.

user-1: From my study, two extremes could also be false dichotomy.   Buddha was often asked yes or no questions and he would not answer either way.  For example, when asked if suffering was caused by self (internal influence) or by others (external influence), he would not answer that directly (IMO those questions were false dichotomy).  He would further explain that because of sense gates, detection arise, because detection, feelings (suffering/pleasure/neutral) arise, etc..  It goes to show Buddha's wisdom through and through.  

user295: In Buddha's time there was hedonistic indulgence and extreme ascetic practices. The ascetic practices was to exhausting bad Karma though inflicting pain.
Seeking pleasure creates fabrication through attachments hence resulting in present and future dukka.
Though through experiencing Karma (Sañcetanika Sutta) karma looses its potent this is cannot be achived through inflicting pain as Karma acts when it ripens (you cannot hasten or force the result) while artificially inflicting pain leads to metal instability and other new fabrications.
The middle path is restrain in morality thus abandoning one source of grave unwholesome Karma (reducing store of fabrications) thus cultivating a conducive environment to develop collected mind (due to non remorse - (Dasaka) Cetanā’karaṇīya Sutta, and Karmic calamities) to finally gain wisdom and release. (See comments [section 1.3] in (Ānanda) Subha Sutta for relationships moral virtue, mastery over the mind and wisdom.) Any experiences that arises should be used to eradicate metal influxes casing future becoming, i.e., not creating new fabrication due to past karmic and other experiaces. (Pahāna Sutta, Avijja Pahana Sutta 2) This is systematised as the Noble Eightfold Path initially in Dhamma,cakka Pavattana Sutta which was the Buddha's 1st disclosure. More thought explanation is found in the: Samma,ditthi Sutta

7290: <p>All the teachers and people I have read, talked with and listened to, emphazises that Buddhism is the Middle Way. </p>

<p>Is this the right way to see it? If so, what is the most important or central aspect of The Middle Way?</p>
 -1: <p>Householder, interested,</p>

<p>Bhante Thanissaro generously dedicated effort to make the meaning of the Middle Way more understandable: <a href="http://zugangzureinsicht.org/html/lib/authors/thanissaro/beyond_en.html#ch9" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The Middles of the Middle Way</a> and one point is surely important that the Buddhas Middleway does seldom fits to personal ideas of balanced or even that this was meant to walk a way of compromises in regard of gainings and turning on in the world.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>In his very first sermon, the Buddha introduced his path of practice as a middle way that avoids two extremes: a commitment to sensual pleasures related to sensual desires, and a commitment to self-affliction. On the surface, this statement makes the path sound like a middling way, at a bland halfway point on the continuum between pleasure and pain. But if you read further in the Canon on the middle way, you realize that its middleness is much more complex than that....</p>
</blockquote>

<p>It's also that many advocate equanimity as the highest virtue but actually the Buddha gives clear black and whites whereas the whites describe the middle and not something in between them or gray.</p>

<p>So much pleasure and much pain, both can be the middle path as well, depending on the individual.</p>

<p>Since the middle path, the Ariyamagga, is actually one of leaving home and stand, the world and not meant, not for samsaring around, possible good to count the main aspects of the middle path for those, out of duties or valid hindrances, living the path in white, as householder:</p>

<p><strong><a href="http://zugangzureinsicht.org/html/ptf/dhamma/dana/index_en.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Generosity</a>:</strong></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>There is the case of a disciple of the noble ones, his awareness cleansed of the stain of stinginess, living at home, freely generous, openhanded, delighting in being magnanimous, responsive to requests, delighting in the distribution of alms. </p>
  
  <p><code>So when the world is on fire
  with aging and death,
  one should salvage [one's wealth] by giving:
      what's given is well salvaged.</code></p>
  
  <p><code>What's given bears fruit as pleasure.
  What isn't given does not:
      thieves take it away, or kings;
      it gets burnt by fire or lost.</code></p>
</blockquote>

<p><strong><a href="http://zugangzureinsicht.org/html/ptf/dhamma/sila/index_en.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Virtue</a></strong>:</p>

<p><a href="http://zugangzureinsicht.org/html/ptf/dhamma/sila/atthasila_en.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The Eight Precepts</a>, as often as possible.</p>

<p><strong><a href="http://zugangzureinsicht.org/html/index-subject_en.html#recollections" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Meditation</a></strong></p>

<p><em>Recollections (anussati)</em>, to possible access <a href="http://sangham.net/index.php/topic,8884.msg16105.html#msg16105" rel="nofollow noreferrer">borderlands</a> to/and the Noble Domain (homelessness).</p>

<ul>
<li>Recollection of the Buddha (buddhanussati)</li>
<li>Recollection of the Dhamma (dhammanussati)</li>
<li>Recollection of the Sangha (sanghanussati)</li>
<li>Recollection of one's own virtues (silanussati)</li>
<li>Recollection of one's own generosity (caganussati)</li>
<li>Recollection on the devas qualities (devatanussati)</li>
<li>Mindfulness of death (maranassati) (see also Satipatthana).</li>
<li>Mindfulness of breathing (anapanasati)</li>
</ul>

<p>At least such inclinations and practice, even if still <a href="http://zugangzureinsicht.org/html/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.235.than_en.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">"left and right" Kamma</a> may lead toward the middle path, right view and purification of virtue and arrival on the Path of no return into this world.</p>

