The Seba library treats Middle Way in 8 passages, across 4 authors (including Welwood, John, Hollis, James, Wang Bi, Richard John Lynn).
The middle way is not some bland middle ground. Rather, it requires us to be alert and awake at all times, so that we do not harden into any position, no matter how righteous it may seem.
Welwood redefines the Middle Way as a dynamic psychological practice of non-solidification — a continuous return to presence rather than a static compromise between extremes.
, Toward a Psychology of Awakening Buddhism, Psychotherapy,, 2000thesis
The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian Analysts
Hollis’s title invokes ‘middle passage’ as a Jungian developmental metaphor for the liminal crossing of midlife, sharing the Middle Way’s imagery of a transformative traversal between opposed states.
, The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife, 1993aside
Second Yang treads the middle course… it takes the middle path [the Mean] as the route for its will.
Wang Bi’s commentary identifies adherence to the Mean as a volitional, centralizing principle — a Chinese structural parallel to the Middle Way as the governing orientation of right conduct.
, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 1994supporting
abides within, treads the middle path [follows the Mean], and so practices rectitude.
Wang Bi consistently equates the middle position in the hexagram structure with moral and psychological rectitude, expressing the Mean as an embodied practice of centrality.
, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 1994supporting
it is by the soft and weak obtaining a central position that such small persons should prevail, but if the soft and weak do not obtain a central position [i.e., practice the Mean], such small persons would never prevail.
Wang Bi argues that the Mean is not merely a positional virtue but the structural condition making right outcome possible — deviation from centrality produces chaos.
, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 1994supporting
he demonstrates an attitude akin to that of Brahman — having been delivered from the tension of opposites — coupled with a Zen-like approach to life in general, being fully present
Peterson identifies a functional analogue to the Middle Way in the post-awakening orientation of the recovered alcoholic: liberation from the tension of opposites expressed as full presence, echoing Buddhist and Brahmanical non-attachment.
, The Shadow of a Figure of Light, 2024supporting
treads the territory of its rightful position… situated so that it does not stray from the Mean… his will fixed on rectifying his sovereign’s affairs.
Wang Bi links adherence to the Mean with loyal, selfless action — the middle path as an ethical orientation that subordinates personal interest to right relation.
, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 1994supporting
you cannot content yourself to live on a paradoxical knife-edge, [the image you adopt] has to symbolize the suitable fusion of the pairs of opposites in a way that makes it possible for you to function in a civilized society without shutting out the primitive.
Jung’s formulation of the ‘paradoxical knife-edge’ articulates the structural demand of the Middle Way — the psyche must find a symbol that holds opposites together rather than simply balancing between them.
, The Shadow of a Figure of Light, 2024aside