Toh 2748Untitled

EXPOSITION OF TENGYUR SCRIPTURE TOH 2748

Context

This scripture is part of the Treatise Collection (Abhidharmakosa-bhasya) in the Tengyur, the Buddhist scholastic literature of the Northern Tibetan tradition. The Tengyur is a collection of commentaries and expositions on the Buddha Dharma, composed chiefly by eminent treatise masters from the fourth to the twelfth centuries and translated into Tibetan under the guidance of great meditation masters such as Atisha Dipamkara Shrijnana.

Toh 2748 belongs to the philosophical foundation of Abhidharma, the system of profound analysis of the truth of mental and material phenomena. In the Northern Tibetan Mahayana tradition, Abhidharma is not only theory but also a tool of practice for penetrating the empty nature (sunyata) of all dharmas. The treatises in the Tengyur are intended to support practitioners in understanding more clearly the four noble truths (arya-satya): suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path leading to cessation.

This treatise was compiled in the context of the vigorous development of Northern Tibetan Buddhism, when noble sages from India transmitted the entire path of Mahayana practice into Tibet, including methods of cultivation from the Madhyamaka and Yogacara schools.

Main Content

Although the name of the scripture has not been identified in detail, according to the context of the Tengyur, this treatise is directed toward a fundamental analysis of the factors that constitute reality (dharma-dhatu). It explores how consciousness and the objects of consciousness are accumulated from the most subtle factors, and how deep understanding of these factors leads to liberation.

Within the Mahayana Abhidharma framework, this treatise is very likely to discuss the relationship among the skandhas (the five aggregates: form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness), together with the dhatus and ayatanas, in order to show that there is no fixed self-nature (svabhava) in any of these factors. This is the foundation of the doctrine of emptiness and selflessness (anatman).