Ten topics of knowledge
The ten topics of knowledge are listed in the Madhyantavibhanga of Maitreya:
- Aggregates
- Elements
- Sense sources
- Dependent origination
- The correct and the incorrect
- The faculties
- Time
- The truths (i.e., the four noble truths and two truths)
- The vehicles
- The conditioned and the unconditioned
These ten are said to be antidotes to ten views of the self. As the root text of the Madhyantavibhanga says:
- Single, the cause and consumer,
- The agent and in control,
- The owner and permanent,
- Afflicted and then purified,
- Possessor of yoga, unfree and then freed--
- These are ten views of self.
- (gcig dang rgyu dang za ba dang
- byed pa dang ni dbang bsgyur dang
- bdag po’I don dang rtag pa dang
- nyon mongs pa dang dag pa’i gnas
- rnal ‘byor can dang ma grol grol
- ‘di dag la ni bdag tu lta)
These ten topics are explained in detail in Mipham Rinpoche's Khenjuk.
Other Similar Lists
In the Avatamsaka Sutra six topics of knowledge are mentioned, i.e. aggregates, elements, sense sources, dependent origination (known collectively as the four gates to the truth), the correct and the incorrect and the truths.
In the Sutra of Inexhaustible Intelligence there is mention of eight topics: time is mentioned instead of the correct and the incorrect, and the vehicles and the conditioned and unconditioned are also mentioned.