Toh 1394Untitled

Exposition of Toh 1394 — Tengyur Treatise Collection

The Northern Tibetan Mahayana Tradition

Background

This text belongs to the Tengyur (Bstan 'gyur), the collection of treatises by great Indian Buddhist masters translated into Tibetan. In the Northern Tibetan system, the Tengyur is a luminous source guiding the theory of the Buddhadharma after the Sutras (Sūtra). Toh 1394 is situated within the Treatise Collection (bCom 'das pa'i bstan bcos), where great bodhisattva masters such as Asaṅga, Vasubandhu, Dignāga, and Dharmakīrti transmitted the profound systems of Mahayana wisdom-training.

This scripture was composed or specially translated during the radiant period of Indian Buddhism (approximately the fourth to seventh centuries), when the philosophies of Consciousness-only (Vijñaptimātrā), Madhyamaka, and treatises on the Bodhisattva-yāna reached their height. The translation and preservation of the Tengyur in Tibet is an invaluable continuity of the Mahayana scholastic tradition.

Main Content

Although the title has not been specifically identified, Toh 1394 in the Tengyur is often a treatise explaining a profound aspect of the Dharma. These treatises often focus on: (1) the nature of mind and cognition (cittavijñapti), (2) the way to practice the bodhisattva path (Bodhisattva-mārga), or (3) explanations of Buddha-nature and the Three Bodies (Trikāya).

In the spirit of the Northern Tibetan tradition, especially the Gelug and Kagyu schools, the treatise masters always emphasize the relative nature (śūnyatā) of all phenomena, combined with mind-only (cittamātrātā). That is, all objects of knowledge, forms, sounds, and thoughts, are manifestations of mind and do not exist independently. For this very reason, practice is not a matter of changing the external world, but of transforming one’s own structure of cognition.

This treatise may guide monastics in how to reexamine the skandhas, the sensory faculties, and thoughts, in order to realize that they are all originally empty, and from there to set in motion the language of practice (sādhana) for increasing the intention of bodhicitta.