Toh 3983Untitled

An Explanation of Scripture Toh 3983 — The Collection of Treatises (Tengyur)

The Northern Mahayana Tradition

Background

Toh 3983 is a treatise in the Tengyur of the Northern Canonical tradition, a collection of commentaries and expositions of the Buddha’s teachings composed and translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan between the ninth and twelfth centuries. It is a work belonging to the intellectual foundation of the Mahayana Buddhadharma, particularly the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, with its integration of ancient Mahayana lineages.

Within the context of Tibetan Buddhism, the treatises in the Tengyur play a foundational role in practice and in the profound understanding of the Dharma. They are teachings composed by noble beings and great scholars to clarify the Buddhist scriptures, and differ from the original scriptural texts of the Kangyur. This treatise has been recognized and honored within Tibet’s scholastic tradition and forms an important part of the course of practice followed by Tibetan Buddhist monastics.

Main Content

Although the official title of Toh 3983 has not been fully provided, this work belongs to a lineage of specialized commentaries on the fundamental teachings of the Buddhadharma. According to the structure of the Tengyur, its treatises commonly focus upon such essential subjects as the nature of mind (citta), methods of practice, or the teaching on emptiness (śūnyatā).

In the Northern Mahayana tradition, these treatises often provide profound analyses of the Four Noble Truths: the nature of suffering, the cause from which suffering arises, the cessation of suffering, and the path leading to liberation. They may also examine in detail suchness (Tathatā—the reality of things), how sentient beings are bound by ignorance (avidyā), and how this bondage may be transcended through the wisdom of right view (prajñapti).