In 791, at the age of 17, he is said to have completed his first major work, the Sangō shiiki ("Essentials of the Three Teachings"), in which he proclaimed the superiority of Buddhism over Confucianism and Taoism.
This is clear in references to the "three teachings", Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism and/or Shintô.
What's more, these three teachings may mislead the public to disregarding the religious law (sharî'a) and are, therefore, dangerous for society (Griffel 2000, 301 3).
A few years later at the age of 24, he completed the final version of his first treatise, the Sangô shîki (Indications of the Goals of the Three Teachings) that covers and compares the teachings of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.
In a detailed and intricate philosophical discussion al-Ghazâlî aims to show that none of the arguments in favor of these twenty teachings fulfills the high epistemological standard of demonstration (burhân) that the falâsifa have set for themselves.
This is summed up nicely in the statement, "The Pañcakramasaṃgrahaprakāśa (Illumination of the Summary of the Five Steps), a short treatise attributed to Nāropa (956 1040), combining the Six Teachings with the 'Five Steps' (pañcakrama) of the Ārya tradition provided Tsong kha pa with the basic ideas of his Tantric system" (Tillemans 1998).
1162 89), would compare the three teachings of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism to the legs of a bronze ding: a ceremonial vessel associated with political unity and power and cultural authority that would be useless if any one of the three were to be removed.
These are three teachings from Avicenna's philosophy, namely (1) that the word has no beginning in the past and is not created in time, (2) that God's knowledge includes only classes of beings (universals) and does not extend to individual beings and their circumstances (particulars), and (3) that after death the souls of humans will never again return into bodies.
In this respect, his work is firmly located in the mainstream Tibetan tradition, influenced in particular by the translator Mar pa (Mar pa Chos kyi blo gros) (1012 1097), who spread the Six Teachings of Nāropa (Nā ro chos drug), a later Indian synthesis of diverse tantric practices, in Tibet.
