The Nine Similes

The Nine Similes

The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra utilizes a series of nine similes to describe how buddha-nature exists within sentient beings— a state in which this basic element is ever-present, but obscured by the adventitious stains of afflictive emotions. These nine are repeated and explained in the first chapter of the Ratnagotravibhāga, in which they are enumerated as 1) a buddha in a decaying lotus, 2) honey amid bees, 3) kernels in their husks, 4) gold in filth, 5) a treasure in the earth, 6) a sprout and so on from a small fruit, 7) an image of the victor in a tattered garment, 8) royalty in the womb of a destitute woman, and 9) a precious statue in clay. In the treatise, each of the nine are individually explained in three verses (with exception of the fourth simile which is explained in four verses) that delineate first the example itself, secondly the meaning of it in relation to buddha-nature, and finally how these two correspond. Below you will find information on these nine similes, including scriptural references and how they have been addressed in commentarial literature related to the Ratnagotravibhāga.

Watch & Learn

Video

Michael Zimmermann at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium

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In light of the argument that the theory of Buddha-nature is non-Buddhist, Michael Zimmerman summarizes more recent research on the earliest history of buddha-nature thought in India and discusses possible reasons for why the idea that all sentient beings have buddha-nature made its appearance.

Zimmermann, Michael. "New Research on the Concept of Buddha-Nature in India: The Beginnings." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 45:00. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYkBSSAJ-zo.

Zimmermann, Michael. "New Research on the Concept of Buddha-Nature in India: The Beginnings." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 45:00. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYkBSSAJ-zo.;Michael Zimmermann at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Indian Buddhism;History of buddha-nature in India;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Early Buddhism;Tathāgatagarbhasūtra;Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra;Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;tathāgatagarbha;Defining buddha-nature;Radich, M.;Critical Buddhism;Terminology;Michael Zimmermann; New Research on the Concept of Buddha-Nature in India: The Beginnings

Video

On Learning about the Uttaratantrashastra in the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Shedra by Tokpa Tulku

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Tokpa Tulku discusses his experiences learning about the Uttaratantrashastra, or Gyü Lama, in the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling shedra. This is a topic, he explains, that comes later on in the eighth year of studies, after the the study of the sūtras. He describes how the text acts as a bridge between sūtra and tantra, as there is a certain transition that one goes through when moving from one to the other. The text aids in this transition.

Tokpa Tulku. “On Learning about the Uttaratantrashastra in the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Shedra.” Interview by Marcus Perman. Tsadra Foundation Research Department, April 22, 2019. Video, 4:13. https://youtu.be/Jj3gRgZ3dl0.

Tokpa Tulku. “On Learning about the Uttaratantrashastra in the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Shedra.” Interview by Marcus Perman. Tsadra Foundation Research Department, April 22, 2019. Video, 4:13. https://youtu.be/Jj3gRgZ3dl0.;On Learning about the Uttaratantrashastra in the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Shedra by Tokpa Tulku;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Bde gshegs snying po'i stong thun chen mo seng+ge'i nga ro;Mi pham rgya mtsho;Tokpa Tulku;On Learning about the Uttaratantrashastra in the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Shedra

From the Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

Maitreya

Maitreya

In the Ratnagotravibhāga, the nine similes are introduced in verses I.96-97 and then briefly explained in verse I.98:

buddhaḥ kupadme madhu makṣikāsu
tuṣesu sārāṇya śucau suvarṇam
nidhiḥ kṣitāvalpaphale 'ṅkurādi
praklinnavastreṣu jinātmabhāvaḥ I.96

jaghanyanārījaṭhare nṛpatvaṃ
yathā bhavenmṛtsu ca ratnabimbam
āgantukakleśamalāvṛteṣu
sattveṣu tadvat sthita eṣa dhātuḥ I.97

padmaprāṇituṣāśu cikṣitiphalatvakpūtivastrāvara-
strīduḥkhajvalanābhitaptapṛthivīdhātuprakāśā malāḥ
buddhakṣaudrasusārakāñcananidhinyagrodharatnākṛti-
dvipāgrādhiparatnabimbavimalaprakhyaḥ sa dhātuḥ paraḥ I.98

།སངས་རྒྱས་པད་ངན་སྦྲང་རྩི་སྦྲང་མ་ལ།
།སྦུན་ལ་སྙིང་པོ་མི་གཙང་ནང་ན་གསེར།
།ས་ལ་གཏེར་དང་སྨྱུག་སོགས་འབྲས་ཆུང་དང་།
།གོས་ཧྲུལ་ནང་ན་རྒྱལ་བའི་སྐུ་དང་ནི། I.96

།བུད་མེད་ངན་མའི་ལྟོ་ན་མི་བདག་དང་།
།ས་ལ་རིན་ཆེན་གཟུགས་ཡོད་ཇི་ལྟ་བར།
།གློ་བུར་ཉོན་མོངས་དྲི་མས་བསྒྲིབས་པ་ཡི།
།སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་དེ་བཞིན་ཁམས་འདི་གནས། I.97

།དྲི་མ་པདྨ་སྲོག་ཆགས་སྦུན་པ་མི་གཙང་ས་འབྲས་གོས་ཧྲུལ་དང་།
།སྡུག་བསྔལ་འབར་བས་མངོན་པར་གདུངས་པའི་བུད་མེད་ས་ཡི་ཁམས་དང་མཚུངས།
།སངས་རྒྱས་སྦྲང་རྩི་སྙིང་པོ་གསེར་དང་གཏེར་དང་ནྱ་གྲོ་རིན་ཆེན་སྐུ།
།གླིང་བདག་མཆོག་དང་རིན་ཆེན་གཟུགས་དང་དྲི་མེད་ཁམས་མཆོག་མཚུངས་པ་ཉིད། I.98

A buddha in a decaying lotus, honey amid bees,
Kernels in their husks, gold in filth,
A treasure in the earth, a sprout and so on from a small fruit,
An image of the victor in a tattered garment, I.96

Royalty in the womb of a destitute woman,
And a precious statue in clay—just as these exist,
This basic element dwells in sentient beings
Obscured by the adventitious stains of the afflictions. I.97

The stains resemble the lotus, the insects, the husks, the filth, the earth, the peel of a fruit,
The foul-smelling garment, the body of a lowly woman, and the element of earth heated in a fire.
The supreme basic element has the stainless appearance of the buddha, the honey, the kernels, the gold, the treasure,
The nyagrodha tree, the precious image, the supreme lord of the world, and the precious statue. I.98 

~ Translation from Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, pp. 393-394.

Jamgön Kongtrul

Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye

1813 ~ 1899

In his commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga, the Unassailable Lion's Roar, Jamgön Kongtrul introduces the nine, stating:

ཐོག་མ་མེད་པ་ནས་ཉེ་བར་གནས་ཀྱང་མ་འབྲེལ་བའི་རང་བཞིན་གློ་བུར་གྱི་དྲི་མ་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་སྦུབས་བྱེ་བའི་ནང་ན་གནས་པ་རང་བཞིན་དག་པའི་ཆོས་ཉིད་སྙིང་པོ་དེ་རྣམ་པ་གསལ་བར་མཚོན་པར་བྱེད་པའི་དཔེ་དགུ་པོ་དེ་དག་གིས་ནི་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་ཤེས་པར་བྱའོ། །

This tathagatagarbha, the true state by nature pure, abides within the many-millionfold shroud of the afflictions. These are defilements that are by nature adventitious. Although they [have been] close to buddha nature since beginningless time, they are not connected with it. This is clearly and fully illustrated by means of nine examples, which should be understood as being given in accordance with the Tathagatagarbhasutra (Tib. de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po'i mdo). 

~ 'Jam mgon kong sprul. Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos snying po'i don mngon sum lam gyi bshad pa srol dang sbyar ba'i rnam par 'grel ba phyir mi ldog pa seng ge'i nga ro. In Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i tshig 'grel. New Delhi: Shechen Publications, 2005, p. 221.
- Translation from Fuchs, Rosemarie, trans. Buddha Nature: The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra. Commentary by Jamgon Kongtrul and explanations by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso. Ithaca, N. Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 2000, p. 148.

