Chandrakirti’s Madhyamakavatara (Introduction to the Middle Way) is an extremely influential text of Mahayana Buddhism. It is an introduction to the Madhyamika (middleway) teachings of Nargarjuna, which are themselves a systematization of the Perfection of Wisdom literature, the sutras on the crucial but elusive concept of emptiness.

Chandrakirti is one of several Indian scholars whose treatises were brought to Tibet and whose realized teachings about the nature of the mind are the foundation of Tibetan Buddhist thought. Hidden in his verses are the guideposts to enlightenment.

The Madhyamakavatara, Chandrakirti’s Entering the Middle Way, is one of the key philosophical expositions of emptiness, and its study has been an essential part of Buddhist training in Tibet for many centuries. Though not very long, the text contains complex and subtle arguments in a condensed form.

Study of this text leads to an understanding of great compassion and how it serves as a cause for generating the mind of enlightenment(bodhichitta). This text also sets out the various levels through which one proceeds to the attainment of the completion of all ten perfections and enlightenment.