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Revision as of 09:13, 15 April 2020

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
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.
Video
Christopher V. Jones at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Christopher Jones discusses the development of the concept of buddha-nature in the first five hundred years of the Common Era. He postulates that the most likely trajectory of buddha-nature thought in India entailed a reimagining of the expression tathāgatagarbha away from its contentious "ātmavādin" origins.
Jones, Christopher V. "Selfhood, Secrecy, Singularity: Reassessing the Early Life of the Tathāgatagarbha in India." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 45:01. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARzGpIOwFYc.

From the Ratnagotravibhāga

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 Lodrö Taye
1813 ~ 1899
In his commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga, the Unassailable Lion's Roar, Jamgön Kongtrul introduces the nine similes, 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.
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
1935

The Fourteenth Dalai Lama introduces the nine similes, stating:

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.

All afflictive and cognitive obscurations are condensed into nine obscurations spoken of in the nine similes. By applying the appropriate antidotes, all of these can be removed and full awakening attained. From beginningless time, the basic nature of the mind has been immaculate and has never been mixed with stains or afflictions. But it has been covered by these nine obscurations. As we progress on the path, the transforming buddha nature develops, the mind becomes purer, and the obscurations are gradually eliminated. When all obscurations have been removed such that they can never return, the purified mind becomes the wisdom dharmakāya and its emptiness becomes the nature dharmakāya. Maitreya says (RGV 1:80-81):

This [tathāgatagarbha] abides within the shroud of the afflictions,
as should be understood through [the following nine] examples:

Just like a buddha in a decaying lotus, honey amidst bees,
a grain in its husk, gold in filth, a treasure underground,
a shoot and so on sprouting from a little fruit,
a statue of the Victorious One in a tattered rag,
a ruler of humankind in a destitute woman's womb,
and a precious image under clay,
this [buddha] element abides within all sentient beings,
obscured by the defilement of the adventitious poisons.

 
~ Dalai Lama, 14th, and Thubten Chodron. Saṃsāra, Nirvāṇa, and Buddha Nature. Library of Wisdom and Compassion, vol. 3. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018, pp. 302-303.
Thrangu Rinpoche
1933 ~ 2023

Thrangu Rinpoche introduces the nine similes, stating:

One may have doubts about how Buddha nature is changeless and always present, but will not manifest because of impurities. To illustrate this there will be nine examples of Buddha essence and the impurities.

When the Buddha gave teachings, he didn't simply declare the truth, but he gave reasons for what he was saying, The reasons for his teachings were sometimes very apparent and at other times very obscure. the obvious reasons for his teachings are the ones grasped by using our senses, There are, however, teachings which cannot be grasped with our sensory faculties-these are objects which are either very far away in space, or very remote in time, or due to karma. If one has a particular karma, one's sphere of experience will prevent one from experience in other types of lives and so one is limited. Since one cannot understand the more hidden meanings directly, one has to understand them through inference. For instance, if one says there's a fire behind that hill because there is smoke, no one can see the fire because it is our of view, but one is believed because smoke is a valid sign of a fire, For a sign to be valuable it must have universal applicability i. e, whenever there is a fire, there must be smoke. The sigh must also be valid, if one says there's a fire because I see a tree, it is an invalid sign, so a sign for showing the presence of something that is hidden must have universal applicability and be a valid sign. The presence of Buddha essence is proved by means of valid reasons of the three fold marks of valid proofs given above. This is used in the context of examples and with the examples one proves its validity. When proven by an example, it is then applied to Buddha nature itself.

First, the nine examples of beautiful things covered up by impurities are listed and them the nine impurities are listed followed by a list of the pure things. These will be elaborated below. The method for presenting the examples is the same: first a verse giving the example, then a verse giving its meaning, and finally a verse presenting the parallel between the example and Buddha nature is give.  
~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989, pp. 85-86.

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 and decay, giving 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. 102-106.
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.
Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye
1813 ~ 1899
In his commentary on the Ratnagotravibhāga, the Unassailable Lion's Roar, Jamgön Kongtrul first outlines the way in which the similes are presented in the treatise in three verses each. And then he comments on first simile:
དགུ་པོ་རེ་རེ་བཞིན་དཔེ་བཤད་པ། དོན་བསྟན་པ། དཔེ་དོན་སྦྱར་ནས་དོན་བསྡུ་བ་སྟེ་གསུམ་གསུམ་དུ་ཡོད་དོ། །དེ་ལྟར་ན་དཔེ་དོན་དང་པོ་ལ་གསུམ། དཔེ། དོན། དེ་གཉིས་སྦྱར་བའོ།

དེ་ལ་མཚོན་བྱེད་ཀྱི་དཔེ་བསྟན་པ་ནི། ཇི་ལྟར་ན་མདོག་ངན་ཞིང་དྲི་མི་ཞིམ་པའི་པདྨ་ཟུམ་པའི་ཁོང་ན་མཚན་བཟང་སྟོང་གིས་འབར་བའི་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྐུ་གནས་པ་ནི། དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་ལྷའི་མིག་གི་མངོན་ཤེས་དང་ལྡན་པའི་མི་འགའ་ཞིག་གིས་མཐོང་ནས་ཆུ་སྐྱེས་ཀྱི་འདབ་མའི་སྦུབས་ནས་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་དེ་འབྱིན་པར་བྱེད་པ་ལྟར་རོ།

དེས་མཚོན་པའི་དོན་བྱེད་ལས་དང་བཅས་པ་ནི། དཔེ་དེ་བཞིན་དུ། བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྲོག་ཆགས་ཐ་ན་མནར་མེད་ན་གནས་པ་རྣམས་ལའང་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་སྤྱན་གྱིས་རང་གི་སེམས་ཅན་གསལ་བའི་ཆོས་ཉིད་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡོད་པར་གཟིགས་ཏེ། སྒྲིབ་པ་མེད་ཅིང་ཕྱི་མའི་མཐའ་འཁོར་བའི་མུར་ཐུག་གི་བར་གནས་པའི་ཤེས་རབ་དང་ཐུགས་རྗེ་དང་ཕྲིན་ལས་ཀྱི་བདག་ཉིད་ཅན་དེས་གདུལ་བྱ་གློ་བུར་གྱི་སྒྲིབ་པ་ལས་ནི་གྲོལ་བར་བྱེད་དོ

གོང་དུ་བསྟན་པའི་དཔེ་དོན་དེ་ཉིད་སླར་ཡང་ལེགས་པར་སྦྱར་ཏེ་གསལ་བར་མཛད་པ་ནི། ཇི་ལྟར་ན། མི་སྡུག་པའི་པདྨ་ཁ་ཟུམ་པའི་ལྟེ་བ་ལ་བཞུགས་པའི་བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པའི་སྐུ་དེ་ནི་པདྨ་དེའི་ཁོང་ན་གནས་པར་ལྷའི་མིག་ལྡན་འགའ་ཞིག་གིས་མཐོང་ནས་དེ་དབྱུང་བའི་ཕྱིར་དུ་པདྨའི་འདབ་མ་གཅོད་པར་བྱེད་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བར། འདོད་ཆགས་ཞེ་སྡང་སོགས་དྲི་མའི་སྦུབས་ཀྱིས་བསྒྲིབས་པའི་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ་འགྲོ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ཡོད་པ་གཟིགས་ཏེ། དེ་ལྟར་མ་རྟོགས་པའི་འགྲོ་བ་རྣམས་ལ་ཚད་མེད་པའི་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་དབང་གིས། ཐུབ་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམས་ཀྱང་སྐུའི་སྒྲིབ་བྱེད་པད་འདབ་སེལ་བ་དེ་བཞིན་དུ་གློ་བུར་གྱི་སྒྲིབ་པ་དེ་རྣམས་ནི་འཇོམས་པའི་ཕྲིན་ལས་མཛད་དོ། །

All of the following nine examples are presented in three parts, which are the example itself, its meaning, and their function. First the example is given, then its meaning is explained, and finally both example and meaning are combined and their function is elucidated.

Inside the closed calyx of a lotus that has an ugly color and a repugnant smell dwells a [spontaneously arisen] statue of the Tathagata, ablaze with a thousand pure and beautiful marks. A man who is endowed with the clairvoyance of immaculate divine vision sees this, and upon being aware of it, removes the buddha statue from the shroud of the petals of the water-born [flower].

Likewise, with their eye of primordial buddha wisdom, the Sugatas perceive that the tathagatagarbha, the true state illuminating their own being, is even present within those who have to abide in the hell of direst pain (Skt. Avīci, Tib. mnar med). Being endowed with discriminative wisdom, compassion, and activity, which are free from the veils and enduring up to the last, until the far end of samsara, they relieve the disciples from their adventitious obscurations.

Once someone who possesses divine vision sees this statue of the Sugata abiding within the bud of the closed ugly lotus, he will cut off the petals in order to remove the statue. Likewise the Munis see that the nature of perfect buddhahood is present within all sentient beings, obscured by the shroud of the defilements, by desire, hatred, and the other mental poisons. Through the might of their limitless compassion for all those beings who do not realize this [presence], the awakened Munis also unfold their activity, thus overcoming these adventitious veils, just as the petals obscuring the statue are removed. 
~ '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. 224-226.
- 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, pp. 150-151.
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
1935

The Fourteenth Dalai Lama explains the first simile as:

The buddha essence is like a beautiful buddha image in an old, ugly lotus.

When the petals close around a buddha image, we see only the old lotus and not the beautiful buddha image. Not knowing the image is there, we never think to open the petals and take it out. Similarly, the seeds of attachment obscure our buddha essence. While all beings who are not arhats are obscured by the seeds of attachment, this simile applies particularly to ordinary sentient beings in the form and formless realms. Although they have temporarily suppressed the coarse manifest afflictions of the desire realm by entering into deep states of meditative absorption, the seeds of afflictions still remain in their mindstreams. Ordinary beings in the form and formless realms are specified because āryas may also take rebirth in these realms. However, they have already eliminated some portion of the seeds of afflictions.

