Twelve branches of the excellent teaching
Twelve branches of the excellent teaching (Tib. གསུང་རབ་ཡན་ལག་བཅུ་གཉིས་, Wyl. gsung rab yan lag bcu gnyis) —
- sutras (Skt. sūtra, Tib. མདོའི་སྡེ་, Wyl. mdo'i sde)
- poetic summaries (Skt. geya, Tib. དབྱངས་ཀྱིས་བསྙད་པའི་སྡེ་, Wyl. dbyangs kyis bsnyad pa sde)
- prophecies (Skt. vyākaraṇa, Tib. ལུང་བསྟན་པའི་སྡེ་, Wyl. lung bstan pa'i sde)
- discourses in verse (Skt. gatha, Tib. [[]], Wyl. tshigs bcad)
- intentional statements (Skt. udana, Tib. [[]], Wyl. ched du brjod pa)
- contextual accounts (Skt. nidana, Tib. [[]], Wyl. gleng gzhi)
- testimonies of realization (Skt. avadana, Tib. [[]], Wyl. rtogs brjod)
- historical explanations (Skt. itivrttaka, Tib. [[]], Wyl. de ltar byung ba)
- accounts of former lives (Skt. jataka, Tib. [[]], Wyl. skyes rabs)
- detailed explanations (Skt. vaipulya, Tib. [[]], Wyl. shin tu rgyas pa)
- wondrous discourses (Skt. abidhutadharma, Tib. [[]], Wyl. rmad du byung ba)
- definitive explanations (Skt. upadesha, Tib. [[]], Wyl. gtan la phab)
These are said to be the twelve text categories within the Tripitaka, and include all the teachings of the Buddha.