Toh 4227Untitled

Exposition of Scripture Toh 4227 — Northern Mahayana Canonical Tradition

Background

This scripture belongs to the Tengyur—the Treatise Canon of the Tibetan tradition, which preserves commentaries and treatises by great teachers of the Buddhadharma concerning the Mahayana teachings. In this tradition, the Tengyur is regarded as a development and deepening of the Sutra Pitaka, particularly through works devoted to examining the early Buddhas and the Buddhas of the western direction.

The number Toh 4227 recorded in the Daijo Butten (Mahayana Buddhist Canon) and the Tibetan Tengyur represents a treatise with a particular subject within the Mahayana system. Although the scripture’s title has not been fully translated into Vietnamese, according to the structure of the Tengyur this work is certainly related to central themes explored in Tibet: cultivation of the bodhisattva path, realization of inherent Buddha-nature, or advanced methods of practice within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

Main Content

The scriptural treatises of the Tengyur commonly revolve around profound questions of metaphysics and practice. In the spirit of this tradition, scripture number 4227 may discuss the nature of mind (cittamatrata—mind-only), habitual ignorance (avidya) and how it obscures our inherent Buddha-nature, or the stages of cultivating the bodhisattva path from bodhicitta through to unsurpassed buddhahood.

In the Tibetan tradition, these treatises are never separated from practice (sadhana). Thus, this scriptural treatise may offer guidance on specific methods of meditation, on how to develop immeasurable compassion (mahakaruna) and the wisdom of emptiness (sunyataprajnapti), or on right wisdom (samyak-prajnapti) that helps us overcome fundamental ignorance.

The Tibetan tradition emphasizes that Buddha-nature is not something remote but the inherent nature of every sentient being. Ignorance, desire (raga), and anger (dosa) are merely temporary defilements obscuring that luminous nature.