On the basis of the Mind Alone,
We should know that outer things do not exist.
On the basis of the method set forth here,
We should know that mind is utterly devoid of self.

Those who ride the chariot of the two approaches,
Who grasp the reins of reasoned thought,
Will thus be adepts of the Mahayana
According to the sense and meaning of the word.

—from the Madhyamakalankara

The traditions of the great charioteers Nagarjuna and Asanga who comment upon the meaning of these two kinds of teaching, are immaculately pure. Their paths moreover are not biased in the sense of emphasizing only their respective point of view. They simply elucidate the profound and vast aspects of the Buddha's teaching. Their views complement each other. . . . This merging of the two approaches, whereby spacelike profundity and oceanlike vastness are not sundered, was rare even in India, let alone Tibet. For it was in India, at a time when the systems of the great charioteers Nagarjuna and Asanga were kept separate, that the master Shantarakshita united the two approaches into a single scriptural tradition greater than any other—for indeed the profound and vast aspects are equally indispensable to the Mahayana.

—from the commentary