Toh 1775Untitled

Commentary on the Tengyur Text Toh 1775 — Northern Tibetan Mahayana Tradition

Context

The Tengyur, or “Translation of the Teachings” (བསྒྱུར་རྒྱུ་), is a collection of commentaries, treatises, and expositions by Indian and Tibetan masters on the Buddhist scriptures. Toh 1775 is found in the Treatise Collection (སྡེ་སྣོད་, Sastras) of the Northern Tibetan tradition, one of the largest bodies in the exegetical history of the Mahayana Buddha Dharma.

The Northern Tibetan Mahayana tradition, formed from the Dharma teachings propagated in Tibet from the eighth century onward, inherited and widely developed doctrines from Indian Buddhism, especially from the Madhyamaka and Yogacara schools. The treatises in the Tengyur reflect a profound dialogue among great commentators concerning the nature of mind, emptiness, and the path of liberation.

Main Content

Although the specific title of Toh 1775 has not yet been fully translated, according to its position and context within the Tengyur, this work may relate to one of the central themes of the Northern Tibetan Mahayana: the practice of generating the mind of awakening (བོདhi་སེམས་གཞེན་ཞེ་, Bodhicitta), the teaching of selflessness and emptiness (སྟོང་པོ་ཉིད་, Sunyata), or the nature of Buddha-nature (བུདྡྷ་གོ་ཕུགས་, Buddha-dhatu).

In this tradition, treatises often examine deep metaphysical questions: How is it that all beings possess Buddha-nature? How does one practice on the bodhisattva path (བོདྲྫམ་སེམས་དཔའ་, Bodhisattva-carya)? What is the way to be liberated from the cycle of samsara (སྲིད་པའི་འཁོར་བ་, Samsara) through non-discriminating wisdom (Prajnapti-paramita)?

Toh 1775 is very likely a commentary or a treatise intended to clarify these concepts through rigorous logical argumentation.