We beings in the desire realm, too, have the seed of attachment. When it explodes and becomes full blown, we have no awareness of our buddha essence, which is the source of all hope and confidence. Instead we become totally engrossed in the objects of our attachment. Just as the beautiful and fragrant lotus withers and becomes decrepit after a few days, the people and things we cling to age and decay. While they initially bring us happiness, later we become bored and cast them aside, as we would a withered flower.

A person with clairvoyance can see the buddha image inside the lotus and will open the flower and remove the buddha image. Similarly, the Buddha sees the buddha essence in each sentient being, even those in the hells, and thinks, "Who will liberate these beings from their obscurations, especially their attachment?" Because the Buddha has great compassion and is free from all defilements, he will guide us to discover the beautiful buddha image—the wisdom dharmakāya—hidden by our attachment.

 
~ Dalai Lama, 14th, and Thubten Chodron. Saṃsāra, Nirvāṇa, and Buddha Nature. Library of Wisdom and Compassion, vol. 3. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018, pp. 303-304.
Thrangu Rinpoche
1933 ~ 2023

Thrangu Rinpoche explains the first simile as:

Imagine an ugly, withered lotus covering a beautiful Buddha statue. Someone with clairvoyance would see the statue ate think that this was not a good place for such a beautiful statue and would break open the lotus shell and remove the statue. similarly, Buddha nature is in the mind of all beings even those in the worst hell but it is obscured by the defilements of the three poisons. the Buddhas with diving vision and great compassion see this Buddha nature need to reach Buddhahood so they do not continue to suffer in samsara therefore they need the Buddhas with their vision and their teachings to receive the tools to make this Buddha nature manifest.  
~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989, p. 86.

Simile Two: Honey Amid Bees

In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the second simile appears as:

"Sons of good family, again it is as if there were, for example, a round honeycomb hanging from the branch of a tree, shielded on all sides by a hundred thousand bees and filled with honey. And a person desiring honey, [and knowing of the honey within,] would then with skill [in the application of appropriate] means expel all the living beings, the bees, and then use the honey [in the way] honey is to be used.
In the same way, sons of good family, all sentient beings without exception are like a honeycomb: with a tathāgata's mental vision realize that [their] buddhahood within is 'shielded on all sides' by myriads of defilements and impurities.
Sons of good family, just as a skillful person by [his] knowledge realizes that there is honey inside a honeycomb shielded on all sides by myriads of bees, in the same way [I] realize with [my] tathāgata's mental vision that buddhahood is without exception 'shielded on all sides' in all sentient beings by myriads of defilements and impurities."
"And, sons of good family, just like the [person who] removed the bees, also the Tathāgata, with skill in [the application of appropriate] means (upāyakuśala), removes sentient beings' defilements and impurities [from their buddhahood] within, [such as] desire (rāga), anger (dveṣa), misguidedness (moha), pride (māna), insolence (mada), jealous disparagement (mrakṣa), rage (krodha), malice (vyāpāda), envy (īrṣyā), avarice (mātsarya), and so on. [He] then teaches the Dharma in such a way so that those sentient beings will not again become polluted and harmed by the defilements and impurities.
[When their] tathāgata's mental vision has become purified, [they] will perform the tasks of a tathāgata in the world. Sons of good family, this is how I see all sentient beings with my completely pure vision of a tathāgata." 
~ 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. 110-1112.


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.
Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye
1813 ~ 1899
In the Unassailable Lion's Roar, Jamgön Kongtrul explains the second simile as follows:
སྲོག་ཆགས་སྦྲང་མའི་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་བསྐོར་བའི་དབུས་ན་གནས་པའི་སྦྲང་རྩི་ནི་སྐྱེས་བུ་བརྟག་པ་དང་། ཐབས་ལ་མཁས་པ་སྦྲང་རྩི་དེ་ཉིད་དོན་དུ་གཉེར་བ་ཡིས། སྦྲང་མའི་དབུས་ན་སྦྲང་རྩི་ཡོད་པ་དེ་མཐོང་ནས་དུ་བ་གཏོང་བ་སོགས་ཐབས་ཀྱིས་སྦྲང་རྩི་དེ་དང་སྲོག་ཆགས་ཀྱི་ཚོགས་རྣམས་ཀུན་ནས་རབ་ཏུ་བྲལ་བར་བྱས་ནས་སྦྲང་རྩི་ཐོབ་པར་བྱེད་པ་བཞིན་ནོ།

དྲང་སྲོང་ཆེན་པོ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་པའི་སྤྱན་གྱིས་ནི་རིག་པའི་ཁམས་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་སྦུབས་སུ་ཆུད་པ་སྦྲང་རྩི་སྦྲང་མས་བསྐོར་བ་དང་འདྲ་བ་འདི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ཡོད་པར་གཟིགས་ནས་དེ་རྟོགས་པར་བྱེད་པ་དེའི་སྒྲིབ་པ་སྦྲང་མ་དང་འདྲ་བ་རྣམས་གཏན་ནས་མེད་པར་རབ་ཏུ་སྤོང་བའི་ལམ་སྟོན་པར་ཆོས་སྐུ་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་གྱུར་པ་མཛད་པ་ཡིན་ནོ། །

སྦྲང་རྩི་སྲོག་ཆགས་སྦྲང་མ་བྱེ་བ་ཁྲག་ཁྲིག་བརྒྱ་སྟོང་གིས་བསྒྲིབས་པ་ན་སྦྲང་རྩི་དོན་གཉེར་གྱི་སྐྱེས་བུ་ཐབས་ལ་མཁས་པའི་མི་དེས་སྦྲང་མ་དེ་དག་ཐབས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ནས་བསལ་ཏེ་ཇི་ལྟར་འདོད་པ་བཞིན་དུ་སྦྲང་རྩིའི་བྱ་བ་བྱེད་པ་དེ་བཞིན་དུ། སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་ཡོད་པའི་ཟག་པ་མེད་པའི་ཤེས་པ་བདེ་སྙིང་དྲི་མེད་སྦུབས་སུ་ཆུད་པ་ནི་སྦྲང་མས་བསྐོར་བའི་སྦྲང་རྩི་དང་འདྲ་བས་ཁམས་ལ་སྒྲིབ་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཉོན་མོངས་པ་སྦྲང་མ་དང་འདྲ་བ་དེ་འཇོམས་པའི་ཐབས་ལ་མཁས་པའི་རྒྱལ་བ་དེ་སྦྲང་རྩི་དོན་གཉེར་གྱི་སྐྱེས་བུ་ཐབས་ལ་མཁས་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་ནོ།

Honey is present in the midst of a surrounding swarm of bees. Upon seeing that there is honey among the bees, a capable and skillful man whose aim is to get this honey makes use of suitable means. Letting smoke rise and so on, he completely separates the honey from the host of bees and procures the honey.

Likewise the Buddha, the Great Sage, sees with his eye knowing all phenomena that the element of [self-sprung] awareness is present within all beings, contained in the shroud of the mental poisons like honey surrounded by bees. Upon seeing this, he teaches the path by means of which the bee-like veils covering this element are fully and radically abandoned and the element is realized. Thus he causes the direct manifestation of the dharmakaya.

When honey is obscured by millions and millions of honeybees, a man who is skillful and in search of honey disperses these bees by means of suitable methods and procures the honey, just as he wishes. The unpolluted knowledge, the sugatagarbha, is present within all beings, contained in the shroud of their defilements. Thus it is similar to the honey surrounded by bees. The Victorious One (Skt jina, Tib. rgyal ba) is skilled in the methods to overcome the bee-like mental poisons obscuring the element. Thus he is similar to the skillful man whose aim is to get the honey. 
~ '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. 226-228.
- 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, pp. 151-152.
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
1935

The Fourteenth Dalai Lama explains the second simile as:

The buddha essence is like honey with a swarm of bees surrounding it.

The honey is like the ultimate truth—the emptiness of inherent existence. Just as all honey has the same taste, the ultimate nature of all phenomena is the same. Bees not only conceal the honey but also angrily sting someone who tries to take it, harming themselves as well as their enemy. Similarly, we cannot see our honey-like buddha essence because it is obscured by the seeds of hatred, anger, resentment, and vengeance. This obscuration pertains specifically to ordinary beings in the form and formless realms who do not experience manifest anger, but still have the seeds of anger in their mental continuums. We beings in the desire realm have the seeds of anger as well as coarse manifest anger. These seeds not only prevent us from seeing our buddha essence but also enable the destructive emotions related to anger and animosity to manifest in our minds, mercilessly stinging ourselves and those around us.

An insightful person knows that despite the bees around it, the honey itself is pure and delicious. She devises a skillful way to separate the bees from the honey, and then enjoys the honey as she wishes. Tasting honey, like realizing the emptiness of the mind, always brings joy. Similarly, the Buddha sees the buddha essence in each sentient being and with skillful methods, such as the teachings of the three turnings of the Dharma wheel, frees it from defilements.

 
~ Dalai Lama, 14th, and Thubten Chodron. Saṃsāra, Nirvāṇa, and Buddha Nature. Library of Wisdom and Compassion, vol. 3. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018, p. 304.
Thrangu Rinpoche
1933 ~ 2023

Thrangu Rinpoche explains the second simile as:

Imagine some tasty honey which is surrounded by swarming bees. If an experienced person knows how to separate the honey from the bees, then persons can enjoy the honey. the meaning is the Buddhas with the omniscient eyes to twofold knowledge can see the Buddha nature in all beings which is like the honey. The bees circling the honey could be removed because they weren't part of the honey and in the same way the impurities of beings aren't part of the Buddha nature and there fore can be removed and the Buddha nature can manifest. In this example the man who knows about honey is like the Buddhas who are skilled in removing obscurations which are the bees.  
~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989, p. 86.

