Toh 4067Untitled

An Explanation of Toh 4067 from the Treatise Collection

The Northern Tibetan Mahayana Tradition

Background

Toh 4067 is an important treatise in the Tengyur—a collection of commentaries based upon the Buddha’s teachings and gathered within the Tibetan Buddhist Canon. This treatise comes from the Northern Tibetan Mahayana tradition, in which erudite Buddhist masters of Tibetan schools such as Gelug, Kagyu, Nyingma, and Sakya developed a profound philosophical foundation for better understanding the Buddha’s Dharma teachings.

The Northern Transmission places particular emphasis on the logic used to establish the truths of the Buddha Dharma, as well as methodologies for eliminating mistaken views. Although Toh 4067 has no clear title in the present materials, it corresponds to one of the essential treatises that helps students gain a deeper understanding of the nature of mind, phenomena, and the Mahayana path to awakening.

Main Content

In the Northern Tibetan Mahayana tradition, treatises from the Tengyur commonly focus upon three principal areas: the philosophy of true nature—that is, the empty nature of all phenomena; the reasoning of Mind-Only (Cittamātra—the mind is the sole known factor); or tantric methods of practice leading to the unsurpassed body of a Buddha.

This treatise is very likely a work by such great masters as Vasubandhu, Āryadeva, Candrakīrti, or by later Tibetan commentators such as Je Tsongkhapa or Mipham Rinpoche. Its structure follows the method of reasoning (pramāṇa), employing rigorous arguments to demonstrate essential points of Buddhist learning.

In the Mahayana, Tengyur treatises commonly explain how bodhisattvas practice in order to develop nondual wisdom (advaya-jñāna), the wisdom that transcends every division between subject and object. They also analyze in detail the grounds (bhūmi) through which bodhisattvas must progress on the path to buddhahood.