Toh 2878Untitled

Exposition of Toh 2878 — Tengyur Treatise Piṭaka (Northern Transmission)

Context

Toh 2878 belongs to the Treatise Piṭaka (Śāstrapiṭaka) of the Tengyur, the collection of treatises and scriptural commentaries composed by great Indian and Tibetan Buddhist masters. In the Mahāyāna tradition of the Northern Transmission, or Tibetan Buddhism, the Tengyur is an indispensable treasury of knowledge of the Buddha Dharma, alongside the Kangyur, the collections of root scriptures.

Although the title of this scripture has not been completely translated, according to its position in the Tengyur, it is a treatise, that is, a work that deeply explains the principles of the Buddha Dharma. Treatises in the Tengyur often revolve around central themes: the Four Noble Truths, the bodhisattva path, emptiness (śūnyatā), or the categories of practice distinctive to Tibetan Mahāyāna.

Historical context: These treatises were composed chiefly from the seventh to the twelfth centuries CE, when Tibetan masters such as Candrakīrti, Śāntideva, Tsongkhapa, and their successors developed profound explanations of Buddhist scriptures, especially within the Prāsaṅgika-Mādhyamika school and other Mahāyāna schools.

Main Content

Although the detailed content has not yet been fully translated, according to the context of the Tengyur and the Tibetan tradition, treatises of this kind often develop the following aspects of the Dharma:

First, the principles concerning self-nature (ātman) and non-self-nature (anātman). Madhyamaka treatises, belonging to the Mahāyāna philosophical school, emphasize that all conditioned and unconditioned dharmas lack self-nature, lack independent existence, and have no fixed, independent essence. This is the foundation of all practices.

Second, the bodhisattva path of practice (bodhisattvayāna): the discipline of loving-kindness (mettā), compassion (karuṇā), sympathetic joy (muditā), and equanimity (upekṣā), joined with the wisdom of prajnaparamita (prajñāpāramitā).