Toh 2915Untitled

EXPLANATION OF A SCRIPTURE FROM THE TENGYUR (Toh 2915)

Context

This work belongs to the Treatise Collection (Abhidharma) in the Tengyur: a collection of treatises containing commentaries and explanations of the Dharma by noble sages in the Northern Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist tradition. The Tengyur, compiled anew by Tibetan scholars from the eighth century onward, is a treasury of the most profound Buddhist knowledge, recording teachings transmitted from India to Tibet and the northern regions.

The treatises in the Tengyur are not direct sermons of the Buddha, but compositions by ancestral masters and scholars who analyzed and explained more deeply the teachings of the Tathāgata. They serve to help practitioners understand more clearly the nature of the Dharma, especially in the context of Mahayana practice, where the aim is unsurpassed awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Main Content

Although the title of this scripture has not been fully provided in the descriptive information, this work belongs to the class of treatises explaining profound aspects of the Buddha Dharma. In the Northern Tibetan tradition, treatise collections often address central matters such as the nature of consciousness, the laws of cause and effect (karma), the nature of suchness (tathatā), or the characteristics of the stages of practice leading to bodhi.

The authors of these treatises, noble sages such as Vasubandhu, Asanga, or teachers of Madhyamaka, employed sharp reason and profound psychological insight to analyze the actions of the mind, the way dharmas function, and how the path of bodhisattva practice can lead to supreme wisdom (anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi).

These treatises emphasize the interbeing of all phenomena, the profound absence of self (anātman), and the important role of loving-kindness and compassion (karuṇā-maitrī) as the foundation of all practice. They also teach that liberation is not reserved only for arhats, but that all sentient beings have the capacity to become Buddhas.