Simile One: A Buddha in a Decaying Lotus

The Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra begins with the Buddha displaying a miracle in which He causes the sky to be filled with beautiful lotuses inside of which are seated buddhas that radiate light. However, all of a sudden the lotuses whither, become disgusting and give off a foul stench. It is in the context of this apparition that the Buddha explains the first simile, stating:

"Sons of good family, just as these unsightly, putrid, disgusting and no [longer] pleasing lotuses, supernaturally created by the Tathāgata,

and the pleasing and beautiful form of a tathāgata sitting cross-legged in [each of] the calyxes of these lotuses, emitting hundreds of thousands of rays of

light, [are such that when they are] recognized by gods and humans, [these latter] then pay homage and also show reverence [to them], in the same way, sons of good family, also the Tathāgata, the Honorable One and Perfectly Awakened One, [perceives] with his insight (prajñā), knowledge (jñāna) and tathāgata-vision that all the various sentient beings are encased in myriads of defilements, [such as] desire (rāga), anger (dveṣa), misguidedness (moha), longing (tṛṣṇā) and ignorance (avidyā).
And, sons of good family, [he] perceives that inside sentient beings encased in defilements sit many tathāgatas, cross-legged and motionless, endowed like myself with a [tathāgata's] knowledge and vision. And [the Tathāgata], having perceived inside those [sentient beings] defiled by all defilements the true nature of a tathāgata (tathāgatadharmatā) motionless and unaffected by any of the states of existence, then says: 'Those tathagātas are just like me!
Sons of good family, in this way a tathāgata's vision is admirable, [because] with it [he] perceives that all sentient beings contain a tathāgata (tathāgatagarbha}"
"Sons of good family, it is like the example of a person endowed with divine vision [who] would [use this] divine vision to look at such unsightly and putrid lotuses, not blooming and not open, and would [owing to his vision] recognize that there are tathāgatas sitting cross-legged in their center, in the calyx of [each] lotus, and [knowing that, he] would then desire to look at the forms of the tathāgatas; [he would] then peel away and remove the unsightly, putrid and disgusting lotus petals in order to thoroughly clean the forms of the tathāgatas.
In the same way, sons of good family, with the vision of a buddha, the Tathāgata also perceives that all sentient beings contain a tathāgata (tathāgatagarbha), and [therefore] teaches the Dharma [to them] in order to peel away the sheaths of those sentient beings [encased in such] defilements [as] desire, anger, misguidedness, longing and ignorance. And after [those sentient beings] have realized the [Dharma, their] tathāgatas [inside] are established in the perfection [of the tathagatas]." 

~ Translation from Zimmermann, Michael. A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra: The Earliest Exposition of the Buddha-nature Teaching in India. Biblotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica. Tokyo: The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2002, pp. 105-106.

Maitreya

Maitreya

In the Ratnagotravibhāga, the first simile is taught in verses I.99-101:

yathā vivarṇāmbujagarbhaveṣṭitaṃ
tathāgataṃ dīptasahasralakṣaṇam
naraḥ samīkṣyāmaladivyalocano
vimocayedambujapattrakośataḥ I.99

vilokya tadvat sugataḥ svadharmatā-
mavīcisaṃstheṣvapi buddhacakṣuṣā
vimocayatyāvaraṇādanāvṛto
'parāntakoṭīsthitakaḥ kṛpātmakaḥ I.100

yadvat syādvijugupsitaṃ jalaruhaṃ saṃmiñji taṃ divyadṛk tadgarbhasthitamabhyudīkṣya sugataṃ patrāṇi saṃchedayet
rāgadveṣamalādikośanivṛtaṃ saṃbuddhagarbhaṃ jagat
kāruṇyādavalokya tannivaraṇaṃ nirhanti tadvanmuniḥ I.101

།ཇི་ལྟར་མདོག་ངན་པད་མའི་ཁོང་གནས་པ།
།མཚན་སྟོང་གིས་འབར་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ནི།
།དྲི་མེད་ལྷ་ཡི་མིག་ལྡན་མིས་མཐོང་ནས།
།ཆུ་སྐྱེས་འདབ་མའི་སྦུབས་ནས་འབྱིན་བྱེད་པ། I.99

།དེ་བཞིན་བདེ་གཤེགས་མནར་མེད་གནས་རྣམས་ལའང་།
།སངས་རྒྱས་སྤྱན་གྱིས་རང་ཆོས་ཉིད་གཟིགས་ཏེ།
།སྒྲིབ་མེད་ཕྱི་མཐའི་མུར་གནས་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཡི།
།བདག་ཅག་སྒྲིབ་པ་ལས་ནི་གྲོལ་བར་མཛད། I.100

།ཇི་ལྟར་མི་སྡུག་པདྨ་ཟུམ་ལ་བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ་ནི།
།དེ་ཡི་ཁོང་གནས་ལྷ་མིག་མཐོང་ནས་འདབ་མ་གཅོད་བྱེད་ལྟར།
།ཆགས་སྡང་སོགས་དྲི་སྦུབས་བསྒྲིབས་རྫོགས་སངས་སྙིང་པོ་འགྲོ་གཟིགས་ཏེ།
།ཐུགས་རྗེས་ཐུབ་པ་དེ་བཞིན་སྒྲིབ་པ་དེ་ནི་འཇོམས་པར་མཛད། I.101

Suppose a man with the stainless divine eye were to see
A tathāgata shining with a thousand marks,
Dwelling enclosed in a fading lotus,
And thus would free him from the sheath of the lotus petals. I.99

Similarly, the Sugata beholds his own true nature
With his buddha eye even in those who dwell in the Avīci [hell]
And thus, as the one who is unobscured, remains until the end of time,
And has the character of compassion, frees it from the obscurations. I.100

Just as someone with the divine eye would perceive an ugly shriveled lotus
And a sugata dwelling enclosed in it, thus cutting apart its petals,
So the sage beholds the buddha heart obscured by the sheaths of the stains such as desire and hatred,
Thus annihilating its obscurations out of his compassion for the world. I.101 

~ Translation from Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, p. 394.

Simile Two: Honey Amid Bees

In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the second simile appears as:

 

~ Translation from Zimmermann, Michael. A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra: The Earliest Exposition of the Buddha-nature Teaching in India. Biblotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica. Tokyo: The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2002, pp. 105-106.

Maitreya

Maitreya

In the Ratnagotravibhāga, the second simile is taught in verses I.102-104:

yathā madhu prāṇigaṇopagūḍhaṃ
vilokya vidvān puruṣastadarthī
samantataḥ prāṇigaṇasya tasmā-
dupāyato'pakramaṇaṃ prakuryāt I.102

sarvajñacakṣurviditaṃ maharṣi-
rmadhūpamaṃ dhātumimaṃ vilokya
tadāvṛtīnāṃ bhramaropamānā-
maśleṣamātyantikamādadhāti I.103

yadvat prāṇisahasrakoṭīniyutairmadhvāvṛtaṃ syānnaro
madhvarthī vinihatya tānmadhukarānmadhvā yathākāmataḥ
kuryātkāryamanāsravaṃ madhunibhaṃ jñānaṃ tathā dehiṣu
kleśāḥ kṣudranibhā jinaḥ puruṣavat tadghātane kovidaḥ I.104

།ཇི་ལྟར་སྲོག་ཆགས་ཚོགས་བསྐོར་སྦྲང་རྩི་ནི།
སྐྱེས་བུ་མཁས་པས་དེ་དོན་གཉེར་བ་ཡིས།
།མཐོང་ནས་ཐབས་ཀྱིས་དེ་དང་སྲོག་ཆགས་ཚོགས།
།ཀུན་ནས་བྲལ་བར་རབ་ཏུ་བྱེད་པ་བཞིན། I.102

