Quotes from Treatise on the Middle Way
(Madhyamakâvatāra)
“A dharma induced from causes and conditions is called emptiness in our teaching; it is also called a pseudonym or a Middle-Way.”
《中論》卷四
「眾因緣生法， 我說即是無，亦為是假名， 亦是中道義。」
Excerpts from An Exposition on the Lankavatara Sutra
Venerable Xiao Pingshi
Some claim that the above quote denotes the teaching of dependent arising without an intrinsic nature, which explains the Middle-Way. However, the Two-Vehicle teaching explaining the notion of dependent arising without an intrinsic nature does not denote the Middle Way taught by Bodhisattva Nagarjuna. Strictly speaking, it does not denote the ultimate Middle-Way principle. Why? All the principles manifested by dependent arising without an intrinsic nature are based on the conditioned dharmas in the phenomenal world, and all the conditioned dharmas in the phenomenal world do not transcend the rule of dependent arising without an intrinsic nature; thus, they are all impermanent and will eventually become empty and devoid of existence. In Buddhist teaching, as they are devoid of an intrinsic nature and should not be called emptiness-nature but impermanent-nature. As they are impermanent in nature, they are not the notion of [Mahayana] Middle-Way. In other words, impermanence is not tantamount to the Middle-Way taught in the Mahayana sutras, including Mahāprajñāpāramitā-sūtra, Great Nirvana Sutra, Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra, and Lotus Sūtra.
The verses by Nagarjuna explain the Mahayana emptiness-nature pertaining to prajna, not the notion of emptiness-appearance of the five aggregates and their phenomenal world. That is, the verses point to the Middle-Way emptiness of the tathagatagarbha, which is distinctly not the emptiness-appearance of the condition-based dharmas that arise and cease belonging to the Two-Vehicle teachings.
An Exposition on the Lankavatara Sutra, Vol. 1, p. 93