Did Buddha say "this is the Middle Way"? Various Buddhist schools and traditions can have rather different outlooks. And they don't deny this. But most traditions seem to have at least one thing in common and that is calling themselves/their way "the middle way". Is "middle way" what the Buddha called his teachings? Can anyone point me to where and how Buddha formulated the middle way?
In the Majjhima Nikaya, the Buddha gives his monks a discourse on the "The Exposition of Non-Conflict". In here he mentions the Middle Way:


  "Here, bhikkhus, the Middle Way discovered by the Tathagata avoids both these extremes; giving vision, giving knowledge, it leads to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbana. It is a state without suffering...and it is the right way. Therefore this is a state without conflict.
  
  That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One's words.
  
  -- MN 139: Araṇavibhaṅga Sutta, p. 1085 - Bodhi, Trans.


In the Samyutta Nikaya, The Buddha also mentions the Middle Way. Here in the "The Book of the Six Sense Bases":


  "There are, headman, these two extremes which should not be cultivated by one who has gone forth into homelessness: the pur­suit of sensual happiness in sensual pleasures, which is low, vul­gar, the way of worldlings, ignoble, unbeneficial; and the pursuit of self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble, unbeneficial. 
  
  Without veering towards either of these extremes, the Tathagata has awakened to the middle way, which gives rise to vision, which gives rise to knowledge, which leads to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbana. And what is that mid­dle way awakened to by the Tathagata, which gives rise to vision . . . leads to Nibbana? 
  
  It is this Noble Eightfold Path; that is, right view . . . right concentration. This is that middle way awakened to by the Tathagata, which gives rise to vision, which gives rise to knowledge, which leads to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbana.
  
  -- Samyutta Nikaya: IV. The Book of the Six Sense Bases (Saḷāyatanavagga), p. 1350 - Bodhi, Trans.


In the Anguttara Nikaya, The Buddha mentions the Middle Way in relation to the practice of meditation:


  “Bhikkhus, there are these three ways of practice. What three? The coarse way of practice, the blistering way of practice, and the middle way of practice".
  
  “And what is the middle way of practice? Here, a bhikkhu dwells contemplating the body in the body, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having removed longing and dejection in regard to the world. He dwells contemplating feelings in feelings . . . mind in mind . . . phenomena in phenomena, ardent, clearly comprehending, mindful, having removed longing and dejection in regard to the world. This is called the middle way of practice.
  “These, bhikkhus, are the three ways of practice.”
  
  -- Anguttara Nikaya: The Book of the Threes: Ways of Practice, p. 372-373 - Bodhi, Trans.