།དྲང་སྲོང་ཆེན་པོས་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་སྤྱན་གྱིས་ནི།
།རིག་ཁམས་སྦྲང་རྩི་དང་འདྲ་དེ་གཟིགས་ནས།
།དེ་ཡི་སྒྲིབ་པ་སྦྲང་མ་དང་འདྲ་བ།
།གཏན་ནས་རབ་ཏུ་སྤོང་བར་མཛད་པ་ཡིན། I.103

།ཇི་ལྟར་སྦྲང་རྩི་སྲོག་ཆགས་བྱེ་བ་ཁྲག་ཁྲིག་སྟོང་བསྒྲིབས་སྦྲང་རྩི་དོན་གཉེར་མིས།
།སྦྲང་མ་དེ་དག་བསལ་ཏེ་ཇི་ལྟར་འདོད་པ་བཞིན་དུ་སྦྲང་རྩིའི་བྱ་བྱེད་པ།
།དེ་བཞིན་ལུས་ཅན་ལ་ཡོད་ཟག་པ་མེད་པའི་ཤེས་པ་སྦྲང་མའི་རྩི་དང་འདྲ།
།ཉོན་མོངས་སྦྲང་མ་དང་འདྲ་དེ་འཇོམས་པ་ལ་མཁས་པའི་རྒྱལ་བ་སྐྱེས་བུ་བཞིན། I.104

Suppose a clever person were to see
Honey surrounded by a swarm of insects
And, striving for it, would completely separate it
From the swarm of insects with the [proper] means. I.102

Similarly, the great seer sees that this basic element,
Which he perceives with his omniscient eye, is like honey
And thus accomplishes the complete removal
Of its obscurations that are like bees. I.103

Just as a person striving for the honey that is covered by billions of insects
Would remove them from the honey and use that honey as wished,
So the uncontaminated wisdom in beings is like honey, the afflictions are like bees,
And the victor who knows how to destroy them resembles that person. I.104 

~ Translation from Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, p. 395.

Simile Three: Kernels in their Husks

In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the third simile appears as:

 

~ Translation from Zimmermann, Michael. A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra: The Earliest Exposition of the Buddha-nature Teaching in India. Biblotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica. Tokyo: The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2002, pp. 105-106.

Maitreya

Maitreya

In the Ratnagotravibhāga, the third simile is taught in verses I.105-107:

dhānyeṣu sāraṃ tuṣasaṃprayuktaṃ
nṛṇāṃ na ya[dva]tparibhogameti
bhavanti ye'nnādibhirarthinastu
te tattuṣebhyaḥ parimocayanti I.105

sattveṣvapi kleśamalopasṛṣṭa-
mevaṃ na tāvatkurute jinatvam
saṃbuddhakāryaṃ tribhave na yāva-
dvimucyate kleśamalopasargāt I.106

yadvat kaṅgukaśālikodravayavavrīhiṣvamuktaṃ tuṣāt
sāraṃ khāḍyasusaṃskṛtaṃ na bhavati svādūpabhojyaṃ nṛṇām
tadvat kleśatuṣādaniḥsṛtavapuḥ sattveṣu dharmeśvaro
dharmaprītirasaprado na bhavati kleśakṣudhārte jane I.107

།ཇི་ལྟར་སྦུན་ལྡན་འབྲུ་ཡི་སྙིང་པོ་ནི།
།མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ནི་སྤྱད་བྱར་མི་འགྱུར་བ།
།ཟས་སོགས་དོན་དུ་གཉེར་བ་གང་ཡིན་པ།
།དེ་དག་གིས་ནི་སྦུན་ནས་དེ་འབྱིན་ལྟར། I.105

།དེ་བཞིན་སེམས་ཅན་ལ་ཡོད་ཉོན་མོངས་ཀྱི།
།དྲི་མ་དང་འདྲེས་རྒྱལ་བའང་ཇི་སྲིད་དུ།
།ཉོན་མོངས་དྲི་མ་འདྲེས་ལས་མ་གྲོལ་བ།
།དེ་སྲིད་རྒྱལ་མཛད་སྲིད་གསུམ་འདུ་མི་བྱེད། I.106

།ཇི་ལྟར་སཱ་ལུ་བྲ་བོ་ནས་འབྲུའི་སྙིང་པོ་སྦུན་ལས་མ་བྱུང་གྲ་མ་ཅན།
།ལེགས་པར་མ་བསྒྲུབས་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ནི་སྤྱད་བྱ་བཟའ་བ་ཞིམ་པོར་མི་འགྱུར་ལྟར།
།དེ་བཞིན་སེམས་ཅན་ལ་ཡོད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་ཉོན་མོངས་སྦུབས་ལས་མ་གྲོལ་ལུས།
།ཉོན་མོངས་བཀྲེས་པས་ཉེན་པའི་འགྲོ་ལ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དགའ་བའི་རོ་སྟེར་འགྱུར་བ་མིན། I.107

The kernel in grains united with its husks
[Can] not be eaten by people,
But those wanting food and so on
Extract it from its husks. I.105

Similarly, the state of a victor in sentient beings,
Which is obscured by the stains of the afflictions,
Does not perform the activity of a perfect buddha in the three existences
For as long as it is not liberated from the afflictions added on [to it]. I.106

Just as the kernels in grains such as corn, rice, millet, and barley, not extracted from their husks,
Still awned, and not prepared well, will not serve as delicious edibles for people,
So the lord of dharma in sentient beings, whose body is not released from the husks of the afflictions,
Will not grant the pleasant flavor of the dharma to the people pained by the hunger of the afflictions. I.107 

~ Translation from Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, pp. 395-396.

Simile Four: Gold in Filth

In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the fourth simile appears as:

 

~ Translation from Zimmermann, Michael. A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra: The Earliest Exposition of the Buddha-nature Teaching in India. Biblotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica. Tokyo: The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2002, pp. 105-106.

Maitreya

Maitreya

In the Ratnagotravibhāga, the fourth simile is taught in verses I.108-111:

yathā suvarṇaṃ vrajato narasya
cyutaṃ bhavetsaṃkarapūtidhāne
bahūni tadvarṣaśatāni tasmin
tathaiva tiṣṭhedavināśadharmi I.108

taddevatā divyaviśuddhacakṣu-
rvilokya tatra pravadennarasya
suvarṇamasminnavamagraratnaṃ
viśodhya ratnena kuruṣva kāryam I.109

dṛṣṭvā muniḥ sattvaguṇaṃ tathaiva
kleśeṣvamekṣyapratimeṣu magnam
tatkleśapaṅkavyavadānaheto-
rdharmāmbuvarṣaṃ vyasṛjat prajāsu I.110

yadvat saṃkarapūtidhānapatitaṃ cāmīkaraṃ devatā
dṛṣṭvā dṛśyatamaṃ nṛṇāmupadiśet saṃśodhanārthaṃ malāt
tadvat kleśamahāśuciprapatitaṃ saṃbuddharatnaṃ jinaḥ
sattveṣu vyavalokya dharmamadiśa[tta]cchuddhaye dehinām I.111

།ཇི་ལྟར་རབ་ཏུ་རྒྱུ་ཚེ་མི་ཡི་གསེར།
།ལྗན་ལྗིན་རུལ་བའི་གནས་སུ་ལྷུང་གྱུར་པ།
།མི་འཇིག་ཆོས་ཅན་དེ་ནི་དེར་དེ་བཞིན།
།ལོ་བརྒྱ་མང་པོ་དག་ཏུ་གནས་པ་དེ། I.108

།ལྷ་མིག་རྣམ་དག་དང་ལྡན་ལྷ་ཡིས་དེར།
།མཐོང་ནས་མི་ལ་འདི་ན་ཡོད་པའི་གསེར།
།རིན་ཆེན་མཆོག་འདི་སྦྱངས་ཏེ་རིན་ཆེན་གྱིས།
།བསྒྲུབ་པར་བྱ་བ་གྱིས་ཞེས་སྨྲ་བ་ལྟར། I.109

