The book of the famous St. Petersburg Buddhist and Sinologist E.A. Torchinova is devoted to the philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism, or the Great Chariot, the trend of Buddhism, which has become widespread in China, Japan, Tibet, Mongolia, as well as in Russia. Based on the analysis of the most complex Buddhist philosophical texts, the author reveals the main points of the main intellectual directions of Mahayana thought - madhyamaki (the middle doctrine of the emptiness of existence), yogachara (yogic discourse about only consciousness) and the theory of Buddha nature present in all beings.