Madhyamika

(Sanskrit: “Intermediate”), important school in the Mahayana (“Great Vehicle”) Buddhist tradition. Its name derives from its having sought a middle position between the realism of the Sarvastivada (“Doctrine That All Is Real”) school and the idealism of the Yogacara (“Mind Only”) school. The most renowned Madhyamika thinker was Nagarjuna (2nd century AD), who developed the doctrine that all