Toh 4015Untitled

An Exposition of Toh 4015 — Tengyur Treatise Collection

Context

Toh 4015 belongs to the Treatise Collection (Śāstra) within the Tengyur—corresponding to the “Treatise Collection” of the Buddhist Tripiṭaka, where the commentaries and discourses of great bodhisattvas and scholars are preserved. The Mahāyāna Northern Tibetan tradition regards the Tengyur as indispensable for a profound understanding of Buddhist thought, particularly schools such as Madhyamaka and Yogācāra.

Although the title of this scripture has not yet been recorded in full, its classificatory position within the Tengyur indicates that it is a specialized treatise on some aspect of the Dharma, possibly related to the teaching of emptiness (śūnyatā), mind-only (cittamātra), or the process of bodhisattva practice. Works of this kind were often composed by bodhisattva-scholars such as Asaṅga, Vasubandhu, or Nāgārjuna to clarify complex points in the Mahāyāna sūtras.

Main Content

Treatises in the Tengyur generally follow the method of refuting mistaken views (prayukt-pratikṣepa) and establishing right view (samyag-dṛṣṭi). The specific content of Toh 4015 has not been fully translated in the present context, but on the basis of its place within the Treatise Collection, the work almost certainly elucidates one of the crucial issues of Mahāyāna.

If this is a treatise on emptiness, it would analyze how all phenomena (dharmas) are devoid of an independently existing intrinsic nature (svabhāva-śūnyatā). This does not mean that phenomena do not exist, but that they exist only relatively and in mutual dependence—a foundational view of Madhyamaka.

If it focuses on Mind-Only, the treatise may explain how the entirety of experience is constructed by consciousness and how, through practice, one may transform a defiled state of mind into a purified mind (viśuddhi-citta).