Ten topics of knowledge

The ten topics of knowledge (Tib. མཁས་པར་བྱ་བའི་གནས་བཅུ་, Wyl. mkhas par bya ba'i gnas bcu) are listed in the Madhyantavibhanga of Maitreya:

1. Aggregates (Tib. ཕུང་པོ་; Skt. skandha)
2. Elements (Tib.ཁམས་; Skt. dhātu)
3. Sense sources (Tib. སྐྱེ་མཆེད་; Skt. āyatana)
4. Dependent origination (Tib. རྟེན་འབྲེལ་; Skt. pratītyasamutpāda)
5. The correct and the incorrect (Tib. གནས་དང་གནས་མ་ཡིན་པ་; Skt. sthānāsthāna)
6. The faculties (Tib. དབང་པོ་; Skt. indriya)
7. Time (Tib. དུས་; Skt. adhvan)
8. The truths (i.e., the four noble truths and two truths) (Tib. བདེན་པ་; Skt. satya)
9. The vehicles (Tib. ཐེག་པ་; Skt. yāna)
10. The conditioned and the unconditioned (Tib. འདུས་བྱས་དང་འདུས་མ་བྱས་; Skt. saṁskṛta-asaṁskṛta)

Antidotes to the Ten Views of Self

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.

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.

Further Reading

These ten topics are explained in detail in Mipham Rinpoche's Khenjuk.