Toh 4164Untitled

An Exposition of Scripture Toh 4164 — The Tibetan Treatise Collection

Context

Toh 4164 is a treatise preserved in the Tengyur—the collection of Buddhist treatises in the Tibetan canon, representing the Northern Mahayana tradition as it developed over the centuries following the Buddha. The Treatise Collection contains works attributed to great Dharma masters such as Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, Dignaga, and Dharmakirti, who developed Buddhist philosophy into rigorous systems of logic and metaphysics.

Under kings such as Trisong Deutsen (around the eighth century), Tibet actively translated and preserved these works when they had nearly disappeared in India. Tibetan Buddhist culture thus became the custodian of some of the most profound Mahayana learning, particularly epistemology and Madhyamaka philosophy.

Although this scripture has not yet been fully translated into Vietnamese, it belongs to the body of Mahayana philosophical and analytical works addressing fundamental questions concerning the nature of a Buddha’s knowledge, the understanding of suchness (Tathatā), and the path of practice leading to awakening.

Main Content

Treatises in the Tengyur commonly focus on three principal fields: epistemology (the means of knowledge, pramāṇa), Buddhist philosophy concerning the nature of reality, and the path of practice leading to the Dharma. Toh 4164 forms part of this tradition and may address questions such as:

First, the character of awakened knowledge—how the Buddha and bodhisattvas attain uncontaminated, unerring knowledge (avisaṃvādin-jñāna) that transcends the distinction between subject and object.

Second, the nature of the Dharma Body (Dharmakāya) and the other bodies of a Buddha—how an invisible ultimate reality can give rise to meaningful interactions with sentient beings.

Third, the actual path of practice—the specific stages through which a monastic (bhikṣu) or bodhisattva must pass in order gradually to eliminate ignorance (avidyā) and craving (tṛṣṇā), until bodhicitta is attained.