To Be Moderate

Moderation: It means measured, balanced, and middle-of-the-road.

To be moderate is to be as one ought to be. Why is this condition important? When moderation is not observed, it becomes the cause of many problems. Issues arise in numerous areas—from mental, physical, and emotional well-being to human relationships, agriculture, education, and the economy—due to things not being as they should be. For something to be as it ought to be means that its normal state is free from problems.

Of course, what ought to be may vary according to circumstances and available means. Always performing the same thing in the same quantity and at the same time does not necessarily mean that this is its normal state. Being moderate requires acting according to context, because moderation means adhering to the middle path and behaving in a measured and balanced way according to what circumstances and means demand. A person who adopts this attitude is called a moderate.

Adhering to the middle path means neither doing something merely for the sake of doing it nor striving for perfection or “flawlessness.” The middle path involves doing only as much as is necessary, avoiding excess and deficiency. Striving to do only what is necessary by following the middle path is an attempt to be moderate. Even if one cannot achieve full moderation, the effort to be moderate constitutes a moderate attitude. For what truly matters is not merely fulfilling the requirements of what ought to be, but demonstrating the necessary effort to ensure that what ought to be is as it should be.

^{Visual Representing the Middle Path (Generated by Artificial Intelligence)}