།དེ་བཞིན་ཐུབ་པས་མི་གཙང་དང་འདྲ་བའི།
།ཉོན་མོངས་སུ་བྱིང་སེམས་ཅན་ཡོན་ཏན་ནི།
།གཟིགས་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་འདམ་དེ་དག་བྱའི་ཕྱིར།
།སྐྱེ་དགུ་རྣམས་ལ་དམ་ཆོས་ཆུ་ཆར་འབེབས། I.110

།ཇི་ལྟར་ལྗན་ལྗིན་རུལ་པའི་གནས་སུ་ལྷུང་བའི་གསེར་ནི་ལྷ་ཡིས་མཐོང་གྱུར་ནས།
།ཀུན་ཏུ་དག་པར་བྱ་ཕྱིར་མཆོག་ཏུ་མཛེས་པ་མི་ལ་ནན་གྱིས་སྟོན་པ་ལྟར།
།དེ་བཞིན་རྒྱལ་བས་ཉོན་མོངས་མི་གཙང་ཆེན་པོར་ལྷུང་གྱུར་རྫོགས་སངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།
།སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་གཟིགས་ནས་དེ་དག་བྱ་ཕྱིར་ལུས་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་ཆོས་སྟོན་ཏོ། I.111

Suppose a traveling person’s [piece of] gold
Were to fall into a filthy place full of excrement
And yet, being of an indestructible nature, would remain there
Just as it is for many hundreds of years. I.108

A deity with the pure divine eye
Would see it there and tell a person:
"[There is] gold here, this highest precious substance.
You should purify it, and make use of this precious substance." I.109

Similarly, the sage beholds the qualities of sentient beings,
Sunken into the afflictions that are like excrement,
And thus showers down the rain of the dharma onto beings
In order to purify them of the afflictions’ dirt. I.110

Just as a deity seeing a [piece of] gold fallen into a filthy place full of excrement
Would show its supreme beauty to people in order to purify it from stains,
So the victor, beholding the jewel of a perfect buddha fallen into the great excrement of the afflictions
In sentient beings, teaches the dharma to these beings for the sake of purifying that [buddha]. I.111 

~ Translation from Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, p. 396.

Simile Five: A Treasure in the Earth

In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the fifth simile appears as:

 

~ Translation from Zimmermann, Michael. A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra: The Earliest Exposition of the Buddha-nature Teaching in India. Biblotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica. Tokyo: The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2002, pp. 105-106.

Maitreya

Maitreya

In the Ratnagotravibhāga, the fifth simile is taught in verses I.112-114:

yathā daridrasya narasya veśma-
nyantaḥ pṛthivyāṃ nidhirakṣayaḥ syāt
vidyānna cainaṃ sa naro na cāsmi-
nneṣo'hamasmīti vadennidhistam I.112

tadvanmano'ntargatamapya cintya-
makṣayyadharmāmalaratnakośam
abudhyamānānubhavatyajasraṃ
dāridrayaduḥkhaṃ bahudhā prajeyam I.113

yadvadratnanidhirdaridrabhavanābhyantargataḥ syānnaraṃ
na brūyādahamasmi ratnanidhirityevaṃ na vidyānnaraḥ
tadvaddharmanidhirmanogṛhagataḥ sattvā daridropamā-
steṣāṃ tatpratilambhakāraṇamṛṣirloke samutpadyate I.114

།ཇི་ལྟར་མི་དབུལ་ཁྱིམ་ནང་ས་འོག་ན།
།མི་ཟད་པ་ཡི་གཏེར་ནི་ཡོད་གྱུར་ལ།
།མི་དེས་དེ་མ་ཤེས་ཏེ་གཏེར་དེ་ཡང་།
།དེ་ལ་ང་འདིར་ཡོད་ཅེས་མི་སྨྲ་ལྟར། I.112

།དེ་བཞིན་ཡིད་ཀྱི་ནང་ཆུད་རིན་ཆེན་གཏེར།
།དྲི་མེད་གཞག་དང་བསལ་མེད་ཆོས་ཉིད་ཀྱང་།
།མ་རྟོགས་པས་ན་དབུལ་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ནི།
།རྣམ་མང་རྒྱུན་དུ་སྐྱེ་དགུ་འདིས་མྱོང་ངོ། I.113

།ཇི་ལྟར་དབུལ་པོའི་ཁྱིམ་ནང་དུ་ནི་རིན་ཆེན་གཏེར་ཆུད་གྱུར་པའི་མི་ལ་ནི།
།རིན་ཆེན་གཏེར་བདག་ཡོད་ཅེས་རྗོད་པར་མི་བྱེད་དེ་ནི་མི་ཡིས་ཤེས་མིན་ལྟར།
།དེ་བཞིན་ཆོས་གཏེར་ཡིད་ཀྱི་ཁྱིམ་གནས་སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ནི་དབུལ་པོ་ལྟ་བུ་སྟེ།
།དེ་དག་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དེ་ཐོབ་བྱ་ཕྱིར་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་ནི་དྲང་སྲོང་ཡང་དག་བསྟམས། I.114

Suppose there were an inexhaustible treasure
Beneath the ground within the house of a poor person,
But that person would not know about this [treasure],
Nor would the treasure say to that [person], "I am here!" I.112

Similarly, with the stainless treasure of jewels lodged within the mind,
Whose nature is to be inconceivable and inexhaustible,
Not being realized, beings continuously experience
The suffering of being destitute in many ways. I.113

Just as a treasure of jewels lodged inside the abode of a pauper would not say
To this person, "I, the jewel treasure, am here!," nor would this person know about it,
So the treasure of the dharma is lodged in the house of the mind, and sentient beings resemble the pauper.
It is in order to enable them to attain this [treasure] that the seer takes birth in the world. I.114 

~ Translation from Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, pp. 396-397.

Simile Six: A Sprout and so on from a Small Fruit

In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the sixth simile appears as:

 

~ Translation from Zimmermann, Michael. A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra: The Earliest Exposition of the Buddha-nature Teaching in India. Biblotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica. Tokyo: The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2002, pp. 105-106.

Maitreya

Maitreya

In the Ratnagotravibhāga, the sixth simile is taught in verses I.115-117:

yathāmratālādiphale drumāṇāṃ
bījāṅkuraḥ sannavināśadharmī
uptaḥ pṛthivyāṃ salilādiyogāt
kramādupaiti drumarājabhāvam I.115

sattveṣvavidyā diphalatvagantaḥ-
kośāvanaddhaḥ śubhadharmadhātuḥ
upaiti tattatkuśalaṃ pratītya
krameṇa tadvanmunirājabhāva I.116

ambvādityāgabhastivāyupṛthivīkālāmbarapratyayai-
ryadvat tālaphalāmrakośavivarādutpadyate pādapaḥ
sattvakleśaphalatvagantaragataḥ saṃbuddhabījāṅkura-
stadvadvṛddhimupaiti dharmaviṭapastaistaiḥ śubhapratyayaiḥ I.117

།ཇི་ལྟར་ཨ་མྲ་ལ་སོགས་ཤིང་འབྲས་ལ།
།ཡོད་པའི་ས་བོན་མྱུ་གུ་འཇིག་མེད་ཆོས།
།ས་རྨོས་ཆུ་སོགས་ལྡན་པའི་ལྗོན་ཤིང་གི།
།རྒྱལ་པོའི་དངོས་པོ་རིམ་གྱིས་འགྲུབ་པ་ལྟར། I.115

།སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་མ་རིག་སོགས་འབྲས།
།པགས་སྦུབས་ནང་ཆུད་ཆོས་ཁམས་དགེ་བ་ཡང་།
།དེ་བཞིན་དགེ་བ་དེ་དེ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས།
།རིམ་གྱིས་ཐུབ་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་དངོས་པོར་འགྱུར། I.116

