Toh 3939Untitled

Exposition of Tengyur Scripture Toh 3939 — Northern Mahāyāna Tradition

Context

Toh 3939 from the Tengyur (the Tibetan Treatise Collection) is a profound work of Buddhist philosophy in the Mahāyāna tradition—the Northern Canon. The Tengyur, compiled at the Great Nālandā Library and completed in Tibet, is a treasury of commentaries, treatises, and teachings from the greatest masters of the Mahāyāna Dharma.

This work embodies the Northern Mahāyāna tradition of practice, in which the Buddha’s teachings are understood profoundly through the lens of the treatises, with a focus on the bodhisattva path, the theory of emptiness (śūnyatā), and tantric practice. The context in which this scripture was composed is connected with great Buddhist scholars such as Nāgārjuna, Asaṅga, Vasubandhu, and their successors, who devoted their lives to clarifying the essential meaning of the Buddha’s teachings through logical discourse and profound philosophical thought.

Main Content

Although the scripture’s official title has not been clearly published, works in the Tengyur commonly focus on three principal areas of Mahāyāna practice. The first is the theory of emptiness (śūnyatā), the central doctrine of this tradition, which contemplates that all dharmas lack an independent intrinsic nature, are not separately produced, and are impermanent and mutually dependent. This is not absolute nonexistence but the clear seeing of the selfless nature of phenomena.

The second is the bodhisattva path (Bodhisattvayāna), whose noble aim is not merely one’s own liberation but the rescue of all sentient beings from suffering. The four bodhisattva practices—loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity (or, in another formulation: generosity, ethical discipline, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom)—are the pillars of this practice.