Simile Three: Kernels in their Husks

In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the third simile appears as:

"Sons of good family, again it is like the example of winter rice, barley, millet or monsoon rice [whose] kernel (sāra) is shielded all around by a husk (tuṣa): as long as the [kernel] has not come out of its husk, [it can]not serve the function of solid, soft and delicious food. But, sons of good

family, [it can serve this function very well once] some men or women, desiring that [these grains serve their] function as food and drink in hard, soft or other [forms], after having it reaped and threshed, remove the [coarse] sheath of the husk and the [fine] outer skin."<.br>"Sons of good family, in the same way [that people are aware of the precious kernel within the husk, so] too the Tathāgata perceives with [his] tathāgata-vision that tathāgatahood, buddhahood, svayaṁbhūtva —wrapped in the skin of the sheaths of defilements—is [always] present in every sentient being. Sons of good family, the Tathāgata also removes the skin of the sheaths of defilements, purifies the tathāgatahood in them and teaches the Dharma to sentient beings, thinking:
'How [can] these sentient beings become free from all the skins of the sheaths of defilements [so that they] will be designated in the world as 'tathāgata, honorable one and perfectly awakened one'?'"

 
~ 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. 114-115.
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.
Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye
1813 ~ 1899
In the Unassailable Lion's Roar, Jamgön Kongtrul explains the third simile as follows::
སྦུན་པ་དང་ལྡན་པའི་འབྲས་བུའི་སྙིང་པོ་ནི་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ནི་ལོངས་སྤྱད་བྱར་མི་འགྱུར་བས་ཟས་སོགས་ལོངས་སྤྱད་བྱ་དོན་དུ་གཉེར་བའི་མི་གང་ཡིན་པ་དེ་དག་གིས་ནི་སྦུན་པའི་ནང་ནས་འབྲས་བུ་དེ་འབྱིན་དགོས་པ་ལྟར།

སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་ཡོད་པའི་ཉོན་མོངས་ཀྱི་དྲི་མ་དང་འདྲེས་པའི་རྒྱལ་བའི་སྙིང་པོའང་ཇི་སྲིད་དུ་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་དྲི་མ་དང་འདྲེས་པ་ལས་མ་གྲོལ་བ་དེ་སྲིད་དུ་རྒྱལ་བའི་མཛད་པ་སྲིད་པ་གསུམ་དུ་སྟོན་པར་མི་བྱེད་ཅིང་སྒྲིབ་པ་དང་བྲལ་བ་ལ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཕྲིན་ལས་སྤྲོ་བ་ཉིད་དོ། །

ཇི་ལྟར་ན་འབྲས་སཱ་ལུ་དང་བྲ་འོ་དང་ནས་ཀྱི་འབྲས་བུའི་སྙིང་པོ་སྦུན་པ་ལས་མ་ཕྱུང་བ་གྲ་མ་ཅན་སྦུན་པ་བསལ་བ་སོགས་ལེགས་པར་མ་བསྒྲུབས་པ་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ནི་ལོངས་སྤྱད་བྱའི་བཟའ་བ་ཞིམ་པོར་མི་འགྱུར་བ་ཇི་ལྟར། དེ་བཞིན་དུ་སེམས་ཅན་ལ་ཡོད་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབང་ཕྱུག་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་དེ་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་སྦུབས་ལས་མ་གྲོལ་བའི་ལུས་ལ་ཡོད་པ་དེའི་ཚེ་བཀྲེས་ཤིང་ཉོན་མོངས་པ་བྲུ་བས་ཉེས་པའི་འགྲོ་བ་རྣམས་ལ་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དགའ་བའི་རོ་སྟེར་བར་འགྱུར་བ་མ་ཡིན་ནོ། །

Since a grain that still has its husk is not edible for man, those human beings who seek palatable food and nourishment must remove this grain from the inside of its husk.

The nature of the Victorious One, which is present within all sentient beings but mixed with the defilement of the mental poisons, is similar to this example. As long as it is not freed from being mingled with the defilement of the mental poisons, the deeds of the Victorious One will not be displayed in the three realms of existence. Buddha activity unfolds in order to separate this nature from its veils.

When ripe grains of rice, buckwheat, or barley have not been well threshed until the husk and spelt are cleared away, when they have therefore not emerged from their husks and still have husk and beard, they cannot be turned into delicious food that is palatable for human beings. Likewise the sugatagarbha, the Lord of Qualities, is present within all beings. Yet, while his body is not liberated from the shroud of the mental poisons, it cannot bestow the taste of the joy of sacred Dharma upon those sentient beings who are stricken by the famine of their afflictions.. 
~ '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. 228-229.
- 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, pp. 152-153.
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
1935

The Fourteenth Dalai Lama explains the third simile as:

The buddha essence resembles a kernel of grain in its husk.

The husk obscures the grain. For the grain to become edible food, the husk must be removed. In the same way, the seed of ignorance obscures our minds so that we cannot realize the ultimate truth. As above, this obscuration applies particularly to ordinary beings in the form and formless realms, but those of us in the desire realm have it as well. The seed of ignorance makes self-grasping ignorance and the ignorance of karma and its effects manifest in our minds. By means of the above three seeds of the three poisons, sentient beings create karma that brings rebirth in saṃsāra.

Just as the grain cannot be eaten when inside the husk, the deeds of a buddha cannot be displayed while the buddha essence is in the husk of defilements. A wise person knows how to remove the husk and prepare the grain so that it becomes nourishing food. In the same way, the Buddha guides sentient beings to remove their defilements, and the buddhas they will become will provide spiritual sustenance for others.  
~ Dalai Lama, 14th, and Thubten Chodron. Saṃsāra, Nirvāṇa, and Buddha Nature. Library of Wisdom and Compassion, vol. 3. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018, pp. 304-305.
Thrangu Rinpoche
1933 ~ 2023

Thrangu Rinpoche explains the third simile as:

Imagine a grain of rice enclosed in its husk. In the husk it is inedible so it cannot manifest as food. Kernels of rice. buckwheat, and barley cannot be used as good food when they are unhusked and similarly as long as Buddha nature called "the lord of all qualities" in the text is not liberated from the shell of impurities, it cannot give the taste of the joy of dharma to beings.  
~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989, p. 87.

Simile Four: Gold in Filth

In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the fourth simile appears as:

"Sons of good family, again it is like the example of a round nugget (piṇḍa) of gold [belonging to] someone (puruṣāntara) [who] had walked [along] a narrow path, [and whose nugget] had fallen into a place of decaying substances and filth, [a place] full of putrid excrement. In that place of decaying substances and filth full of putrid excrement, the [gold nugget], having been 'overpowered' by various impure substances, would have become invisible, [and would have remained] there for ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred or a thousand years, [but it would, though surrounded] by impure substances, [never be affected by them, owing to] its imperishable nature (avināśadharmin). [Because of the covering of impure substances, however, it could] not be of use to any sentient being."
"Sons of good family, [if] then a divinity with divine vision looked at that round gold nugget, [the divinity] would direct a person:
'O man, go and clean that gold of excellent value [t]here, [which is only externally] covered with all sorts (-jāta) of decaying substances and filth, and use the gold [in the way] gold is to be used!'
In [this simile], sons of good family, [what] is called 'all sorts of decaying substances and filth' is a designation for the different kinds of defilements. [What] is called 'gold nugget' is a designation for [what] is not subject to perishability (avināśadharmin) [, i.e., the true nature of living beings]. [What] is called 'divinity [with] divine vision' is a designation

for the Tathāgata, the Honorable One and Perfectly Awakened One.
Sons of good family, in the same way also the Tathāgata, the Honorable One and Perfectly Awakened One, teaches the Dharma to sentient beings in order to remove the defilements—[which are like] all sorts of decaying substances and mud—[from] the imperishable true nature (dharmatā) of a tathāgata found in all sentient beings."

 
~ 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. 117-118.
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.
Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye
1813 ~ 1899
In the Unassailable Lion's Roar, Jamgön Kongtrul explains the fourth simile as follows::
ཕན་ཚུན་ལམ་སྲང་དུ་རབ་ཏུ་རྒྱུ་ཞིང་འགྲོ་བའི་ཚེ་མིའི་སྐྱེས་བུ་འགའ་ཞིག་གིས་བརྗེད་ངས་པ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་དབང་གིས་གསེར་སྦྲམ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་ལྗན་ལྗིན་རུལ་པའི་གནས་སུ་ལྷུང་བར་འགྱུར་ལ། ལོ་དུ་མར་ཡང་མི་འཇིག་ཅིང་མེད་པར་མི་འགྱུར་བའི་ཆོས་ཅན་གྱི་གསེར་དེ་ནི་ལྗན་ལྗིན་གྱི་ནང་དེར་མི་འཇིག་པ་སྔར་གྱི་དེ་ཀ་བཞིན་དུ་ལོ་བརྒྱ་ཕྲག་མང་པོ་དག་ཏུ་གནས་པ་དེ་ལྷའི་མིག་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ལྷ་ཡིས་ལྗན་ལྗིན་གྱི་ནང་དེར་གསེར་སྦྲམ་ཡོད་པ་མཐོང་ནས་མི་གསེར་འདོད་པ་ཞིག་ལ་ལྗན་ལྗིན་གྱི་ཁྲོད་འདི་ན་ཡོད་པའི་གསེར་སྦྲམ་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་མཆོག་འདི་དྲི་མ་སྦྱངས་ཏེ་རིན་ཆེན་གྱིས་བསྒྲུབ་པར་བྱ་བའི་རྒྱན་ལ་སོགས་པ་སྒྲུབ་པར་གྱིས་ཤིག་ཅེས་སྨྲ་བ་ལྟར།

རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཐུབ་པ་ཆེན་པོས་ཀྱང་མི་གཙང་བ་དང་འདྲ་བའི་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་འདམ་རྫབ་ཏུ་བྱིང་བའི་སེམས་ཅན་གྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་བདེ་སྙིང་ནི་འགྲོ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་ཡོད་པར་གཟིགས་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་འདམ་དེ་དག་པར་བྱ་བའི་ཕྱིར་དུ་སྐྱེ་དགུ་རྣམས་ལ་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཆུའི་ཆར་པ་ཆེན་པོ་འབེབས་པར་མཛད་དོ། །

ལྗན་ལྗིན་རུལ་བའི་གནས་སུ་ལྟུང་བའི་གསེར་ནི་ལྷ་ཡིས་མཐོང་བར་གྱུར་ནས་གསེར་དེའི་དྲི་མ་ཀུན་ཏུ་དག་པར་བྱ་བའི་ཕྱིར་མཆོག་ཏུ་མཛེས་པའི་གསེར་དེ་མི་ལ་ནན་གྱིས་སྟོན་ཅིང་དག་པར་བྱེད་དུ་འཇུག་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བར། དེ་བཞིན་དུ། རྒྱལ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པས་ཉོན་མོངས་པ་མི་གཙང་བ་ཆེན་པོའི་ནང་དུ་ལྟུང་བར་གྱུར་པའི་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་དང་འདྲ་བ་སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་ཡོད་པར་གཟིགས་ནས་སྙིང་པོ་དེ་དག་པར་བྱ་བའི་ཕྱིར་དུ་ལུས་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་སྐལ་པར་འཚམས་པའི་ཆོས་སྟོན་པར་མཛད་དོ། །

When a man who was traveling had reached a crossroads, out of negligence and lack of attentiveness he dropped a great lump of gold he owned into a place filled with rotting refuse. The nature of gold is such that it will not diminish or be destroyed even after many years. Thus this gold stayed in the midst of this filth just as it was, unblemished for many centuries. Then a god who possessed completely pure vision saw that there was a large lump of gold in the midst of this filth. Upon seeing this he turned to a man who was in search of gold and said: "Purify this supremely precious lump of gold that is lying in this heap of refuse from its defilement and convert it into a piece of jewelry or something similar that is worth being made from such a precious substance!"

Likewise the great Muni, the Perfect Buddha, sees that the sugatagarbha, the quality of beings, which is sunken in the mud of the filth like mental poisons, is present within all sentient beings. Upon seeing this he pours the mighty rain of his sacred Dharma upon all those beings in order to purify this mud of their afflictions.

As soon as the god has seen the gold that has fallen into the place full of rotting refuse, with insistence he shows the man this supremely beautiful gold so that he may completely cleanse it, and he incites him to purify it. Similarly the omniscient Victorious One sees that the nature of a perfect buddha, resembling the precious [gold], is present within all sentient beings, but has fallen into the great filth of the mental poisons. U p o n seeing this he teaches the Dharma to all those beings in the measure of their karmic fortune, so that they may purify their [buddha] nature. 
~ '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. 229-231.
- 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, pp. 154-155.
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
1935

The Fourteenth Dalai Lama explains the fourth simile as:

The buddha essence resembles gold buried in filth.

If someone accidentally drops some gold in a pile of filthy refuse at the side of the road, we don't know it is there let alone think to take it out, clean it, and use it. Similarly, while our gold-like buddha essence is not mixed with defilements, the filth of the manifest coarse three poisons prevents us from seeing it. Manifest coarse afflictions are the chief obscuration hindering beings in the desire realm. They provide the condition through which we are reborn especially in the desire realm. Led here and there by powerful emotions that arise suddenly and dominate our minds and by strong wrong views that we stubbornly cling to, we do not even consider the buddha essence that has always been there. Like the filth, manifest coarse attachment, animosity, and ignorance are repugnant. We dislike ourselves when they rule our minds, and others are likewise repulsed by our behavior.

The gold is pure—it can never become impure—but we cannot see it or use it as long as it is sunk in the filth. Similarly, the emptiness of the mind can never be infiltrated by the afflictions, but it cannot shine forth when obscured by the troublesome manifest afflictions. A deva who possesses the clairvoyant power of the divine eye sees the gold, tells a person where to find it, and instructs him to make the gold into something worthy of being gold. Similarly, the Buddha sees the empty nature of our minds, teaches us how to purify it, and instructs us how to transform our minds into the minds of buddhas. These first four similes pertain specifically to ordinary beings who have not yet realized emptiness.  
~ Dalai Lama, 14th, and Thubten Chodron. Saṃsāra, Nirvāṇa, and Buddha Nature. Library of Wisdom and Compassion, vol. 3. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018, p. 305.
Thrangu Rinpoche
1933 ~ 2023

Thrangu Rinpoche explains the fourth simile as:

Imagine an individual going on a journey and on his way he looses some pure gold which falls into some rubbish. It remains unchanged for hundreds of years being quite useless. Then a god with clairvoyance sees the large lump of gold in the rubbish and tells someone where to find this valuable thing so it can be put to its proper use.

The meaning is the Buddhas can see the pure Buddha nature of beings which has fallen into the filth of defilements and has been lying there for hundreds or thousands of years. Even though it has been there, it has not been polluted by the defilements. It there were no rubbish there is the first place, there would be no need to have the clairvoyant person come along. Also if there had been no gold for the clairvoyance person to point out, it would have been pointless as well. Similarly if Buddha nature were not obscured by defilements. there would be no need for Buddhas to come into this world and teach about Buddha nature. Also if beings didn't have Buddha nature form the beginning, there would be no need for Buddhas to give teachings because would be impossible for individuals to attain Buddhahood. This is why the Buddhas come and give teachings and point out our obscurations. They do this by producing the rain of dharma which has the ability to wash away little by little the impurities which we have accumulated.

Gold is very useful, but if it is covered by rubbish it is useless. This is why this clairvoyant person tells someone where it is and tells him to remove the rubbish and use the golds. In the same way the Buddhas tell us about the rubbish of all our instability. They see beings who have the wish-fulfilling gem in their hands, but it is being wasted. Beings are suffering, but they have the tool to eliminate the suffering without knowing it. This is why the Buddhas teach the dharma. We remain stuck in problems and difficulties and don't have the power to realize out own goal. we might think there is nothing we can do about it, but since we have the knowledge of how it-is and meanness, we have what is necessary to remove the defilements. The Buddha came to tell us if we practice, using what we have, we can reach enlightenment.  
~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989, pp. 87-88.

Simile Five: A Treasure in the Earth

In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the fifth simile appears as:

"Sons of good family, again it is as if in the earth beneath a storeroom in the house of some poor person, under a covering of earth seven fathoms (puruṣa) deep there were a great treasure, full of money and gold, [of the same] volume as the storeroom. But the great treasure—not being, of course, a sentient being, given [its lack of] a mental essence— [could] not say to the poor [man]:
'O man, I am a great treasure, but [I am] buried [here], covered under earth.' [In his] mind the poor man, the owner of the house, would consider [himself] poor, and even though [he] walked up and down directly above the [treasure], he [could] not hear of, know of, or perceive the existence of the great treasure beneath the earth.
Sons of good family, in the same way, [in] all sentient beings, beneath the[ir] thinking, [which is based on] clinging (abhiniveśamanasikāra)— [and] analogously to the house—there is [also] a great treasure, [namely] the treasury of the essence of a tathāgata (tathāgatagarbha), [including the ten] powers ([daśa] balāni), [the four kinds of] self-assurance ([catvāri] vaiśāradyāni), [the eighteen] specific [qualities of a buddha] ([astādaśa-] āveṇika[ buddhadharmāḥ]), and all [other] qualities of a buddha.
And yet sentient beings cling to color and shape (rūpa), sound (śabda), odor (gandha), flavor (rasa) and tangible objects (spraṣṭavya), and therefore wander in saṃsāra, [caught in] suffering (duḥkhena). And as a result of not having heard of that great treasure of [buddha] qualities [within themselves, they] in no way apply [themselves] to taking possession [of it] and to purifying [it]."
"Sons of good family, then the Tathāgata appears in the world and manifests (saṁprakāśayati) a great treasure of such [buddha] qualities among the bodhisattvas. The [bodhisattvas] then acquire confidence in that great treasure of [buddha] qualities and dig [it] out. Therefore in the world [they]

are known as 'tathāgatas, honorable ones and perfectly awakened ones,' because having become [themselves] like a great treasure of [buddha] qualities, [they] teach sentient beings the aspects of [this] unprecedented argument [of buddhahood in all of them] (*apūrvahetvākāra), similes [illustrating this matter], reasons for actions, and [tasks] to fulfill. [They] are donors (dānapati) [who give from] the storeroom of the great treasure, and having unhindered readiness of speech (asaṅgapratibhānavat), [they are] a treasury of the many qualities of a buddha, including the [ten] powers and the [four kinds of] self-assurance.
Sons of good family, in this way, with the completely pure vision of a tathāgata, the Tathāgata, the Honorable One and Perfectly Awakened One, also perceives that all sentient beings are like the [poor owner of the house with the hidden treasure] and then teaches the Dharma to the bodhisattvas in order to clean the treasury [in all sentient beings, which contains such qualities as] the tathāgata-knowledge, the [ten] powers, the [four kinds of] self-assurance and the [eighteen] specific qualities of a buddha."

