The Majjhima Patipada (Middle Way) was proclaimed in the Buddha's first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, as the path between the extremes of kama-sukhallikānuyoga (devotion to sensual pleasure) and atta-kilamathanuyoga (devotion to self-mortification). Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka school elevated this to an ontological principle: the Middle Way between sasvatavada (eternalism, the view that things possess svabhava) and ucchedavada (nihilism, the denial of conventional causation). The Mulamadhyamakakarika demonstrates that pratityasamutpada itself is the Middle Way — neither asserting nor denying existence, but revealing that all dharmas are empty of inherent nature while functioning perfectly at the level of samvriti-satya (conventional truth). Candrakirti's Madhyamakavatara further systematizes this as the integration of the two truths (satya-dvaya) without collapsing either into the other.