It is the skillful use of The Noble Eight Fold Path and The Four Noble Truths to have well-being in this life.
What is Right and what is Wrong?
It is, what is well-being.
Well being is peace and blissfully abiding in this moment without being hooked by ignorance, attachment, and aversion (avoidance/asceticism/hatred):
"In the Buddhist
teachings, the three poisons (of ignorance, attachment, and aversion)
are the primary causes that keep sentient beings trapped in samsara. These three poisons are said to be the root of all of the other kleshas.[5][6]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_poisons
"The three poisons (Sanskrit: triviṣa; Tibetan: dug gsum) or the three unwholesome roots (Sanskrit: akuśala-mūla; Pāli: akusala-mūla), in Buddhism, refer to the three root kleshas of Moha (delusion, confusion), Raga (greed, sensual attachment), and Dvesha (aversion, ill will).[1][2] These three poisons are considered to be three afflictions or character flaws innate in a being, the root of Taṇhā (craving), and thus in part the cause of Dukkha (suffering, pain, unsatisfactoriness) and rebirths.[1][3]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_poisons
So what is Middle Path?
It is about knowing where you end, and finding your limit.
Is it about sacrificing your limit?
Your limit changes based on your skill; through skillful understanding only you can decide when it is more than you can give, someone else cannot know this for you.
When an effort is an unhealthy sacrifice it results in suffering and it is wrong effort.
When an effort is giving from abundance and wisdom, it can be right effort.
Do you know that you are giving to your foot when you put on a sock or not?
Sometimes you feel like wearing socks and sometimes you don't.
Does feeling have anything to do with what is right?
What is right should not be determined by feeling because feeling is one of The Five Aggregates of Clinging. (Topic of future post.)
You can imagine that well-being via middle path is balance, and that in order to maintain that balance well-being cannot be an unhealthy sacrifice; that if it is an unhealthy sacrifice than it is not balance.
So it is about the skillful use of wisdom that is derived from understanding yourself within The Noble Eight Fold Path and The Four Noble Truths.
For advanced practice then there is understanding emptiness, in that if there is form there is suffering.
This is the ultimate goal; to see emptiness in form without aversion to form.
