Toh 1708Untitled

Exposition of Toh 1708 - Northern Tibetan Mahayana Tradition

Background

Toh 1708 belongs to the Tengyur, the collection of treatises (shastra) of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, works by lucid masters that explain the scriptures. Within the Northern Tibetan Mahayana system of practice, the Tengyur provides a framework for practice based on the philosophies of Madhyamaka (the middle way) and Yogacara (mind-only), the two principal schools of Mahayana. The establishment of the Tengyur in Tibet from the eighth to the eleventh centuries was an effort to preserve and develop the teachings of the Buddha Dharma as Buddhism declined in India.

Although this scripture has no specific title in the available information, it belongs to the lineage of works that guide the practice of the bodhisattva path, the chosen path of Mahayana practitioners who aspire to liberate all sentient beings. This work reflects the setting of a mature Buddhist school, in which the masters had refined both theory and practice.

Main Content

Although the specific content of this scripture has not yet been fully translated from the Tibetan original, we may understand that the work Toh 1708 lies within the context of the Tengyur, materials explaining the Bodhisattva-yana. The Northern Tibetan tradition often revolves around four core themes:

First is the thought of reliance (adhipatih prathamavisuddhi), the affirmation that all phenomena are without intrinsic nature and without self. This is the philosophical foundation of Madhyamaka, the middle-way teaching that reveals that all events have no independent intrinsic nature; they are dependent arising (pratityasamutpada).

Second is bodhicitta, the aspiration directed toward the liberation of all sentient beings. This work in the Tengyur often details how to generate the second mind, the mind that wishes to act (pratipannacitta), when the bodhisattva resolves to practice the six paramitas.

Third are the six paramitas (Sadhananaya): generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, meditative concentration, and wisdom (Prajnaparamita).