Toh 2982Untitled

Exposition of Toh 2982 — Tengyur (Abhidharma Pitaka)

Context

This scripture belongs to the Tengyur, the Abhidharma Pitaka of the Northern Transmission Mahayana tradition, a collection of treatises and commentaries on the Buddha’s Dharma. In the Tibetan tradition, the Tengyur is an indispensable scriptural treasury, containing commentaries by noble sages from the Nalanda schools and eminent Tibetan teachers.

Although the title of this scripture has not been fully conveyed, its arrangement in the Tengyur allows us to understand that it is a commentary related to core issues of the Mahayana Buddhadharma. The number Toh 2982 locates it within the classificatory sections of the Tibetan canon, where these works are organized by topics such as Prajñāpāramitā, treatises on Mind (Citta-Śāstra), or explanations of Madhyamaka or Yogācāra (Vignānavāda).

Main Content

The commentaries in the Tengyur often focus on clarifying subtle points of the Buddhadharma, especially the relationship between the wisdom of emptiness (śūnyatā), Buddha-nature (Buddhāta), and the bodhisattvas’ path of practice. In the context of the Northern Transmission, this scripture is likely to discuss such themes as:

First, the nature of mind and cognition (Cittamātra or Vigyapti-mātra), where it is emphasized that all dharmas are not separate from cognizing mind. This is not ordinary idealism, but a clear understanding that our experience of the world depends entirely upon the process of cognition.

Second, emptiness (Śūnyatā), not as absolute nonexistence, but as the absence of an independent, eternal nature. These commentaries often use the logic of the four alternatives (Catuskoti) to avoid falling into unreal extremes.

Third, the bodhisattva path (Bodhisattva-yāna), in which awakening (Bodhi) is not merely personal cleansing, but the commitment to awaken all beings, reorienting the life of practice on the basis of bodhicitta.