 In the Three Vows, then, Sapaṇ’s central concern was to correct errors in his contemporaries’ theories and practices, so as to preserve the integrity and the effectiveness of the teachings. As mentioned above, Sapaṇ’s linguistic training made him confident that he had a better understanding of authentic, Indian sources than most of his contemporaries. He therefore adopts a critical stance against what he considers Tibetan innovations, but his concerns are not merely clerical, and he is not simply nostalgic or obedient to tradition. Nor, if we take him at his word, is he simply writing for political gain. On the contrary, he provides a vociferous defense of the use of scripture and reasoning to protect Buddhist doctrine, and he emphasizes the unfairness of those who would claim his critiques are motivated by hostility or jealousy (III.625ff.; Rhoton 2002: 178–181). Rather, as he explains near the end of the work, careful and informed analysis is crucial because even practices that closely resemble authentic ones can undermine the teachings, if they fail to properly follow key points (III.432; Rhoton 2002: 152). In this context, he concisely summarizes the “essentials” he considers sacrosanct for each of the three traditions: For the tradition of the Disciples, they are the monastic vows and the four truths; for the Great Vehicle, the thought of enlightenment and the discipline of the perfections; and for the Mantra tradition, the initiation and the two processes of generation and completion. If you get these wrong, practice becomes essentially non-Buddhist and most importantly, ineffective. He sees his critiques as, above all, practical soteriology.