Toh 3798Untitled

Interpretation of Scripture Toh 3798 from the Tengyur — Treatise Collection

Context

This scripture is recorded in the Tengyur (sGyud 'grel), that is, the Tibetan Buddhist Treatise Collection, where commentaries and treatises explaining the principal scriptures of the Mahayana — Northern Tibetan tradition are preserved. Scripture number Toh 3798 belongs among works that teach spiritual principles and the bodhisattva path of practice, deeply reflecting the philosophical foundations of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra as systematized in the Tibetan tradition.

From the eighth century onward, Indian Buddhist commentators such as Nāgārjuna, Vasubandhu, and Candrakīrti composed these profound works. When Buddhism entered Tibet through translators such as Rinchen Zangpo and Atiśa, these treatises were carefully translated and annotated, becoming the core of Tibetan Buddhist education down to the present day.

Main Content

Although the specific title of this scripture has not yet been fully translated into Vietnamese, based on its position in the Tengyur collection, it is a treatise that analyzes in depth one of the key themes of the Mahayana Buddha Dharma: the nature of phenomena (dharmatā), empty nature (śūnyatā), and the bodhisattva path according to the Tibetan tradition.

The scripture emphasizes that all phenomena — whether material or mental — lack fixed intrinsic nature (niḥsvabhāva). Through sharp logical reasoning, the author guides the reader more deeply into the understanding of emptiness, not as absolute nothingness or meaninglessness, but as the absence of independently existent intrinsic nature in all things. This is the very foundation for liberation from desire, anger, and delusion — the three root poisons of all suffering.