Buddhist Doctrinal Classification refers to various systems used by Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions to classify and organize the numerous texts and teachings that have developed over the history of Buddhism. According to buddhologist Peter Gregory, these classification systems fulfill three interwoven roles for Buddhist traditions: hermeneutical, sectarian, and soteriological. From an hermeneutical standpoint, they function as a method of organizing Buddhist texts both chronologically and hierarchically, thereby producing a doctrinal structure that is internally coherent and logically consistent. In its sectarian application, different Buddhist schools evaluate and order scriptures based on their own doctrinal priorities, using this to legitimize their specific traditions. From a soteriological perspective, classification schemas map out a graded path of spiritual development, wherein the practitioner's insight evolves from basic teachings toward the most advanced and profound realizations.Ma, Yungfen 楔㯠剔 (Shi Jianshu 慳夳㧆). 2011. The Revival of Tiantai Buddhism in the Late Ming: On the Thought of Youxi Chuandeng (1554- 1628), p. 138. Ph.D. diss., Columbia University.

One of the earliest such systems was the "Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma" (Sanskrit: tridharmacakra-pravartana, Tibetan: chos kyi 'khor lo gsum), an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist framework for classifying and understanding the teachings of the Buddhist Sūtras and the teachings of Buddha Śākyamuni.Keown, Damien (2004). A Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 302. Oxford University Press. . This classification system first appears in the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra and in the works of the Yogācāra school. According to the three turnings schema, the Buddha's first sermons, as recorded in the Tripiṭaka of early Buddhist schools, constitute the "first turning" (which include all śrāvakayāna texts). The sūtras which focus on the doctrine of emptiness (śūnyatā) like the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra corpus, are considered to comprise the "second turning" (which in this schema is considered provisional), and the sūtras which teach Yogācāra themes (especially the three natures doctrine), like the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra, comprise the final and ultimate "third turning".

This and other similar classification systems later became prevalent in various modified forms in Tibetan Buddhism as well as in East Asian Buddhism. In East Asian Buddhism, doctrinal classification systems, called "panjiao" (判教), were developed in nearly all major Chinese Buddhist schools.Ronald S. Green, Chanju Mun, Gyōnen’s Transmission of the Buddha Dharma in Three Countries, BRILL, 2018, p. 28.Mun, Chanju (2006). The History of Doctrinal Classification in Chinese Buddhism: A Study of the Panjiao Systems. University Press of America. Tibetan Buddhism generally uses the term "classification of tenets" (Sanskrit: siddhānta, Tibetan: grub mtha'''), which is also a name for a whole genre of literature that focuses on this topic.Changkya Rölpai Dorjé; Lopez, Donald (translator) (2019). Beautiful Adornment of Mount Meru, Translator's Introduction. Simon and Schuster.

Indian theories The idea of classifying various doctrines and teachings has its antecedents in Early Buddhist texts such as the Tevijja sutta and the Brahmajala sutta. These early Buddhist sources discuss the various worldviews of brahmins, sramanas and ascetics during the Buddha's time, explaining why they are inadequate and why the Buddha's teaching is superior to them.Changkya Rölpai Dorjé; Lopez, Donald (translator) (2019). Beautiful Adornment of Mount Meru, Introduction. Simon and Schuster.

Earlier Mahayana Sutras mostly discuss the Buddha's teachings in two main categories: Hinayana ("Small" or "Lesser" vehicle) or Śrāvakayāna and the Mahayana or Vaipulya (Expansive) teachings. The schema of the three vehicles (yanas) is also another early classification scheme, which contains three main vehicles to awakening: Śrāvakayāna, Pratyekabuddhayāna and Mahayana. Some sutras complicate this classification however. Perhaps the most famous example is the Lotus Sutra, which teaches that the Buddha taught three vehicles only provisionally. In reality, they are ultimately a single teaching, the all inclusive One Vehicle (Skt.: ekayāna, Ch.:一乘; yīchéng).Teiser, Stephen F.; Stone, Jacqueline I. (2009), "Interpreting the Lotus Sutra", in Teiser, Stephen F.; Stone, Jacqueline I. (eds.), Readings of the Lotus Sutra, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 1–61,

The Three Turnings The Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra is the first work to introduce the "three turnings of the wheel of Dharma" schema, which became the normative classification system in the Yogācāra school.

First Turning The first turning is traditionally said to have taken place at Deer Park in Sarnath near Varanasi in northern India. It consisted of the teaching of the four noble truths, dependent arising, the five aggregates, the sense fields, not-self, the thirty seven aids to awakening and all the basic Buddhist teachings common to all Buddhist traditions and found in the various Sutrapitaka and Vinaya collections.Padmakara Translation Group; Longchenpa (2020). Finding Rest in Illusion: The Trilogy of Rest, Volume 3, Translators' Introduction, p. xxv. Shambhala Publications.Dalai Lama, Thubten Chodron (2017). Approaching the Buddhist Path, pp. 99-100. Simon and Schuster.Ford, James L. (2006). Jōkei and Buddhist Devotion in Early Medieval Japan, p. 39. Oxford University Press.Carr, Brian; Mahalingam, Indira (2002). Companion Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy, p. 349. Routledge. These teachings are known as the "Hinayana" teachings (lesser or small vehicle) in Mahayana. In East Asian Buddhism, it is called "the teaching of existence" (有相法輪) since it discusses reality from the point of view of phenomena (dharmas) which are explained as existing.Muller, A. Charles (2012). The Collected Works of Korean Buddhism: 諸敎學 Doctrinal treatises: selected works, p. 34. Volume 6 of The Collected Works of Korean Buddhism, Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism.