།ཆུ་དང་ཉི་མའི་འོད་དང་རླུང་དང་ས་དུས་ནམ་མཁའི་རྐྱེན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས།
།ཏ་ལ་དང་ནི་ཨ་མྲའི་འབྲས་སྦུབས་གསེབ་ནས་ཤིང་སྐྱེ་ཇི་ལྟར་བར།
།སེམས་ཅན་ཉོན་མོངས་འབྲས་ལྤགས་ནང་ཆུད་རྫོགས་སངས་ས་བོན་མྱུ་གུ་ཡང་།
།དེ་བཞིན་དགེ་རྐྱེན་དེ་དང་དེ་ལས་ཆོས་མཐོང་འཕེལ་བར་འགྱུར་བ་ཡིན། I.117

The germs of the seeds in tree fruits such as mango and palm
Have the indestructible nature [of growing into a tree].
Being sown into the earth and coming into contact with water and so on,
They gradually assume the form of a majestic tree. I.115

Similarly, the splendid dharmadhātu in sentient beings, covered
By the sheath of the peel around the fruit of ignorance and so on,
In dependence on such and such virtues
Gradually assumes the state of the king of sages. I.116

Just as, through the conditions of water, sunlight, wind, earth, time, and space,
A tree grows forth from within the sheath of palm fruits and mangos,
So the germ in the seed of the perfect buddha lodged inside the peel of the fruit of sentient beings’ afflictions
Will grow into the shootof dharma through such and such conditions of virtue. I.117 

~ Translation from Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, p. 397.

Simile Seven: An Image of the Victor in a Tattered Garment

In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the seventh simile appears as:

 

~ Translation from Zimmermann, Michael. A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra: The Earliest Exposition of the Buddha-nature Teaching in India. Biblotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica. Tokyo: The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2002, pp. 105-106.

Maitreya

Maitreya

In the Ratnagotravibhāga, the seventh simile is taught in verses I.118-120:

bimbaṃ yathā ratnamayaṃ jinasya
durgandhapūtyambarasaṃniruddham
dṛṣṭvavojjhitaṃ vartmani devatāsya
muktyai vadedadhvagametamartham I.118

nānāvidhakleśamalopagūḍha-
masaṅgacakṣuḥ sugatātmabhāvam
vilokya tiryakṣvapi advimuktiṃ
pratyabhyupāyaṃ vidadhāti tadvat I.119

yadvadratnamayaṃ tathāgatavapurdurgandhavastrāvṛtaṃ
vartmanyujjñitamekṣya divyanayano muktyai nṛṇāṃ darśayet
tadvat kleśavipūtivastranivṛtaṃ saṃsāravartmojjñitaṃ
tiryakṣu vyavalokya dhātumavadaddharmaṃ vimuktyai jinaḥ I.120

།ཇི་ལྟར་རིན་ཆེན་ལས་བྱས་རྒྱལ་བའི་གཟུགས།
།གོས་ཧྲུལ་དྲི་ངན་གྱིས་ནི་གཏུམས་གྱུར་པ།
།ལམ་གནས་ལྷ་ཡིས་མཐོང་ནས་གྲོལ་བྱའི་ཕྱིར།
།ལམ་གནས་དོན་དེ་དེ་ལ་སྨྲ་བ་ལྟར། I.118

།ཐོགས་མེད་སྤྱན་མངའ་རྣམ་པ་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཀྱི།
།ཉོན་མོངས་ཀྱིས་གཏུམས་བདེ་གཤེགས་དངོས་པོ་ཉིད།
།དུད་འགྲོ་ལ་ཡང་གཟིགས་ནས་དེ་བཞིན་དེ།
།ཐར་པར་བྱ་བའི་དོན་དུ་ཐབས་སྟོན་མཛོད། I.119

།ཇི་ལྟར་རིན་ཆེན་རང་བཞིན་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་སྐུ་དྲི་ངན་གོས་གཏུམས་པ།
།ལམ་གནས་ལྷ་ཡི་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་ནས་ཐར་ཕྱིར་མི་ལ་སྟོན་པ་ལྟར།
།དེ་བཞིན་ཉོན་མོངས་གོས་ཧྲུལ་གྱིས་གཏུམས་འཁོར་བའི་ལམ་ན་གནས་པའི་ཁམས།
།དུད་འགྲོ་ལ་ཡང་གཟིགས་ནས་ཐར་པར་བྱ་ཕྱིར་རྒྱལ་བ་ཆོས་སྟོན་ཏོ། I.120

Suppose an image of the victor made of a precious substance
And wrapped in a filthy foul-smelling cloth
Were left on the road, and a deity, upon seeing it,
Speaks about this matter to those traveling by in order to set it free. I.118

Similarly, the one with unimpeded vision sees the body of a sugata
Concealed by the stains of various kinds of afflictions
Even in animals and demonstrates
The means for its liberation. I.119

Just as the form of the Tathāgata made of a precious substance, wrapped in a foul-smelling garment,
And left on the road would be seen by someone with the divine eye and shown to people in order to set it free,
So the basic element wrapped in the filthy garment of the afflictions and left on the road of saṃsāra
Is seen by the victor even in animals, upon which he teaches the dharma for the sake of liberating it. I.120 

~ Translation from Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, p. 398.

Simile Eight: Royalty in the Womb of a Destitute Woman

In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the eighth simile appears as:

 

~ Translation from Zimmermann, Michael. A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra: The Earliest Exposition of the Buddha-nature Teaching in India. Biblotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica. Tokyo: The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2002, pp. 105-106.

Maitreya

Maitreya

In the Ratnagotravibhāga, the eighth simile is taught in verses I.121-123:

nārī yathā kācidanāthabhūtā
vasedanāthāvasathe virūpā
garbheṇa rājaśriyamudvahantī
na sāvabudhyeta nṛpaṃ svakukṣau I.121

anāthaśāleva bhavopapatti-
rantarvatīstrīvadaśuddhasattvāḥ
tadgarbhavatteṣvamalaḥ sa dhātu-
rbhavanti yasminsati te sanāthāḥ I.122

yadvat strī malināmvarāvṛtatanurbībhatsarūpānvitā
vindedduḥkhamanāthaveśmani paraṃ garbhāntarasthe nṛpe
tadvat kleśavaśādaśāntamanaso duḥkhālayasthā janāḥ
sannātheṣu ca satsvanāthamatayaḥ svātmāntarastheṣvapi I.123

།ཇི་ལྟར་མི་མོ་གཟུགས་ངན་མགོན་མེད་འགའ།
།མགོན་མེད་འདུག་གནས་སུ་ནི་འདུག་གྱུར་ལ།
།མངལ་གྱིས་རྒྱལ་པོའི་དཔལ་ནི་འཛིན་བྱེད་པས།
།རང་ལྟོ་ན་ཡོད་མི་བདག་མི་ཤེས་ལྟར། I.121

།སྲིད་པར་སྐྱེ་བ་མགོན་མེད་ཁྱིམ་བཞིན་ཏེ།
།མ་དག་སེམས་ཅན་མངལ་ལྡན་བུད་མེད་བཞིན།
།དེ་ལ་གང་ཞིག་ཡོད་པས་མགོན་བཅས་པ།
།དྲི་མེད་ཁམས་ནི་དེ་ཡི་མངལ་གནས་བཞིན། I.122

།ཇི་ལྟར་བུད་མེད་ལུས་ལ་དྲི་བཅས་གོས་གྱོན་མི་སྡུག་གཟུགས་ལྡན་པ།
།ས་བདག་མངལ་ན་གནས་ཀྱང་མགོན་མེད་ཁང་པར་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མཆོག་མྱོང་ལྟར།
།དེ་བཞིན་བདག་རང་ནང་གནས་མགོན་ཡོད་གྱུར་ཀྱང་མགོན་མེད་བློ་ལྡན་པ།
།འགྲོ་བ་ཉོན་མོངས་དབང་གིས་ཡིད་མ་ཞི་བས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གཞི་ལ་གནས། I.123

Suppose an ugly woman without a protector,
Dwelling in a shelter for those without protection
And bearing the glory of royalty as an embryo,
Were not to know about the king in her own womb. I.121

Being born in [saṃsāric] existence is like a place for those without protection,
Impure sentient beings resemble the pregnant woman,
The stainless basic element in them is similar to her embryo,
And due to its existence, these [beings] do have a protector. I.122

Just as this woman whose body is covered with a dirty garment and who has an unsightly body
Would experience the greatest suffering in a shelter for those without protection despite this king’s residing in her womb,
So beings dwell in the abode of suffering due to their minds’ not being at peace through the power of the afflictions
And deem themselves to be without a protector despite the excellent protectors residing right within themselves. I.123

 

~ Translation from Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, pp. 398-399.

