Toh 1555Untitled

Exposition of Scripture Toh 1555 — Tengyur Treatise Collection

Context

This scripture is found in the Treatise Collection (Tengyur) of the Northern Tibetan tradition, a collection comprising more than 3,600 treatises and commentaries on the doctrines of the Buddha Dharma. Toh 1555 is a work that follows the logical and philosophical method characteristic of the Tibetan Mahayana tradition, where defending and explaining the tenets of the Buddha Dharma through philosophical reasoning is regarded as a noble form of practice.

In the context of the Northern Tibetan tradition, or Tibetan Buddhism, the treatises in the Tengyur are not only theoretical works but also profound guides to practice. They were written to help practitioners understand more clearly the nature of mind, explore the path to liberation, and develop nonconceptual wisdom (prajnapti, ཆོས་གཞི།).

Main Content

Although the title of this scripture has not yet been fully translated into Vietnamese, based on its position and context within the Tengyur, this work addresses one of the core themes of Mahayana: the analysis of the nature of phenomena (dharmata, ཆོས་ཉིད།) and the way consciousness cognizes it.

Treatises in the range Toh 1550-1560 often focus on demonstrating that all dharmas lack independent self-nature (anatman, བདག་མེད།). Through this, they show that the distinction between the knowing subject and the known object is an illusion created by an unawakened mind. This is the foundation of the Mahayana doctrine of “lack of self-nature” (sunyata, སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།).

This scripture may also refer to the logical methods (tarkavat, རིགས་པ།) that great Tibetan Buddhist masters such as Candrakirti, Buddhapalita, or Dharmakirti used to refute mistaken views about suchness. These arguments are not for winning disputes, but to help practitioners see through to the true nature of reality.