The Abhidharma teachings of the various śrāvakayāna (i.e. non-Mahayana) traditions (such as Vaibhasika and Theravada) are generally also placed into this category.

Second Turning

The second turning is said to have taken place at Vulture Peak Mountain in Rajagriha, in Bihar, India. The second turning emphasizes the teachings of emptiness (Skt: śūnyatā) and the bodhisattva path. The main sutras of this second turning are considered to be the Prajñāpāramitā sutras. In East Asian Buddhism, the second turning is referred to as "the teaching that the original nature of all things is empty, that signs are not ultimately real" (無相法輪).

The second turning is also associated with the bodhisattva Manjushri. The analytical texts of the Madhyamaka school of Nagarjuna are generally included under the second turning.Randall Collins, The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change. Harvard University Press, 2000, pages 221-222.

Third Turning

Yogācāra sources

The first sutra source which mentions the "three turnings" is the Ārya-saṃdhi-nirmocana-sūtra (Noble sūtra of the Explanation of the Profound Secrets), the foundational sutra of the Yogācāra school. Major ideas in this text include the storehouse consciousness (ālayavijñāna), and the doctrine of cognition-only (vijñapti-mātra) and the "three natures" (trisvabhāva). The Saṃdhinirmocana affirms that the teachings of the earlier turnings authentic but are also incomplete and require further clarification and interpretation.Williams, Paul (2004), Mahayana Buddhism, Bury St. Edmunds, England: Routledge, p. 79, According to the Saṃdhinirmocana, the previous two turnings all had an "underlying intent" which refers to the three natures (and their threefold lack of essence), the central doctrine of the third turning.Keenan, John (2000), Scripture on the Explication of the Underlying Meaning, pp. 47-49. Berkeley: Numata Center, .

The Saṃdhinirmocana also claims that its teachings are the ultimate and most profound truth which cannot lead to a nihilistic interpretation of the Dharma which clings to non-existence (unlike the second wheel, which can be misinterpreted in a negative way) and is also incontrovertible and irrefutable (whereas the second wheel can be refuted).Keenan, John (2000), Scripture on the Explication of the Underlying Meaning, p. 43. Berkeley: Numata Center, . As such, the third turning is also called "the wheel of good differentiation" (suvibhakta), and "the wheel for ascertaining the ultimate" (paramartha-viniscaya).Westerhoff, Jan (2018). The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy, p. 186. Oxford University Press. In East Asian Buddhism, the third turning is referred to as “ultimate turn of the Dharma wheel” (無上法輪).

Other Mahāyāna sutras are considered to be associated with the Yogācāra school, and thus, with the third turning (though these sutras themselves do not mention "three turnings"). These include the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra and the Ghanavyūha Sūtra, both of which discuss Yogācāra topics like the ālayavijñāna, the three natures and mind-only idealism as well as tathāgatagarbha ideas.Harris, Ian Charles (1991). The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism, p. 78. BRILL.Tzohar, Roy (2018). A Yogacara Buddhist Theory of Metaphor. p. 15. Oxford University Press.

The teachings of the third turning are further elaborated in the numerous works of Yogācāra school masters like Asaṅga, Vasubandhu, Sthiramati, Dharmapāla, Śīlabhadra, Xuanzang, Jñānaśrīmitra and Ratnākaraśānti.

In his Commentary on Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes (Madhyāntavibhāga-bhāṣya), Vasubandhu comments on the three turnings and how they relate to the three natures. According to Vasubandhu, the first turning teaches the non-existence of the self (atman) through an analysis of the five aggregates. The second turning then establishes how the very (false) appearance of a (non-existent) self comes about from its aggregate parts through dependent arising. The third turning then, explains the fundamental nature of emptiness itself, which is how the non-existence of the self exists, i.e. the existence of the non-existent as explained by the three natures. In this sense, the ultimate truth in the third turning is said to be both existent and non-existent.Edelglass et al. The Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy, pp. 277-278. Taylor & Francis.

In his Commentary on the Cheng weishi lun (成唯識 論述記; Taishō no. 1830), Kuiji (a student of Xuanzang), lists the following as the most important sutras for the Yogācāra school:T1830 成唯識論述記 [T43.229c29-230a1], CBETA

Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra (華嚴) Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra (深密) *Tathāgata-utpāda-guṇa-alaṃkāra-vyūha (如來出現功德莊嚴) Mahayana-abhidharma-sutra (阿毘達磨) Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra (楞迦) Ghanavyūha Sūtra (厚嚴)

In Chinese Yogācāra, important treatises for the third turning included the Yogācārabhūmi-śastra, Xuanzang's Cheng Weishi Lun, and the Daśabhūmikasūtraśāstra (Shidi jing lun 十地經論, T.26.1522, also called Dilun), which is Vasubandhu's commentary on the Daśabhūmika-sūtra (Shidi jing 十地經).Tagawa, Shun'ei (2014). Living Yogacara: An Introduction to Consciousness-Only Buddhism, pp. xx-xxi.. Wisdom Publications. .

Buddha-nature teachings