A story is told about Ananda, the Buddha’s personal attendant, who had the desire to engage in a long period of fasting. He began to grow feeble and weak; he couldn’t sit and meditate, so finally the Buddha told him, “Ananda, if there is no food, there is no body. If there is no body, there is no dharma. If there is no dharma, there is no enlightenment. Therefore go back and eat.” That is the basic logic of the Buddhist teachings and of Buddhist psychology. We can actually be decent and sane on the spot, not through extreme measures but by managing our life properly, and thereby cultivating maitri, gentleness and friendliness to yourself.
– Chögyam Trungpa
from the book “The Sanity We Are Born With: A Buddhist Approach to Psychology”
Great Middle Way is a translation of Maha Madhyamaka, which is what our Lamas call the Jonang view of the Dharma.
The Great Middle Way is found beyond (not between) all extremes: beyond austerity and hedonism, eternalism and nihilism, sectarianism and eclecticism, dualism and monism.
“It is not this. It is not that. It is not both. It is not neither.”
Nagarjuna
– Buddha
Rantnakuta Sutra
Zen Flash 
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