The Buddha found the light of liberation at the end of the tunnel of suffering. But he declared that it could not be reached unless one pursued the right path and resorted to right living. He was well aware of problems of the extremities of life.

In his personal life, he went through both the extremities of enjoyment and suffering and he was aware of the consequences of both. As a young prince he led a very princely and pleasure oriented life, but as a young renunciate he subjected himself to self-torture and extreme austerities.

He did not find both to be effective in his advancement towards liberation. He realized that the extremes of life are not conducive to the liberation of a person and that it is neither by indulging in sensuous cravings and pleasures, nor by subjecting oneself to painful, unholy and un-profitable self-torture, one can achieve freedom from suffering and rebirth. He found the Aryan Middle Path to be more effective for attaining peace and Nirvana.

The Middle path is verily the Eightfold path, at the end of which is the door to Nirvana. It consists of Right Understanding, Right Mindedness, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Living, Right Effort, Right Attentiveness and Right Concentration. This is the middle path which the Buddha discovered and preached.

This was the path which he found as the way to see and to know, and as the means to peace, discernment, enlightenment and finally Nirvana. This is the path which he found to be free from both pain and torture, which would lead to purity of insight and end to all suffering.