Simile Nine: A Precious Statue in Clay

In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the ninth simile appears as:

 

~ Translation from Zimmermann, Michael. A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra: The Earliest Exposition of the Buddha-nature Teaching in India. Biblotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica. Tokyo: The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2002, pp. 105-106.

Maitreya

Maitreya

In the Ratnagotravibhāga, the ninth simile is taught in verses I.124-126:

hemno yathāntaḥkvathitasya pūrṇaṃ
bimbaṃ bahirmṛnmayamekṣya śāntam
antarviśuddhyai kanakasya tajjñaḥ
saṃcodayedāvaraṇaṃ bahirdhā I.124

prabhāsvaratvaṃ prakṛtermalānā-
māgantukatvaṃ ca sadāvalokya
ratnākarābhaṃ jagadagrabodhi-
rviśodhayatyāvaraṇebhya evam I.125

yadvannirmaladīptakāñcanamayaṃ bimbaṃ mṛdantargataṃ
syācchānta tadavetya ratnakuśalaḥ saṃcodayenmṛttikām
tadvacchāntamavetya śuddhakanakaprakhyaṃ manaḥ sarvavid-
dharmākhyānanayaprahāravidhitaḥ saṃcodayatyāvṛtim I.126

།ཇི་ལྟར་ནང་གི་གསེར་ཞུན་གཟུགས་རྒྱས་པ།
།ཞི་བ་ཕྱི་རོལ་ས་ཡི་རང་བཞིན་ཅན།
།མཐོང་ནས་དེ་ཤེས་པ་དག་ནང་གི་གསེར།
།སྦྱང་ཕྱིར་ཕྱི་རོལ་སྒྲིབ་པ་སེལ་བྱེད་ལྟར། I.124

།རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་དྲི་མེད་རྣམས་ཀྱང་ནི།
།གློ་བུར་བར་ནི་རྣམ་པར་གཟིགས་གྱུར་ནས།
།རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་གནས་ལྟ་བུའི་འགྲོ་བ་རྣམས།
།སྒྲིབ་པ་དག་ལས་སྦྱོང་མཛད་བྱང་ཆུབ་མཆོག I.125

།ཇི་ལྟར་དྲི་མེད་གསེར་འབར་ལས་བྱས་ས་ཡི་ནང་དུ་ཆུད་གྱུར་གཟུགས།
།ཞི་དེ་རང་བཞིན་མཁས་པས་རིག་ནས་ས་དག་སེལ་བར་བྱེད་པར་ལྟར།
།དེ་བཞིན་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་དག་པའི་གསེར་འདྲ་ཞི་བའི་ཡིད་ནི་མཁྱེན་གྱུར་ནས།
།ཆོས་འཆད་ཚུལ་གྱིས་བརྡེག་སྤྱད་སྒྲུབ་པས་སྒྲིབ་པ་དག་ནི་སེལ་བར་མཛད། I.126

Suppose an image filled with molten gold inside
But consisting of clay on the outside, after having settled,
Were seen by someone who knows about this [gold inside],
Who would then remove the outer covering to purify the inner gold. I.124

Similarly, always seeing the luminosity of [mind’s] nature
And that the stains are adventitious,
The one with the highest awakening purifies beings,
Who are like a jewel mine, from the obscurations. I.125

Just as an image made of stainless shining gold enclosed in clay would settle
And a skillful jeweler, knowing about this [gold], would remove the clay,
So the omniscient one sees that the mind, which resembles pure gold, is settled
And removes its obscurations by way of the strokes that are the means of teaching the dharma. I.126

 

~ Translation from Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, p. 399.

From the Masters

Sajjana

Sajjana

11th century

In his Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa, Sajjana presents a synopsis of the seven vajrapada in the first seven verses. Verses 1-5 cover the first three, and verses 6-7 cover the remaining four.

Those who follow the three methods
Or those who wish for common results,
Having recognized the [three] jewels, resort to these jewels
As they manifest for different mind streams.[1]

However, [the three jewels] are [included in] the ultimate refuge—
They are not different in actuality.
Here, the purpose [of the ultimate refuge] is to generate [bodhi]citta,
Which has the full attainment [of awakening] as its sphere.[2]

This full attainment is accomplished
Through [the stages of] impurity and purity,
By way of the distinction of one’s own welfare and that of others
And through engaging in this [ultimate] refuge among those to be taken refuge in.[3]

Therefore, without having gathered the accumulations,
The Buddha, the dharma, and likewise the assembly
Turn into being conditions
That successively arise in their due order. [4]

From the perfect Buddha, the turning of the wheel
Of the dharma [arises], whose sphere is the saṃgha.
The saṃgha [consists of] its authoritative properties,
Which are the manifestations of the qualities of compassion. [5]

Those who gradually purify the basic element
Through the [buddha]dharmas and through means (upāya)
Progress on the paths of what is conducive to liberation
And penetration as well as on the uninterrupted path. [6]

Based on the directly manifest conditions
Called "awakening," "the qualities," and "activity"
And then based on the [ten] topics of the basic element,
One should engage in reflection and familiarization. [7]  

~ Sajjana. Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa (महायानोत्तरतन्त्रशास्त्रोपदेश). Critical Sanskrit edition in Kano, 2006, Appendix B, 505-519. Also see Takasaki, J. 1974. Nyoraizō shisō no keisei. 如来蔵思想の形成. Tokyo: Shunjūsha.
~ Translation from Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, pp. 461-463.

Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab

Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab

1059 ~ 1109

In his Condensed Meaning of the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna, Ngok Lotsāwa gives the following brief overview of the seven vajrapada:

སངས་རྒྱས་ལ་སོགས་པ་དོན་དམ་པ་དང་།་བརྡར་བཏགས་པ་རང་གི་རྒྱུད་ལ་འབྱུང་བར་འགྱུར་བའམ། གཞན་ཁོ་ནའི་རྒྱུད་ལ་བྱུང་ཟིན་པ་ནི་འབྲས་བུའམ་རྒྱུའི་རང་བཞིན་ནོ༎ ཁམས་ནི་གཅིག་ཏུ་རྒྱུའི་རང་བཞིན་ཏེ། ཉེ་བར་ལེན་པ་སད་པ་དང་མ་སད་པའོ༎ བྱང་ཆུབ་ལ་སོགས་པ་ཡང་སྐུ་གསུམ་གྱི་རང་བཞིན་ཏེ། གཞན་གྱི་རྒྱུད་ལ་བྱུང་ཟིན་པ་དང་།རང་གི་རྒྱུད་ལ་འབྱུང་བར་འགྱུར་བ་སྟེ།་རྒྱུ་དང་འབྲས་བུའི་རང་བཞིན་ནོ༎ འདི་དག་གི་རང་བཞིན་ཉིད་ནི་གཞུང་ལས་བཤད་པར་ཟད་དོ༎་དེ་ནི་དངོས་པོ་ཉེ་བར་དགོད་པའོ།།

[The Three Jewels] such as the Buddha, both in terms of their ultimate truth and conventional designation, will arise in one's own continuum or they have already arisen in the continuum of only the others. They have either the nature of cause or result [respectively]. The dhātu (the Buddha-element) has only the nature of cause, namely efficient [cause] (upādāna). That is either already activated or not yet. [The remaining three vajrapadas], bodhi, [guṇa, and karman], have the nature of the three bodies [of the Buddha]. Those which have already arisen in the continuum of only others and the ones which will arise in one's own continuum have the nature of cause [of one's own awakening] and [one's expected] result, [respectively]. The nature of those [seven vajrapadas] has been explained in the treatise (i.e. the RGV). That was the presentation of the main topics. 

