Toh 1274Untitled

Exposition of Toh 1274 — Tengyur, the Treatise Collection (Northern Transmitted Tibetan Canon)

Context

This work belongs to the Tengyur — the collection of treatises and instructions by Buddhist commentators in the Northern Tibetan Mahayana tradition. The Tengyur is the supplement to the Kangyur, the original scriptures, containing profound commentaries and expositions by masters from the Tibetan Buddhist schools, especially the Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug traditions.

Toh 1274 lies within the Treatise Collection, and is a philosophical work or instruction for practice related to fundamental matters of the bodhisattva path — the path that seeks awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. In the context of the Northern Transmitted Tibetan tradition, such treatises often discuss the cultivation of mind (bhumisparśana), the doctrine of cause and effect (karma), or methods for developing bodhicitta.

Main Contents

Although the detailed content of this work has not yet been fully transmitted in translation, we may understand it as the work of an eminent commentator explaining the principles of the Buddhadharma from the Mahayana perspective. In the Northern Tibetan tradition, these treatises often revolve around themes such as:

First, the nature of mind and the way it functions (sems). Commentators investigate how mind can be disturbed by the conditions of ignorance (avidyā), and how it can be liberated through practice.

Second, the bodhisattva path (bodhisattva-marga), the teaching that the ultimate purpose of practice is not merely to attain personal nirvana, but to accomplish buddhahood in order to liberate limitless sentient beings. The bodhisattva gives rise to bodhicitta and practices the pāramitās — the six or ten perfections, such as generosity, moral discipline, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom.

Third, more profoundly, Northern Tibetan treatises often touch upon the Tathagatagarbha (Buddha-dhātu) — the concept that all sentient beings possess buddha-nature and therefore have the capacity to become buddhas.