Madhyamaka

Dharmic "middle way" view The Indian philosopher Nagarjuna (c. 150 – 250 CE) largely advanced existence concepts and founded the Madhyamaka school of Mahāyāna Buddhism.

He quotes Nagarjuna's famous statement in the Vigrahavyavartani which says "I have no thesis" for his rejection of positive epistemic Madhyamaka statements.

In China, the Madhyamaka school (known as Sānlùn ) was founded by Kumārajīva (344–413 CE) who translated the works of Nagarjuna to Chinese.

In the eyes of Nagarjuna, the Buddha was not merely a forerunner, but the very founder of the Madhyamaka system.

Madhyamaka is seen by Chokden as removing the fault of taking the unreal as being real, and Yogacara removes the fault of the denial of Reality.

Non-Tibetan scholars have suggested that historically, Madhyamaka predates Cittamātra, however.

Philosophically, Jamgön Kongtrül defended Shentong as being compatible with Madhyamaka while another Rimé scholar Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyatso (1846–1912) criticized Tsongkhapa from a Nyingma perspective.

Prajñāpāramitā and Madhyamaka Nagarjuna, protected by the Nagas snake spirits who are said to be the guardians of the Prajnaparamita sutras.

That appears to be a monist position, but the Madhyamaka views - including variations like rangtong and shentong - will refrain from asserting any ultimately existent entity.

The Madhyamakāvatāra is used as the main sourcebook by most of the Tibetan monastic colleges in their studies of śūnyatā "emptiness" and the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school.

These two approaches were later termed the Prāsaṅgika and the Svātantrika approaches to Madhyamaka by Tibetan philosophers and commentators.