Toh 1643Untitled

Explanation of the Tengyur Abhidharma Treatise (Toh 1643)

Background

Toh 1643 is a precious treatise in the Tengyur of the Northern Tibetan transmission (the Tibetan Mahayana tradition), the collection of commentaries and treatises explaining the Mahayana scriptures. It is not an original sutra but a work of eminent masters, those who attained awakening or profoundly understood the Mahayana Dharma gate.

In the Tibetan tradition, the Tengyur plays an extremely important role: it is a treasury of Buddhist knowledge, recording the teachings of the noble sages concerning the supreme Dharma. These treatises were composed from the eighth century onward, when Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism developed vigorously in India and were widely transmitted to Tibet, Mongolia, and China.

This treatise reflects the profound understanding of the Tibetan tradition concerning the bodhisattva Dharma and the path of liberation through activating the precious mind of awakening (bodhicitta), the resolve to attain liberation for the benefit of beings.

Main Content

Although the title is not specifically provided, according to its position in the Tengyur and the style of similar treatises, Toh 1643 is very likely a commentary on an important aspect of Mahayana: perhaps the bodhisattva path, emptiness (Sunyata), or practices for developing transcendent wisdom (Prajnaparamita).

The main content of this treatise teaches the bodhisattva path, the way a practitioner commits to liberating not only oneself but regards beings as equal to oneself, giving rise to loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity (the Four Immeasurables). Through its manner of instruction, the treatise makes clear that practicing Mahayana is not a matter of separately escaping the world, but of transforming oneself into a bodhisattva, always ready to sacrifice for the benefit and welfare of beings.