<p><em>(Note that this gift of Dhamma is not dedicated for trade, exchange, stacks or entertainment but as a means to make merits toward release from this wheel)</em></p>
 43: <p>It would be very arrogant on my part to assume I can explain exactly the very same true meaning of the Middle Path... but I can share what I think:</p>

<p>Remember what I said about <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/a/12750/43">existence and nonexistence</a>. I think most people fall into all kinds of extremes. Taking a simplistic position of any kind, however small, is already a kind of extreme. When you fall into an extreme, you are no longer free. Your choices are now defined by that position, by that extreme. In a way, you are now controlled by a position. When you are controlled by a position, you are not free.</p>

<p>We can identify ourselves with the bodies, made of the physical elements, lacking free-will, governed by the laws of nature... We can assume we are the clusters of memes - using the bodies as our media... We can think we are simply humans - suffering, dying, making wholesome choices or unwholesome choices... Or we could equate ourselves with the Infinite, Eternal, Spontaneously-Existing Absolute Totality of Everything... We can believe in reincarnation, or in annihilation, or in endless transformation... We can see gods and demons around - or we can see latent potentials and informational phenomena...</p>

<p>That's what happens to most people, they give themselves away to mercy of ideas. As a result people are getting dragged around by their ideas, here and there and everywhere until they die. Or they are held hostage by their ideas and waste their lives away with their hands tied. There is no freedom in that.</p>

<p>Instead, if you are wise, if you are analytical - then you can balance the forces against each other. You don't fall into either extreme, into either simplistic position. You get smart. The attachments, positions, ideas - they no longer have power over you. You effectively disappear, you become invisible, ungraspable, impossible to nail.</p>

<p>You are free from raging emotions - because you are free from attachments, you have no triggers, no hot buttons. You are free from hopes and fears. You are free from theories. You can juggle them any way you want. You are free from obsessions, from antipathies... You are free from identity. You have no fixed form.</p>

<p>This could be a real definition of Freedom. In a deterministic universe governed by the laws of cause-and-effect and characterized by the Three Marks of Impermanence, Corelessness, and Dukkha - you can be free in your mind! You can even be free from death, if you can drop the viewpoint in which the concept of death makes sense.</p>

<p>I think this is what's meant by The Middle Way - the way of mastery over ideas. It's not simply mid-way or lukewarm - it is the way of freedom via insight.</p>
 193: <p>The central aspect is to avoid any extreme. So, for instance do not go for extreme ascetic practices or for a life of extreme pleasures; seek the middle path of a balanced life. </p>

<p>The same principle is then applied to any other aspect of life.</p>
 -1: <p>From my study, two extremes could also be false dichotomy.   Buddha was often asked yes or no questions and he would not answer either way.  For example, when asked if suffering was caused by self (internal influence) or by others (external influence), he would not answer that directly (IMO those questions were false dichotomy).  He would further explain that because of sense gates, detection arise, because detection, feelings (suffering/pleasure/neutral) arise, etc..  It goes to show Buddha's wisdom through and through.  </p>
 295: <p>In Buddha's time there was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonism" rel="nofollow noreferrer">hedonistic indulgence</a> and extreme ascetic practices. The ascetic practices was to exhausting bad Karma though inflicting pain.</p>

<p>Seeking pleasure creates fabrication through attachments hence resulting in present and future dukka.</p>

<p>Though through experiencing Karma (<a href="http://www.themindingcentre.org/dharmafarer/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/3.9-Sancetanika-S-a10.206-piya.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Sañcetanika Sutta</a>) karma looses its potent this is cannot be achived through inflicting pain as Karma acts when it ripens (you cannot hasten or force the result) while artificially inflicting pain leads to metal instability and other new fabrications.</p>

<p>The middle path is restrain in morality thus abandoning one source of grave unwholesome Karma (reducing store of fabrications) thus cultivating a conducive environment to develop collected mind (due to non remorse - <a href="http://www.themindingcentre.org/dharmafarer/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/41.6-Dasaka-Cetanakaraniya-S-a10.2-piya.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">(Dasaka) Cetanā’karaṇīya Sutta</a>, and Karmic calamities) to finally gain wisdom and release. (See comments [section 1.3] in <a href="http://www.themindingcentre.org/dharmafarer/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/40a.13-Ananda-Subha-S-d10-piya.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">(Ānanda) Subha Sutta</a> for relationships moral virtue, mastery over the mind and wisdom.) Any experiences that arises should be used to eradicate metal influxes casing future becoming, i.e., not creating new fabrication due to past karmic and other experiaces. (<a href="http://www.themindingcentre.org/dharmafarer/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/31.1-Pahana-S-s36.3-piya.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Pahāna Sutta</a>, <a href="http://www.themindingcentre.org/dharmafarer/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/16.9-Avijja-Pahana-S-2-s35.80-piya.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Avijja Pahana Sutta 2</a>) This is systematised as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Noble Eightfold Path</a> initially in <a href="http://www.themindingcentre.org/dharmafarer/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/1.1-Dhammacakka-Pavattana-S-s56.11-piya.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Dhamma,cakka Pavattana Sutta</a> which was the Buddha's 1st disclosure. More thought explanation is found in the: <a href="http://www.themindingcentre.org/dharmafarer/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/11.14-Sammaditthi-S-m9-piya.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Samma,ditthi Sutta</a></p>
