All Buddhist philosophical systems explain how they adhere to a “middle way” or middle path, whether that middle way is one of view, meditation, or conduct. However, it is only the system of Nāgārjuna outlined in his six treatises on reasoning, along with the tradition of exposition that stemmed from that system, that are universally renowned as the Middle Way.

In Tibet, the works of Chandrakīrti, who lived some three hundred years after the time of Nāgārjuna, became renowned amongst the masters of all four of Tibet’s Buddhist schools—Kagyü, Geluk, Sakya, and Nyingma—as representing the authoritative interpretation of Nāgārjuna’s thought. Chandrakīrti composed two works on the meaning of Nāgārjuna’s main text, the Treatise on the Middle Way. 

The first of these was a “word commentary” on the original text’s line-by-line meaning; the second was a “meaning commentary” designed both to prepare students to study Fundamental Wisdom in depth and to supplement Nāgārjuna’s work by examining topics not treated directly by Nāgārjuna.

In the Karma Kagyü lineage, the most important text on Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way approach is the Eighth Karmapa, Chariot of the Takpo Kagyü Siddhas, which in turn is an extensive commentary on Chandrakīrti’s Entrance.