Toh 1748Untitled

Exposition of the Tengyur Scripture Toh 1748

Mahayana Tradition — Northern Transmission Canon

Context

This work is part of the Tengyur (བསྟན་འགྱུར་), that is, the Tibetan Treatise Canon, the treasury of commentaries most widely circulated in the Tibetan tradition. Toh 1748 here is a specialized treatise, reflecting the efforts of Mahayana masters to explain and defend the Dharma canon from the perspective of the Northern Transmission canon.

The Northern Transmission canon inherits from Indian Mahayana schools such as the Sautrantika, Yogacara, and Madhyamika. The commentaries in the Tengyur are not merely historical annotations, but also profound instructions for monks and practitioners on the bodhisattva path.

Main Contents

Although no specific title has been recorded, materials in the Tengyur such as Toh 1748 often revolve around key Mahayana themes: the Bodhisattva Path (Bodhisattva Marga), bodhicitta, the mind aspiring to awakening, the Six Paramitas, or arguments concerning emptiness (Sunyata) and suchness (Tathata).

From the perspective of the Northern Transmission canon, the bodhisattva path is the way that contains all methods of liberation. It is not limited merely to the cultivation of personal virtues, but is the diligent exertion for the liberation of all sentient beings. The six paramitas, generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, meditative concentration, and wisdom, are regarded as direct paths leading to Buddhahood.

The theory of emptiness is developed through these commentaries in order to make clear that all things lack an independent essence, an intrinsic nature (Svabhava). Clear realization of emptiness is not a negation, but an act of liberating the mind from fundamental errors concerning the nature of reality; from this, action for the benefit of sentient beings becomes pure and effective.