 
~ 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. 120-123.
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.
Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye
1813 ~ 1899
In the Unassailable Lion's Roar, Jamgön Kongtrul explains the fifth simile as follows::
མི་དབུལ་པོ་ཞིག་གི་ཁྱིམ་ནང་གི་ས་འོག་ན་མི་ཟད་པའི་གཏེར་ཆེན་པོ་ནི་ཡོད་པར་གྱུར་ལ་མི་དེས་གཏེར་དེ་ཡོད་པར་མ་ཤེས་ཤིང་གཏེར་དེའང་མི་དེ་ལ་ང་འདིར་ཡོད་ཅེས་མི་སྨྲ་བས་མི་དེ་དབུལ་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མྱོང་དགོས་པ་ལྟར།

སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡིད་ཀྱི་ནང་དུ་ཆུད་པའི་བདེ་སྙིང་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་གཏེར་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་དྲི་མ་མེད་ལ། སྔར་མེད་ཀྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་གསར་དུ་བཞག་པ་དང་སྤང་བྱ་བདེན་པ་བ་བསལ་དུ་མེད་པའི་ཆོས་ཉིད་ཀྱང་རང་ལ་ཡོད་པ་མ་རྟོགས་པས་ན་ཡོན་ཏན་མངོན་དུ་གྱུར་པའི་འབྱོར་བས་དབུལ་བ་འཁོར་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ནི་རྣམ་པ་མང་པོ་དུས་རྒྱུན་དུ་སྐྱེ་དགུ་འདི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཉམས་སུ་མྱོང་ངོ་། །

དབུལ་པོའི་ཁྱིམ་ནང་གི་སའི་འོག་ཏུ་ནི་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་གཏེར་ཆུད་པར་གྱུར་བའི་མི་དེ་ལ་ནི་རིན་ཆེན་གྱི་གཏེར་དེ་ཡིས་བདག་འདི་ན་ཡོད་ཅེས་བརྗོད་པར་མི་བྱེད་ཅིང་གཏེར་ཡོད་པ་དེ་ནི་མི་དབུལ་པོ་དེ་ཡིས་ཤེས་པ་མ་ཡིན་པས་དབུལ་བའི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ལས་མ་ཐར་བ་ལྟར། དེ་བཞིན་དུ། ཆོས་སྐུའི་གཏེར་རང་གི་ཡིད་ཀྱི་ཁྱིམ་ན་གནས་ཀྱང་དེ་མ་རྟོགས་པའི་སེམས་ཅན་དག་ནི་དབུལ་པོ་ལྟ་བུ་ཡིན་ཏེ། དེ་དག་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་རང་ལ་གནས་པའི་ཆོས་སྐུའི་གཏེར་མངོན་དུ་ཐོབ་པར་བྱ་བའི་ཕྱིར་འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམས་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་དག་ཏུ་ནི། དྲང་སྲོང་ཆེན་པོ་སངས་རྒྱས་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་ཡང་དག་པར་བལྟམས་ནས་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་སྟོན་པར་མཛད་དོ། །

If a great inexhaustible treasure were buried in the ground beneath a poor man's house, the man would not know that this treasure was there, and the treasure would also not be able to speak to the man and tell him "I am here!" Therefore the man would have to experience the suffering of poverty.

Likewise the precious treasure of the sugatagarbha is contained within the minds of all sentient beings. This is the true state [of the mind], which is by nature free from defilement. To this true state no quality that was previously not present is to be added. No defilement is to be removed from it, [since the defilements] to be abandoned are not truly existent. Nevertheless, sentient beings do not realize that this true state is present within themselves. Therefore, although the direct manifestation of the qualities is at hand, they must continuously experience the deprivation of the manifold aspects of the suffering of samsara.

When a precious treasure is contained in the ground underneath a poor man's house, this precious treasure cannot tell the man "I am here!" and the poor man w i l l not know that this treasure is there. Through his being ignorant of this he is not liberated from his suffering of poverty and deprivation. All beings are equally [unknowing] and thus resemble the poor man. Although the treasure of dharmakaya abides within their own mind's house, they are unaware of it. In order to cause those beings to actually attain the treasure of dharmakaya, which is present within themselves, the great Sage, the Buddha Bhagavat, truly takes birth in the endless realms of the world and teaches the sacred Dharma. 
~ '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. 231-233.
- 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, pp. 155-156.
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
1935

The Fourteenth Dalai Lama explains the fifth simile as:

The buddha essence is like a treasure under the earth.

Like a magnificent treasure buried under the earth in a poor person's yard, the buddha essence is obscured by the latencies of the afflictions. This obscuration pertains especially to śrāvaka and solitary realizer arhats, who have eliminated the coarse manifest afflictions and their seeds, but whose minds are still obscured by the latencies of afflictions, especially the latency of ignorance, that prevent them from becoming fully awakened buddhas. While these arhats have realized emptiness and overcome afflictions, the ground of the latencies of afflictions are the condition through which arhats obtain a mental body and abide in the pacification of samsara that is an arhats nirvāṇa. After these arhats generate bodhicitta, they follow the bodhisattva paths and grounds. In doing so, when the ground of these latencies is removed, they will attain the ultimate true cessation, nonabiding nirvāṇa.

A treasure buried under the house of a poor family can free them from poverty, but they do not know it is there, even though it is right under them. The treasure does not say, "I'm here. Come and get me." Our naturally abiding buddha essence is like a treasure that has existed in our minds beginninglessly. This emptiness of the mind does not decrease or increase, it does not call out to us saying, "I'm here." But when the Buddha tells us about it, we learn how to uncover it, freeing it from even the ground of the latencies of ignorance that prevent full awakening.  
~ Dalai Lama, 14th, and Thubten Chodron. Saṃsāra, Nirvāṇa, and Buddha Nature. Library of Wisdom and Compassion, vol. 3. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018, pp. 305-306.
Thrangu Rinpoche
1933 ~ 2023

Thrangu Rinpoche explains the fifth simile as:

Imagine a man so poor that he doesn't have any food or clothes living in a house built over a great treasure, If the man doesn't know about the treasure, he will continue to suffer in poverty because the treasure doesn't need to acquire new qualities because it has always been there. We do not see the Buddha essence in our mind so we endure all the sufferings of samsara caused by the defilements. The parallel is the treasure doesn't tell the man "I am here" even though it is very close by. Similarly all beings have the precious treasure of the dharmakaya locked in their mind. But continue to have the sufferings of deprivation. Therefore the great sages. the Buddhas, come into our world to help us find this nature.  
~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989, p. 88.

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

In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the sixth simile appears as:

"Sons of good family, again it is like the example of a fruit of a mango tree, a rose apple tree, a palmyra palm or of cane: inside the sheaths of the outer peel there is a seed of imperishable nature (*avināśadharmin) [containing] a sprout, [a seed] which, thrown on soil, will become a great king of trees.
Sons of good family, in the same way also the Tathāgata perceives that [sentient beings who are] dwelling in the world are completely wrapped in the sheaths of the outer peel of [such] defilements [as] desire (rāga), anger (dveṣa), misguidedness (moha), longing (trṣṇā) and ignorance (avidyā)."
"In this [connection] the true nature (dharmatā) of a tathāgata, being in the womb (garbha) inside the sheaths of [such] defilements [as] desire, anger, misguidedness, longing and ignorance, is designated 'sattva.' When it has become cool, it is extinct (nirvṛta). And because [it is then] completely purified [from] the sheaths of defilements of ignorance, [it] becomes a great accumulation of knowledge [in the] realm of sentient beings (sattvadhātu). The world with [its] gods (sadevako lokaḥ), having perceived that supreme, great accumulation of knowledge [in the] realm of sentient beings speaking like a tathāgata, recognizes [him] as a tathāgata.
Sons of good family, in this [connection] the Tathāgata perceives that [all sentient beings] are like the [seed containing a sprout], and then propounds the matter to the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas in order that [they] might realize the tathāgata-knowledge [within themselves]."  
~ 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. 125-129.
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.
Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye
1813 ~ 1899
In the Unassailable Lion's Roar, Jamgön Kongtrul explains the sixth simile as follows::
ཨ་མྲ་དང་ནྱ་གྲོ་དྷ་ལ་སོགས་པ་ཤིང་གི་འབྲས་བུ་ལྤགས་ཤུན་གྱི་ནང་དུ་ཆུད་ཀྱང་ཤིང་སྡོང་བསྐྱེད་པའི་ནུས་པ་ཡོད་པའི་ཤིང་གི་ས་བོན་མྱུ་གུ་བསྐྱེད་པ་ལ་གེགས་ཀྱིས་འཇིག་པ་མེད་པའི་ཆོས་ཅན་རྐྱེན་ས་གཤིན་པོ་རྨོས་པ་དང་ཆུ་ལུད་དྲོད་སོགས་ཚོགས་པ་དང་ལྡན་པ་ལས་ལྗོན་ཤིང་གི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པ་དང་ལྡན་པའི་དངོས་པོར་རིམ་གྱིས་འགྲུབ་པ་ལྟར།

སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་མ་རིག་པ་སོགས་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་འབྲས་ཤུན་གྱི་ལྤགས་པའི་སྦུབས་ཀྱི་ནང་དུ་ཆུད་པའི་ཆོས་སྐུའི་ཁམས་སམ་དབྱིངས་དགེ་བ་གང་ཡིན་པ་དེ་ཡང་མཐུན་རྐྱེན་ཚང་བ་ལས་ལྗོན་ཤིང་འགྲུབ་པ་དེ་བཞིན་དུ་ཚོགས་གཉིས་ཀྱི་དགེ་བའི་རྐྱེན་དེ་དང་དེ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་ས་ལམ་རིམ་གྱིས་བགྲོད་དེ་ཐུབ་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་དངོས་པོར་འགྱུར་བ་ཡིན་ནོ། །

འབྱུང་བ་ཆུས་བརླན། ཉི་མའི་འོད་ཀྱིས་སྨིན། རླུང་གིས་འཕེལ། སས་བརྟན། དུས་འདས་པས་ནུས་པ་ཐོན། ནམ་མཁས་གོ་ཕྱེ་བ་སོགས་རྐྱེན་དེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས། ཏ་ལ་དང་ཨ་མྲའི་འབྲས་བུ་ལྤགས་ཤུན་གྱི་སྦུབས་ཀྱི་གསེབ་ན་གནས་པ་ལས་ཤིང་གི་སྡོང་པོ་རིམ་གྱིས་སྐྱེ་བ་ཇི་ལྟ་བར། སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་འབྲས་བུའི་ལྤགས་ཤུན་གྱི་ནང་དུ་ཆུད་པའི་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ས་བོན་མྱུ་གུ་འདྲ་བ་ཡང་། རྐྱེན་ཚོགས་པ་ལས་ཤིང་སྐྱེ་བ་དེ་བཞིན་དུ་ཚོགས་གཉིས་ཀྱི་དགེ་བའི་རྐྱེན་དེ་དང་དེ་ལས་མཐོང་ལམ་དུ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་མྱུ་གུ་མཐོང་། སྒོམ་ལམ་དུ་འཕེལ། མི་སློབ་ལམ་དུ་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པར་འགྱུར་བ་ཡིན་ནོ། །

Although it is contained inside the skin of a fruit of a mango, a nyagrodha, or similar trees, a tree seed has the capacity to generate a mighty tree. It has an indestructible property in that there is no hindrance that could obstruct the sprouting of the shoot. Once it has all the necessary conditions collected together, such as well-plowed earth, water, manure, warmth, and so on, it will gradually develop in substance until a genuine king of trees has come about.

