Toh 1538Untitled

Exposition of Toh 1538 — The Tengyur Treatise Collection

Context

This scripture belongs to the Treatise Collection (Tengyur) of the Mahayana tradition — the Northern Transmission, a collection of commentaries, treatises, and instructions by masters of the Buddhadharma after the time of the Buddha. The Tengyur is a treasury of knowledge explaining the most complex systems of Buddhist thought, especially the doctrines of Madhyamaka, 唯識 (Mind-Only), and Vajrayana.

The position of this text within the Tengyur shows that it is a treatise or commentary authenticated by leading masters of the Tibetan Buddhist schools. The period in which the Tengyur was compiled extended from the eighth to the thirteenth century, a time when Tibetan Buddhism flourished, when great monasteries such as Nalanda and the Kagyu, Gelug, Nyingma, and Sakya schools coexisted. The purpose of these treatises was to clarify the profound meaning of the scriptures, answer complex philosophical questions, and guide practitioners in Mahayana cultivation.

Main Content

Although the full title of this scripture has not been completely translated in the available data, from its position in the Tengyur it may be inferred that this is a treatise commenting on the core principles of the Mahayana. Treatises in the Tengyur often focus on three main areas: (1) the theory of emptiness (Śūnyatā) and the nature of reality according to Madhyamaka; (2) the Mind-Only doctrine concerning how cognition arises and the structure of consciousness; (3) the paths of practice leading to awakening.

The Mahayana — the Northern Transmission — emphasizes that all beings possess Buddha-nature, and that the path of liberation is not limited to the level of the arhat, but expands into the ideal of the bodhisattva — those who voluntarily defer nirvana in order to liberate all beings.