Toh 1911Untitled

Explanation of Treatise Collection Toh 1911 — The Northern Tibetan Mahayana Tradition

Context

This work belongs to the Tengyur (གཏེན་འགྱུར་), that is, the Tibetan Treatise Collection, the section that explains and elucidates the scriptures of the Mahayana Buddha Dharma. The Tengyur was compiled in the eighth to ninth centuries in Tibet, gathering the treatises of renowned bodhisattva-scholars such as Nagarjuna, Asanga, Vasubandhu, and their disciples.

The number Toh 1911 in the Kangyur/Tengyur is classified according to the Degé system and represents an important treatise in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Although the title has not been completely translated, this work reflects the spirit of the Northern Tibetan Mahayana: profoundly explaining the Buddha’s teachings on consciousness, emptiness, and the bodhisattva path.

The Northern Tibetan tradition (including schools such as Gelug, Nyingma, Kagyu, and Sakya) values the combination of rigorous reasoning with direct meditation. Therefore, any treatise in the Tengyur is intended to guide practitioners beyond delusion concerning self and phenomena.

Main Content

Although the specific content of this scripture has not yet been fully translated into Vietnamese, according to the context of the Tengyur and the Northern Tibetan tradition, treatises of this level often revolve around several central themes.

First, it may teach on the nature of consciousness (Skt. vijñapti-mātra), or the doctrine of “mind-only” of the Yogacara school. This is the view that the entire world as we perceive it is the product of consciousness. In order to be liberated from suffering, the practitioner must understand this mechanism clearly through luminous logic (Tib. rigs pa, Skt. pramāṇa).

Second, it may elucidate emptiness (Skt. śūnyatā) according to the Madhyamaka school—the renowned doctrine of Nagarjuna concerning the absence of intrinsic nature in all phenomena. Emptiness does not mean nonexistence, but the absence of an independent, eternal, self-governing essence.