The fruit, which consists of the mental poisons, of ignorance and the other defects of beings, contains within the shroud of its skin the element of the dharmakaya, the expanse of all virtue. Similar to the way in which a mighty tree comes about when all the favorable conditions [for its growth] are present, this element will also turn into the substance of a buddha, a King of Munis, when one relies on the necessary condition, which is the virtue of the two accumulations, and thus gradually travels the paths and levels.

What has come forth is moistened by water, ripened by sunlight, increased by wind, supported by earth, strengthened by the passing of time, provided with the opportunity to unfold by space, and so on. Due to these necessary conditions a mighty tree is gradually growing from its abode within the narrow shroud of the fruit-skin of a banana or mango. Similarly the seed of the Perfect Buddha, which is contained within the fruit-skin of the mental poisons of beings, resembles the shoot. Just as a tree grows from the meeting of the necessary conditions, the virtue of the two accumulations acts as the necessary condition, on the basis of which the shoot of the Dharma is seen on the path of seeing, augmented on the path of meditation and led to ultimate perfection on the path of no more learning. 
~ '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. 233-235.
- 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, pp. 156-157.
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
1935

The Fourteenth Dalai Lama explains the sixth simile as:

The buddha essence resembles a tiny sprout hidden within the peel of a fruit.

Beans have tiny sprouts inside but we cannot see them until the fruit and its peel have been shed. Similarly, for the path of seeing to be actualized, the objects of abandonment by the path of seeing must be destroyed. This simile applies particularly to ordinary beings on the paths of learning as well as Fundamental Vehicle āryas who are not yet arhats. Until they attain the path of seeing, the acquired afflictions, which are the objects to be abandoned by that path, obscure their buddha essence. While on the path of seeing, these learners have overcome the acquired afflictions but still have the innate afflictions and their seeds.

The transforming buddha essence is like a sprout that has the potential to grow into a huge tree that will offer shade for many people on a hot day. Just as the sprout needs good conditions to grow, we rely on the conditions of the collections of merit and wisdom to nourish the transforming buddha essence. Great compassion, wisdom, reverence for the Mahāyāna teachings and their goal, a great collection of merit, and samadhi are nourishing conditions that assist the transforming buddha essence to become the wisdom dharmakāya.  
~ Dalai Lama, 14th, and Thubten Chodron. Saṃsāra, Nirvāṇa, and Buddha Nature. Library of Wisdom and Compassion, vol. 3. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018, p. 306.
Thrangu Rinpoche
1933 ~ 2023

Thrangu Rinpoche explains the sixth simile as:

A very tiny seed in a fruit has the power to be an enormous tree. One cannot see the tree in the seed, but if one adds to he seed all the right conditions for growth such as a water, sunlight, soil, etc., a great mighty tree will develop, the meaning is that Buddha essence exists in all beings but it is encased in the peel of ignorance which generates out emotional and cognitive obscurations. If one practice virtue, it will generate the favorable conditions for this seed of Buddha nature to grow, Through the accumulation of knowledge and virtue the seed will develop into the " king of victors" or Buddhahood. The parallel is that just as a tree grows from the skin of a fruit and whit the proper conditions will grow into a tree, Buddha essence is enclosed in the skin of defilement s and with proper conditions will manifest into Buddhahood.  
~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989, pp. 88-89.

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

In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the seventh simile appears as:

"Sons of good family, again it is like the example of a poor man [who] has a tathāgata image the size of the palm of a hand [and] made of seven kinds of jewels. It then so happened that the poor man wished to cross a [dangerous] wilderness carrying the tathāgata image [with him]. And in order that it might not be discovered by anybody else, or stolen by robbers, he then wrapped it in some rotten, putrid rags.
Then the man died

owing to some calamity in that same wilderness, and his tathāgata image, made of jewels [and] wrapped in rotten rags, then lay around on the footpath. [But] travelers, unaware [of the precious tathāgata image in the rags], repeatedly stepped over [it] and passed by. And [they would] even point [at it] as something disgusting [and question]: 'Where has the wind brought this wrapped bundle of rotten, putrid rags from?' And a divinity dwelling in the wilderness, having looked [at the situation] with divine vision, would show [it to] some people and direct [them]:
'O men, [here] inside this bundle of rags is a tathāgata image made of jewels, worthy to be paid homage by all worlds. So [you] should open [it]!"
"Sons of good family, in the same way also the Tathāgata perceives that all sentient beings are wrapped in the wrappings of defilements and that [they are like something] disgusting, wandering around for ages throughout the wilderness of saṃsāra. And, sons of good family, [the Tathāgata] perceives that also within sentient beings [who] are wrapped in the wrappings of various defilements—and even though [they] may have come into existence as animal —there is the body of a tathāgata of the same [kind] as my own.
Sons of good family, 'How does the mental vision of a tathāgata (tathāgatajñānadarśana) [in all sentient beings] become free and completely purified from impurities so that [sentient beings] become worthy of the homage of all worlds, as I am now?'
Thus thinking, the Tathāgata teaches in this [connection] the Dharma to all bodhisattvas in order to cause [such beings] to become free from the wrappings of defilements [in which they] are wrapped."

 
~ 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. 131-133.
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.
Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye
1813 ~ 1899
In the Unassailable Lion's Roar, Jamgön Kongtrul explains the seventh simile as follows::
རིན་ཆེན་རིན་ཐང་མེད་པ་ལས་བྱས་པའི་རྒྱལ་བའི་སྐུ་གཟུགས་གོས་ཧྲུལ་དྲི་ངན་གྱིས་ནི་གཏུམས་པར་གྱུར་པ་ལམ་གྱི་བཞི་མདོ་ཞིག་ན་གནས་པ་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མ་ཤེས་པར་འགོང་བ་སོགས་སུ་གྱུར་པ་ན་ལམ་དེ་ན་ཡོད་པར་ལྷ་ཡིས་མཐོང་ནས་སྐུ་དེ་དེ་ལས་གྲོལ་བར་བྱ་བའི་ཕྱིར་སྐུ་གཟུགས་ལམ་ན་གནས་པའི་དོན་དེ་མི་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་སྨྲ་ཞིང་སྟོན་པར་བྱེད་པ་ལྟར།

ཐོག་མ་མེད་པ་ནས་དུག་གསུམ་སོགས་བག་ཆགས་རྣམ་པ་སྣ་ཚོགས་པའི་ཉོན་མོངས་ཀྱི་གོས་ཧྲུལ་གྱིས་གཏུམས་པའི་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོའི་དངོས་པོ་ཉིད་དུད་འགྲོ་ལ་ཡང་ཡོད་པར་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྤྱན་གྱིས་གཟིགས་ནས། སྐུ་གཟུགས་ཀྱི་སྒྲིབ་བྱེད་སེལ་བ་དེ་བཞིན་དུ་སྙིང་པོ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་དེ་གློ་བུར་གྱི་སྒྲིབ་པ་ལས་ཐར་བར་བྱ་བའི་དོན་དུ་ལམ་ཉམས་སུ་ལེན་པའི་ཐབས་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་མཐའ་ཡས་པ་སྟོན་པར་མཛད་དོ། །

རིན་ཆེན་རང་བཞིན་ལས་གྲུབ་པའི་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྐུ་གཟུགས་དྲི་མ་ངན་པའི་གོས་ཀྱི་གཏུམས་པ་ལམ་གྱི་བཞི་མདོར་གནས་པ་མིས་ངོ་མ་ཤེས་པ་ན་ལྷའི་མིག་གིས་མཐོང་ནས་སྐུ་གཟུགས་གོས་ཧྲུལ་ལས་ཐར་བའི་ཕྱིར་དུ་མི་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་ན་སྐུ་གཟུགས་ཡོད་ཅེས་སྟོན་པ་ལྟར། དེ་བཞིན་དུ་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་གོས་ཧྲུལ་གྱིས་གཏུམས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཁམས་འཁོར་བའི་ལམ་ན་གནས་པ་དེ་དུད་འགྲོ་ལ་ཡང་ཡོད་པར་གཟིགས་ནས་དེ་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་གོས་ཧྲུལ་ལས་ཐར་བར་བྱ་བའི་ཕྱིར་རྒྱལ་བས་ཆོས་སྟོན་པར་མཛད་དོ། །

Suppose a statue of the Victorious One made from invaluably precious material is lying at a crossroads, wrapped in an evil-smelling tattered rag, and people heedlessly pass it by, unaware of its presence. When a god sees what is lying there, he will alert the passersby to the fact that a statue is lying by the road and show it to them, so that they retrieve this statue from its evil-smelling covering.