~ Rngog lo tsA ba blo ldan shes rab. Theg chen rgyud bla ma'i don bsdus pa. In Rngog lo tsA ba blo ldan shes rab kyi gsung chos skor. Beijing: Krung go'i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2009, p. 545.
~ Translation from Kano, Kazuo. "rNgog Blo‐ldan‐shes‐rab's Summary of the Ratnagotravibhāga: The First Tibetan Commentary on a Crucial Source for the Buddha‐nature Doctrine." PhD diss., University of Hamburg, 2006, pp. 370-371.

In terms of the order of the vajrapadas, Ngok Lotsāwa states:

གོ་རིམ་ཡང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ནི་སྐྱེ་བའི་རིམ་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བར་བསྟན་ཏོ། ལྷན་ཅིག་བྱེད་པ་དང་ལྡན་པའི་རྒྱུ་ཡང་དགེ་འདུན་ལ་ཡོད་པས་དགེ་འདུན་གྱི་རྗེས་ལ་ཁམས་སོ། ཉེ་བར་ལེན་པ་དེ་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་འབྲས་བུ་ཡིན་པས་བྱང་ཆུབ་དེའི་འོག་ཏུ་བསྟན་ཏོ། དེ་ལ་ཡོན་ཏན་བརྟེན་པས་དེའི་འོག་ཏུ་ཡོན་ཏན་བསྟན་ཏོ། ཡོན་ཏན་དེས་ཀྱང་རྗེས་སུ་མཐུན་པའི་འཕྲིན་ལས་འགྲུབ་པས་དེའི་འོག་ཏུ་འཕྲིན་ལས་བསྟན་ཏོ། དེ་ལྟར་བསྟན་པའི་གོ་རིམ་གྱི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པས་ནི། མི་གནས་པའི་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པའི་འཁོར་ལོའི་ཚུལ་གསལ་བར་བྱས་པའོ།

As to the order [of the vajrapadas], [the order of] the Three Jewels is presented exactly in accordance with the order of their origination. Since the causes including the co-emergent conditions (i.e. the dhātu and the Three Jewels) abide in the Saṃgha, the dhātu is [enumerated] after the Saṃgha. Being a result generated from the efficient cause (i.e. the dhātu), the bodhi is presented after it. Depending on it (i.e. the bodhi), the guṇa is presented after it (i.e. the bodhi). Since the appropriate karman is accomplished by the guṇa, the karman is presented after it (i.e. the guṇa). The verse regarding the order which taught it in such a way (i.e. RGV I.3) clarified the circle of the apratiṣṭhitanirvāṇa. 

~ Rngog lo tsA ba blo ldan shes rab. Theg chen rgyud bla ma'i don bsdus pa. In Rngog lo tsA ba blo ldan shes rab kyi gsung chos skor. Beijing: Krung go'i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2009, p. 550.
~ Translation from Kano, Kazuo. "rNgog Blo‐ldan‐shes‐rab's Summary of the Ratnagotravibhāga: The First Tibetan Commentary on a Crucial Source for the Buddha‐nature Doctrine." PhD diss., University of Hamburg, 2006, p. 381.

Marpa Dopa Chökyi Wangchuk

Marpa Dopa Chökyi Wangchuk

1042 ~ 1136

In his Commentary on the Meaning of the Words of the Uttaratantra, Marpa Dopa succinctly explains the essence of the seven vajrapadas in this way:

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་ལ་ཀུན་རྫོབ་ཀྱི་སངས་རྒྱས་ནི་གཟུགས་སྐུ་གཉིས་ཏེ། དེ་ནི་ཉན་ཐོས་རང་རྒྱལ་དང་སོ་སོའི་སྐྱེ་བོ་ལས་དག་པས་མིག་གིས་བལྟ་བར་ནུས་པས་རྟོགས་པར་དཀའ་བའི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གནས་མ་ཡིན་ཏེ། འོ་ན་དོན་དམ་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་སྐུའོ།
[...]
།ཆོས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་ནི་ཀུན་རྫོབ་ཀྱི་ཆོས་བསྟན་པའི་ཆོས་གསུང་རབ་ཡན་ལག་བཅུ་གཉིས་ཏེ། དེ་ནི་ཉན་ཐོས་དང་རང་རྒྱལ་བ་དང་སོ་སོ་སྐྱེ་བོས་རྣ་བས་མཉན་པར་ནུས་པས་རྟོགས་པར་དཀའ་བས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གནས་མིན་ནོ། །འོ་ན་དོན་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་རྟོགས་པའི་ཆོས་སོ།
[...]
།དགེ་འདུན་གྱི་ངོ་བོ་ནི། ཀུན་རྫོབ་ཀྱི་དགེ་འདུན་སྐྱེས་བུ་ཟུང་བཞི་གང་ཟག་ཡ་བརྒྱད་དེ། དེ་ནི་ལུས་དང་སེམས་ཀྱི་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱར་ཡོད་པས་རྟོགས་པར་དཀའ་བས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གནས་མིན་ནོ། །འོ་ན་དོན་དམ་པའི་དགེ་འདུན་ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པ་འབྲིང་ས་བཅུ་བར་ལ་གནས་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའོ།
[...]
།ཁམས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་སྒྲོ་སྐུར་གཉིས་དང་བྲལ་བའི་ཆོས་ཉིད་དོ།
[...]
།བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་ནི་ཉན་ཐོས་རང་རྒྱལ་གྱི་བྱང་ཆུབ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གནས་མེད་ཡིན་པས་བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་བོ།
[...]
།ཡོན་ཏན་གྱི་ངོ་བོ་ནི། ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ལ་བརྟེན་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་དེ་བྲལ་བའི་ཡོན་ཏན་སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གཉིས་དང༌། གཟུགས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ལ་བརྟེན་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་ཏེ་རྣམ་པར་སྨིན་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གཉིས་སོ།
[...]
།འཕྲིན་ལས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་ནི་གཉིས་ཏེ། ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པའི་འཕྲིན་ལས་དང༌། རྒྱུན་མི་འཆད་པའི་འཕྲིན་ལས་སོ། །དང་པོ་ནི་རྣམ་གཞག་རྣམ་པ་ལྔ་ལ་རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པ་མེད་པར་འཇུག་པའོ།[...]།གཉིས་པ་ནི་ཤེས་པར་བྱ་བའི་གནས་དྲུག་ཤེས་པར་བྱས་ནས་སེམས་ཅན་གྱི་དོན་རྒྱུན་མི་ཆད་པར་བྱེད་པའོ།

[As for] the essence of the Buddha. The seeming Buddha consists of the two rūpakāyas. Since śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and ordinary beings with pure karma are able to look at the [rūpakāyas] with their eyes, they are not a vajra point that is difficult to realize. Rather, [the first vajra point] is the ultimate Buddha—the dharmakāya.
[...]
[As for] the essence of the dharma. The seeming dharma is the dharma of the teachings (the twelve branches of the Buddha’s speech). Since śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and ordinary beings are able to listen to it with their ears, it is not a vajra point that is difficult to realize. Rather, [the second vajra point] is the ultimate dharma—the dharma of realization.
[...]
[As for] the essence of the saṃgha. The seeming saṃgha consists of the four pairs of individuals or the eight persons [in the śrāvakayāna and pratyekabuddhayāna]. Since one can venerate them and render services to them with body and mind, they are not a vajra point that is difficult to realize. Rather [the third vajra point] is the ultimate saṃgha—the medium [persons] who are irreversible, the bodhisattvas dwelling on the ten bhūmis.
[...]
The essence of the basic element. It is the nature of phenomena free from superimposition and denial.
[...]
[As for] the essence of the awakening. Since the awakening of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas is not a vajra point, [the fourth vajra point] is the unsurpassable awakening [of a buddha].
[...]
[As for] the essence of the qualities. The qualities based on the dharmakāya are the thirty-two qualities of freedom, and the qualities based on the rūpakāyas are the thirty-two qualities of maturation.
[...]
[As for] the essence of enlightened activity it is twofold: effortless enlightened activity and uninterrupted enlightened activity. In [the Uttaratantra’s] presentation in five aspects, the first one [is said to] operate in a nonconceptual manner...The second one is the uninterrupted promotion of the welfare of sentient beings through making them understand the six fields of knowledge.  

