Adopting the `Yogacara` system of gradual practice,Maitreya composed the `Abhisamayalamkara` and explained the `prajnaparamita` by the way of eight major points-the spheres of the three kinds of wisdom,the paths of the four types of yoga, and the fruit of the `dharmakaya`-and seventy essential meanings. Vimuktasena studied the `prajnaparamita` and,based on the `Madhyamika` principle of absence of self-nature, wrote a commentary the `Pancavimsatisahasrikaprajnaparamitopadesasastrabhi samayalamkaravratti` which is intermingled with the sutra text. This work was held in high esteem by later `prajnaparamita` schorals. Haribhadra propagated it anew and authored three commentaries on it. In Tsong-kha-pa's opinion,the 'Grelba don-gsal excelled among them through both its succinctness and clarity. Thus he added a subcommentary sentence by sentence to it,the mNgon-par rtogs-pa'i rgyan legs-bshad gser-gyi phreng-ba.
In the gser-gyi phreng-ba, the paragraph on "triratna" contains a general and a specific discussion. In its first part,"the general meaning of triratna, "Tsong-kha-pa quotes the `Abhidharmakosasastra` as well as the `Ratnagotravibhagomahayanottaratantantrasastra` in order to explain the different triratna concepts of the `Mahayana` and the `Hinayana` respectively. In its second part,"the specific discussion of triratna",he quotes passages from the `prajnaparamita` which deal with triratna as illustration of the exhortation the Buddha gave his disciples in the `Prajnaparamitasutra`:one should go for refuge to triratna with a mind free of subject and object,truth and attactment.
A comparison between the text of the `Prajnaparamitasutra` quoted in the gSer-gyi phreng-ba (from Haribhadra's `Pancavimsatisahasrikaprajnaparamita` ),the two Chinese renditions by `Hsuan-tsang' and `Kumarajiva` respectively,and the Tibetan translation makes evident that the text of Haribhadra's version is closer to `Kumarajiva's` rendering while the more complete translation by `Hsuan-tsang` shows greater similarities to the Tibetan one. Moreover,a comparison between the Chinese and Tibetan renditions of those `Ratnagotravibhagomahayanottaratantrasastra` passages dealing with triratna reveals great discrepancies, too. (See Appendix I)
In Appendix II,the author has based on Haribhadra's Pancavimsatisahasrikaprajnaparamita` , those sections of `Kumarajiva's` version revised which treat triratna, and at the respective sections in imitation of the former's mingeling of text and commentary,"the Buddha jewel" "the dharma jewel" and other technical expressions inserted.