Since beginningless time the sugatagarbha has been wrapped in the evil-smelling rags of the afflictions, in the various aspects of the three poisons and the other defilements [up to] the remaining imprints. The eye of a buddha sees that this substance of the sugatagarbha is even present within animals. Upon seeing this he opens an endless number of gates of the sacred Dharma. He teaches the means to practice the path, so that this dharmadhatu may be released from its adventitious veils, just as the [rag] enveloping the statue is removed.

When the god's eye perceives that a statue of the Tathagata, which is made from a material of precious nature but wrapped in a stinking rag, is lying by a crossroads unnoticed by the men passing by, he will show it to those men and tell them: "There is a statue here!" so that it may be retrieved from the tattered rags. Similarly the Victorious One sees the buddha element which, wrapped in the tattered garments of the mental poisons, is lying on samsara's road. He sees that it even abides within animals and teaches the Dharma so that it may be released from these rags of the mental poisons. 
~ '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. 235-237.
- 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, pp. 157-158.
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
1935

The Fourteenth Dalai Lama explains the seventh simile as:

The buddha essence is like a buddha statue covered by a tattered rag.

The innate afflictions and their seeds—the objects to be abandoned on the path of meditation—resemble a buddha image wrapped in a tattered rag. The dismantling of the afflictions began on the path of seeing, and now, on the path of meditation, they are in tatters and ready to be discarded completely. Similarly, ordinary beings and āryas on the learning paths (āryas who are not yet arhats) are still obscured by the innate afflictions and their seeds, but they are weak and will soon be overcome. Nevertheless, while present, they obscure the buddha essence.

A deva sees a buddha statue under a dirty cloth and explains to a person who wants to have a buddha statue that it is there and she should retrieve it. In the same way, the Buddha sees that the ultimate nature of his own mind—emptiness—is the same as the emptiness of the minds of all sentient beings, even animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings. This beautiful nature is covered by the remnants of the eighty-four thousand afflictions. To free it from these, the Buddha teaches the Dharma. The nature dharmakāya is like a precious statue. Just as the whole statue comes out at once when the rag is removed, the nature dharmakāya appears in its entirety when the mind is freed from all defilements.  
~ Dalai Lama, 14th, and Thubten Chodron. Saṃsāra, Nirvāṇa, and Buddha Nature. Library of Wisdom and Compassion, vol. 3. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018, p. 307.
Thrangu Rinpoche
1933 ~ 2023

Thrangu Rinpoche explains the seventh simile as:

Imagine a very valuable Buddha statue wrapped in tattered rags and abandoned by the side of the road. A passerby would not notice it, but if a god came along, he could tell now to find the statue. The meaning is the Buddhas can see with their jñāna that Buddha nature in beings wrapped in the tattered rags of the defilements. They see this in persons and even in animals. In the same way a god can see a statue with divine vision, so the Buddhas can see Buddha nature lying on the road of samsara inside the rags of defilements. They tell beings to remove the tattered rags so the Buddha nature can manifest in its complete purity through the dharmakāya.  
~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989, p. 89.

Simile Eight: Royalty in the Womb of a Destitute Woman

In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the eighth simile appears as:

"Sons of good family, again it is like the example of a woman without a protector (anāthabhūta), of unsightly complexion, having a bad smell, disgusting, frightening, ugly and like a demoness (piśācī), [and this woman] had taken up residence in a poorhouse. While staying there she had become pregnant. And though the life that had entered into her womb was such as to be destined to reign as a world emperor, the woman would neither question herself with reference to the sentient being existing in her womb 'Of what kind is this life [that] has entered my womb?', nor would she [even] question herself in that [situation]: 'Has [some life] entered my womb or not?' Rather, thinking herself poor, [she would be] depressed, [and] would think thoughts [like] '[I am] inferior and weak,' and would pass the time staying in the poorhouse as somebody of unsightly complexion and bad smell."
"Sons of good family, in the same way also all sentient beings [think of themselves as] unprotected and are tormented by the suffering of saṃsāra. [They, too,] stay in a poorhouse: the places of [re]birth in the states of being. Then, though the element of a tathāgata has entered into sentient beings and is present within, those sentient beings do not realize [it].
Sons of good family, in order that sentient beings do not despise themselves, the Tathāgata in this [connection] teaches the Dharma with the [following] words:
'Sons of good family, apply energy without giving in to despondency! It will happen that one day the tathagata [who has] entered [and] is present

within you will become manifest. Then you will be designated 'bodhisattva,' rather than '[ordinary] sentient being (sattva).' [And] again in the [next stage you] will be designated 'buddha,' rather than 'bodhisattva'.' "

 
~ 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. 135-138.
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.
Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye
1813 ~ 1899
In the Unassailable Lion's Roar, Jamgön Kongtrul explains the eighth simile as follows::
ཇི་ལྟར་ན་མི་མོ་གཟུགས་བྱད་ངན་ཞིང་མགོན་དང་སྐྱབས་མེད་པ་འགའ་ཞིག་མགོན་མེད་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་འདུག་གནས་འགྲོན་ཁང་དང་གཞི་མདོ་ལ་སོགས་པ་རྣམས་སུ་ནི་འདུག་པར་གྱུར་ལ་རང་གི་མངལ་གྱིས་འཁོར་ལོས་སྒྱུར་བའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་དཔལ་དང་ལྡན་པར་གྱུར་པའི་ཁྱེའུ་མཚན་དང་ལྡན་པ་ནི་འཛིན་པར་བྱེད་པས་ཀྱང་མངལ་སྦུབས་ཀྱིས་བསྒྲིབས་པའི་ཕྱིར་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ལྟོ་བ་ན་ཡོད་པའི་སེམས་ཅན་དེ་མིའི་བདག་པོ་ཡིན་པར་མི་ཤེས་པས་གཞན་གྱིས་བརྙས་པ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་འཇིགས་པ་དང་བཅས་ཤིང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བར་གྱུར་པ་ལྟར།

སྲིད་པ་འཁོར་བའི་གནས་རྣམ་པ་སྣ་ཚོགས་པར་སྐྱེ་བ་རྣམས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དང་བཅས་པའི་ཕྱིར། མགོན་དང་སྐྱབས་མེད་པའི་ཁྱིམ་ན་གནས་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་ཏེ། གློ་བུར་གྱི་ཉོན་མོངས་པ་མ་དག་པའི་སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ནི་མགོན་སྐྱབས་ཡོད་ཀྱང་མ་ཤེས་པའི་ཕྱིར་མངལ་ན་རྒྱལ་པོ་དང་ལྡན་པའི་བུད་མེད་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་ཡིན་ཞིང་། བུད་མེད་དེ་ལ་རྒྱལ་པོ་གང་ཞིག་ཡོད་པས་མགོན་དང་བཅས་པར་འབྱུང་བ་ལྟར། སེམས་ཅན་དེ་ལ་ཆོས་ཉིད་གང་ཞིག་ཡོད་པས་མགོན་གྱི་མཆོག་དང་བཅས་པར་གྱུར་པ་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་རྣམ་པར་དག་ཅིང་དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་ཁམས་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་དེ་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་འགྱུར་བས་ན་འཇིགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལས་སྐྱོབས་པའི་ཕྱིར་བུད་མེད་དེའི་མངལ་ན་གནས་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་ནོ། །

བུད་མེད་ལུས་ལ་དྲི་མ་དང་བཅས་པའི་གོས་གྱོན་ཞིང་མི་སྡུག་པའི་གཟུགས་དང་ལྡན་པ་ཞིག་ས་བདག་འཁོར་སྒྱུར་རང་གི་མངལ་ན་གནས་ཀྱང་། དེ་མ་ཤེས་པར་མགོན་མེད་པའི་ཁང་པར་བསྡད་ནས་དབུལ་བ་དང་བརྙས་པ་སོགས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་མཆོག་ཉམས་སུ་མྱོང་བ་ལྟར། དེ་བཞིན་དུ། བདག་རང་གི་སེམས་ཀྱི་ནང་གནས་པའི་མགོན་སྐྱབས་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡོད་པར་གྱུར་ཀྱང་དེ་མ་ཤེས་པས་མགོན་སྐྱབས་མེད་དོ་སྙམ་པའི་བློ་དང་ལྡན་པའི་འགྲོ་བ་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་དབང་གིས་ཡིད་མ་ཞི་བ་རྣམས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་གཞི་འཁོར་བ་ལ་གནས་པར་གྱུར་ཏོ། །

A woman of miserable appearance and complexion, having neither protection nor refuge, abides in poorhouses, cheap hostels, and at crossroads. She bears in her womb an infant who is endowed with the signs and will become a glorious universal monarch. A n d yet, since this child is obscured by the shroud of her womb, she does not know that this being dwelling in her own body is a ruler of mankind. Being ignorant of this she suffers and is stricken with the fear of being slandered, treated with contempt, and abused by others.

Since births in the various places of samsaric existence are accompanied by suffering, they are similar to living in a poorhouse, in the abodes of those who have neither protection nor refuge. Since all beings who are not purified from the adventitious afflictions have protection and refuge and yet are ignorant of this, they are similar to the woman who has a king in her womb. Since a king is present within this woman, it will become apparent that she has protection. Since within those beings the true state, the tathagatagarbha, is present, they are accompanied by the best possible protection. Once this element, which is by nature completely pure and free from any defilement, has directly revealed itself, they will be sheltered from all their fear. Therefore the element is similar to the king who dwells in this woman's womb.

A universal monarch, a ruler of the earth, dwells within the womb of a woman who has an unpleasant appearance and whose body is dressed in dirty clothes. Although this ruler resides in her own womb, being ignorant of this, she has to abide in a poorhouse and undergo the experience of direst suffering, of being destitute, subject to contempt, abused, and neglected. Similarly all sentient beings have a protector and refuge, this being the sugatagarbha which resides within their own minds. Yet, since they do not know this, they deem themselves without any protection and refuge. Thus those beings whose minds are unpeaceful due to the predominating influence of the mental poisons have to abide within the cycle of existence, the ground of suffering. 
~ '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. 237-239.
- 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, pp. 159-160.
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
1935

The Fourteenth Dalai Lama explains the eighth simile as:

The buddha essence resembles a baby who will become a great leader in the womb of a poor, miserable, forlorn woman.