~ rgyud bla ma'i tshig don rnam par 'grel pa. In dpal mnga' bdag sgra sgyur mar pa lo tsA ba chos kyi blo gros kyi gsung 'bum, Vol. 1: 414–522. Lhasa: ser gtsug nang bstan dpe rnying 'tshol bsdu phyogs sgrig khang, 2009.

~ Translation from Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014, pp. 490-493.

Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal

Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal

1392 ~ 1481

Gö Lotsāwa explains the term vajrapada in his commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga:

Now the [Ratnagotravibhāga]vyākhyā on this stanza [I.1] will be explained. In this regard there is an explanation of the term vajra point (lit. “vajra base”) and a presentation of canonical sources making the vajra[-like] meanings known. First, the seven meanings (i.e., objects), which must be realized on the basis of the [corresponding] words, are ultimate ones, and thus vajra-like. The words expressing these [meanings] are a basis because they are [their] foundation. Thus all seven words are called vajra bases. To explain them again: since [Tib.] de la ("in this regard”), [in Sanskrit] tatra, is the seventh case, it [can] be taken to imply [Tib.] de na (“at that place,” “there”) and [means]: when explaining this vajra base.
“Listening” means arisen from listening, that is to say, knowing the meaning from scriptures. “Reflection” means arisen from reflection, that is, knowing the meaning from having reflected on reasons and arguments. “Difficult to understand on the basis of these two [types of] knowledge” means that when directly distinguishing the meaning, it is very difficult to actualize it, because these two [forms of knowledge] are conceptual. Therefore you should take [the meaning] to be an indistinguishable quality and [likewise] understand that the seven ultimate [points] are like a vajra. However [the meaning] is understood, since an expression is [always] referring to a thought, the meaning should not be taken as the actual object of the thought. Within the direct [perceptions] of any knowable object whatsoever, it is the meaning and object of comprehension that have the nature of self-realization, [that is,] a direct [perception] arisen from meditation. 

~ Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Go Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008, pp. 195–196.

Jamgön Kongtrul

Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye

1813 ~ 1899

In his commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga, the Unassailable Lion's Roar, Jamgön Kongtrul explains the first verse of the treatise as follows:

ཐོག་མ་མེད་པ་ནས་ཉེ་བར་གནས་ཀྱང་མ་འབྲེལ་བའི་རང་བཞིན་གློ་བུར་གྱི་དྲི་མ་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་སྦུབས་བྱེ་བའི་ནང་ན་གནས་པ་རང་བཞིན་དག་པའི་ཆོས་ཉིད་སྙིང་པོ་དེ་རྣམ་པ་གསལ་བར་མཚོན་པར་བྱེད་པའི་དཔེ་དགུ་པོ་དེ་དག་གིས་ནི་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་དུ་ཤེས་པར་བྱའོ། །

This tathagatagarbha, the true state by nature pure, abides within the many-millionfold shroud of the afflictions. These are defilements that are by nature adventitious. Although they [have been] close to buddha nature since beginningless time, they are not connected with it. This is clearly and fully illustrated by means of nine examples, which should be understood as being given in accordance with the Tathagatagarbhasutra (Tib. de bzhin gshegs pa'i snying po'i mdo). 

~ 'Jam mgon kong sprul. Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos snying po'i don mngon sum lam gyi bshad pa srol dang sbyar ba'i rnam par 'grel ba phyir mi ldog pa seng ge'i nga ro. In Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i tshig 'grel. New Delhi: Shechen Publications, 2005, pp. 140-141.
- Translation from Fuchs, Rosemarie, trans. Buddha Nature: The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra. Commentary by Jamgon Kongtrul and explanations by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso. Ithaca, N. Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 2000, p. 148.

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso

1935 ~ 2024

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso elucidates the above explanation of the seven vajrapada from Jamgön Kongtrul's Unassailable Lion's Roar, stating:

mkm  

~ Fuchs, Rosemarie, trans. Buddha Nature: The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra. Commentary by Jamgon Kongtrul and explanations by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso. Ithaca, N. Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 2000, p. 301.

Further Readings

Book: When the Clouds Part

The Uttaratantra (I.2) declares that its primary source is the Dhāraṇīśvararājasūtra, which is said to contain all seven vajra points. RGVV adds the following sūtras as alternative individual scriptural sources for these vajra points—the Sthirādhyāśayaparivartasūtra (vajra points 1 to 3), the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta (vajra points 4 and 6), the Śrīmālādevīsūtra (vajra point 5), and the Tathāgataguṇajñānācintyaviṣayāvatāranirdeśasūtra (vajra point 7). In addition, Uttaratantra III.27 refers to the Ratnadārikāsūtra as the source of the sixty-four buddha qualities. RGVV also mentions the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra as the basis for teaching the dharmakāya, suchness, and the disposition in detail (which refers to Uttaratantra I.143–52, matching the dharmakāya and so on with the nine examples in that sūtra). Though the Sarvabuddhaviśayāvatārajñānālokālaṃkārasūtra is not explicitly mentioned in the Uttaratantra, it is clearly the source of the nine examples for enlightened activity used in the Uttaratantra. In addition, RGVV quotes this sūtra several times.

The Sūtra Sources of the Tathāgatagarbha Teachings

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~ Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014.

Book: A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra

Michael Zimmermann's comprehensive edition of the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra (TGS) and an annotated English translation based on Tibetan materials, with critical editions of canonical materials, includes "an analysis of the textual history of the TGS, an interpretation of the term tathāgatagarbha, a discussion of the authors' ideas as reflected in the sutra, and the specification of the place of the TGS in Indian Buddhist history."

~ Zimmermann, Michael. A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra: The Earliest Exposition of the Buddha-nature Teaching in India. Biblotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica. Tokyo: The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2002.

Book: Saṃsāra, Nirvāṇa, and Buddha Nature

By using nine similes, the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra gives us an inkling of the buddha nature that has always been and will continue to be within us. Maitreya's Sublime Continuum and its commentary by Asaṅga explain these similes that point to a hidden richness inside of us—a potential that we are usually unaware of. Contemplating the meaning of these similes generates great inspiration and confidence to practice the path.

Nine Similes for Tathāgatagarbha

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~ Dalai Lama, 14th, and Thubten Chodron. Saṃsāra, Nirvāṇa, and Buddha Nature. Library of Wisdom and Compassion, vol. 3. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018.

Book: Buddha Nature: The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra

All sentient beings, without exception, have buddha nature, the inherent purity and perfection of the mind, untouched by changing mental states. The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra, one of the "Five Treatises" said to have been dictated to Asanga by the Bodhisattva Maitreya, presents the Buddha's definitive teachings on how we should understand this ground of enlightenment and clarifies the nature and qualities of buddhahood.

~ Fuchs, Rosemarie, trans. Buddha Nature: The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra. By Arya Maitreya. Written down by Arya Asanga, with a commentary by Jamgön Kongtrül Lodrö Thayé ('Jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha' yas) "The Unassailable Lion's Roar," and explanations by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamsto Rinpoche. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2000.