Toh 2013Untitled

Exposition of the Treatise Canon, Toh 2013

Northern Canon Mahayana Tradition

Context

This work belongs to the Treatise Canon (Shutralamkara Vrtti) in the Tengyur, the treasury of commentaries that explain the scriptures of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The Northern Canon tradition, especially through the Gelug, Kagyu, and Nyingma schools, regards the Treatise Canon as a fundamental resource for clearly understanding the theoretical structure of the Mahayana, especially the path of bodhisattva practice.

The Tengyur was compiled in Tibet from the 8th to the 13th centuries, as the painstaking achievement of great translators such as Jinamitra, Śīlendrabodhi, and Yeshé Dé. Among its 213 volumes, the treatises of the Northern Canon address foundational matters: bodhisattva conduct (Bodhisattva-carya), the theory of the nature of Dharma (Dharmatā), and the general path to buddhahood.

Toh 2013 is one of the important commentaries devoted to clarifying the intended meaning of the Mahayana scriptures. It reflects the synthetic Yogācāra-Madhyamaka philosophy characteristic of the Northern Canon, where the formal understanding (Madhyamaka Prāsaṅgika) of the nature of phenomena is united with the knowledge of consciousness (Yogācāra) concerning how we perceive the world.

Main Contents

Although the official title has not been fully provided, based on the position of Toh 2013 in the Treatise Canon, this work focuses on analyzing the constituent factors of the bodhisattva path. It distinguishes the stages of practice from the first bhūmi to the ten bhūmis (daśa-bhūmi), emphasizing that each stage has its own characteristics in the accumulation of merit (puṇya-sambhāra) and wisdom (jñāna-sambhāra).

This treatise also discusses the nature of buddha-nature in all beings (Buddha-dhātu), thereby establishing the theoretical foundation for the assertion that all sentient beings have the capacity to become buddhas. This differs fundamentally from the Lesser Vehicle, where only the Lesser Vehicle pratyekabuddhas (Pratyekabuddha) and solitary realizers (Bodhisattva) are recognized.