In her womb a woman bears a baby who will be a great leader and do much good in the world. Not knowing that her child will one day be able to protect her, she knows only her present suffering. Similarly, ārya bodhisattvas on the impure grounds—grounds one through seven—have amazing potential that they are as yet unaware of owing to the womb-like confines of the afflictive obscurations. When they emerge from these on the eighth ground, their pristine wisdom becomes even more powerful, like the baby who has grown into a great leader.

Cyclic existence is like the homeless shelter in which this poor, miserable woman lives. There she is reviled by others and sinks into despair because she has no refuge or protector. Her child, as a great ruler, will soon be able to care for her, but she does not know this. Similarly, we do not realize that our ultimate protector is inside of us. But when the emptiness of our minds is revealed and becomes the nature dharmakāya, our problems are forever pacified. When we later actualize the enjoyment body, we will be like a wealthy monarch who can protect all beings in the land.  
~ Dalai Lama, 14th, and Thubten Chodron. Saṃsāra, Nirvāṇa, and Buddha Nature. Library of Wisdom and Compassion, vol. 3. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018, pp. 307-308.
Thrangu Rinpoche
1933 ~ 2023

Thrangu Rinpoche explains the eighth simile as:

Imagine a destitute ugly woman who had no place to say and there fore ended in a pauper hostel. Also imagine that she is pregnant and golds in her womb the future king. She continues to suffer because she doesn't know anything about it This is similar to the way beings hold the precious Buddha essence but do not know anything about it or get any help from it. In the same way as the woman in the hostel. This king is in the womb, we are born in the Six Realms of samsara; are born as humans. some as animals, some as Preta Spirits. All have to suffer-animals suffer from enslavement, sprits have to suffer from thirst and hunger, humans have to suffer from birth, sickness, old age, and death. All of us are like the poor woman living in pain. Even if we are totally destitute and have no happiness, within us is the seed which can terminate all our suffering-we have Buddha nature.

The poor woman who has a great ruler in her womb is ugly and dressed in dirty clothes. Because she doesn't know that she bears a king she remains in poverty and is very unhappy. In the same way beings have a protector inside their mine but are unaware of this so they have no peace of mind and are overpowered by defilements so that they remain in samsara and undergo all kinds of suffering.  
~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989, p. 89.

Simile Nine: A Precious Statue in Clay


In the Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra the ninth simile appears as:

"Sons of good family, again it is like the example of figures of horses, elephants, women or men being fashioned out of wax, then encased in clay [so that they are completely] covered [with it and finally, after the clay has dried,] melted [in fire]; and after [the wax] has been made to drip out, gold is melted. And when [the cavity inside the mold] is filled with the melted [gold], even though all the figures, having cooled down step by step (krameṇa) [and] arrived at a uniform state, are [covered with] black clay and unsightly outside, [their] insides are made of gold.
Then, when a smith or a smith's apprentice [uses] a hammer [to] remove from the [figures] the outer [layer of] clay [around] those figures which he sees have cooled down, then in that moment the golden figures lying inside become completely clean."
"Sons of good family, likewise also the Tathāgata perceives with the vision of a tathāgata that all sentient beings are like figures [in] clay: the cavity inside the sheaths of outer defilements and impurities is filled with the qualities of a buddha [and with] the precious uncontaminated knowledge (anāsravajñāna); inside, a tathagata exists in [all] magnificence.
Sons of good family, having then perceived that all sentient beings are like this, the Tathāgata goes among the bodhisattvas and perfectly teaches [them] these [nine] Dharma discourses of that kind[, i.e., on the tathāgata-knowledge within all sentient beings]. [Using] the vajra[-like] hammer of the Dharma, the Tathāgata then hews away all outer defilements in order to entirely purify the precious tathāgata-knowledge of those bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who have become calm and cool.
Sons of good family, what is called 'smith' is a designation for the Tathāgata. Sons of good family, after the Tathāgata, the Honorable One and Perfectly Awakened One, has perceived with [his] buddha-vision that all sentient beings are like this, [he] teaches the Dharma in order to establish [them] in buddha-knowledge, having let [them] become free from the defilements."  
~ 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. 140-142.
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.
Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Taye
1813 ~ 1899
In the Unassailable Lion's Roar, Jamgön Kongtrul explains the ninth simile as follows::
ས་འདམ་ནག་པོའི་ནང་གི་གསེར་ཞུན་མ་བླུག་པའི་གཟུགས་ཡན་ལག་རྒྱས་པ་ཡིད་འོང་ཞི་བས་མཛེས་པ་དག་ཕྱི་རོལ་ས་ཡི་རང་བཞིན་འདམ་གྱིས་གཡོགས་པ་ཅན་དེ་མཐོང་ནས་ནང་དུ་གསེར་གྱི་གཟུགས་ཡོད་པ་དེ་ཤེས་པ་དག་ནང་གི་གསེར་གྱི་གཟུགས་ལ་ཡོད་པའི་ས་འདམ་སྦྱང་བའི་ཕྱིར་ཕྱི་རོལ་གྱི་སྒྲིབ་གཡོགས་ས་འདམ་སེལ་བར་བྱེད་པ་ལྟར།

སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་བ་དེ་ལ་དྲི་མ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་ནི་འབྲལ་རུང་གི་གློ་བུར་བར་ནི་རྣམ་པར་གཟིགས་པར་གྱུར་ནས་རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་གནས་ལྟ་བུའི་འགྲོ་བ་རྣམས་ས་འདམ་ལྟ་བུའི་སྒྲིབ་པ་དག་ལས་སྦྱོང་ཞིང་སེལ་བར་མཛད་པའི་རྒྱལ་བ་རྣམས་བྱང་ཆུབ་མཆོག་ཏུ་སངས་རྒྱས་ནས་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་སྟོན་པར་མཛད་དོ། །

དྲི་མ་མེད་ལ་རྣམ་པར་དག་ཅིང་གསེར་བཟང་འོད་འབར་བ་ལས་བྱས་ཤིང་ལུག་གཏོང་བའི་དུས་ཀྱི་འདམ་ནག་པོའི་ནང་དུ་ཆུད་པར་གྱུར་པའི་གཟུགས་བརྙན་མཛེས་ཤིང་ཞི་བ་དེའི་རང་བཞིན་ལྷ་བཟོ་པ་མཁས་པས་རིག་ནས་ཕྱིའི་ས་འདམ་དག་སེལ་བར་བྱེད་པ་ལྟར། དེ་བཞིན་ཏུ། ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་། ཡོངས་སུ་དག་པའི་གསེར་དང་འདྲ་བ་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་ཞི་བའི་ཡིད་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ཉིད་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ཉིད་ནི་མཁྱེན་པར་གྱུར་ནས་སྒྲིབ་པ་སེལ་བའི་ཐབས་སུ་ཆོས་འཆད་པའི་ཚུལ་གྱིས་ས་འདམ་སེལ་བའི་རྡེག་སྤྱད་འདྲ་བར་སྒྲུབ་པས་ཁམས་རྟོགས་པའི་གེགས་སྒྲིབ་པ་དག་ནི་སེལ་བར་མཛད་པ་ཉིད་དོ། །

When an image, which is artistically well designed in all its parts, pure, and beautiful in its peaceful appearance, has been cast in gold and is still inside its black mold, it is covered by clay and thus externally has the nature of earth. Upon seeing this, experts who know that a golden image is contained in the covering mold will clear away the outer layer in order to remove the traces of clay remaining on the golden image enclosed therein.

Similarly the Victorious Ones fully see that there are defilements on the luminous nature of the minds of beings, but that these are just adventitious, being able to be removed. Upon seeing this they clear away these veils, which are similar to the mold. Once they are awakened and expanded in supreme enlightenment, they teach the sacred Dharma and purify beings, who are like jewel mines, from all their obscurations.

Suppose there is an image of peaceful and beautiful appearance that is flawless and completely pure, made from unalloyed, shimmering gold, but which at the time of its casting is contained within a mold of black clay. A n expert skilled in the making of statues would recognize its nature and remove the external layers of clay. Similarly the Buddhas who know the entirety of the knowable recognize the sugatagarbha, the true state of the mind, which is by nature peaceful, and thus similar to completely pure gold. They remove the veils that hinder the direct realization of the element by teaching the Dharma as the means to their removal, acting just as one who strikes the clay, chipping it away to remove the mold. 
~ '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. 239-241.
- 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, pp. 160-161.
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
1935

The Fourteenth Dalai Lama explains the ninth simile as:

The buddha essence is like a golden buddha statue covered by a fine layer of dust.

The buddha essence of the pure-ground bodhisattvas—grounds eight through ten—is still covered by a thin layer of cognitive obscurations that impedes their full awakening—the latencies of the defilements that bring about the appearance of inherent existence and prevent directly seeing the two truths simultaneously. Like a magnificent, golden buddha statue that was cast in a mold and now is covered by only a layer of fine clay dust remaining from the mold, their buddha essence will soon be fully revealed when the vajra-like concentration at the end of the continuum of a sentient being removes the last remaining obscurations from the mindstream, allowing the buddha essence to be fully revealed.

An expert statue maker recognizes the preciousness of the gold statue covered by clay dust and cleanses it to reveal its pure beauty for everyone to enjoy. Similarly, the Buddha sees our buddha essence and guides us on the path to reveal it, so that we will be able to manifest emanation bodies. These emanation bodies will appear in various forms according to the karma of the sentient beings who can benefit from them. By these means, the buddha we will become will compassionately instruct and guide sentient beings according to their disposition.  
~ Dalai Lama, 14th, and Thubten Chodron. Saṃsāra, Nirvāṇa, and Buddha Nature. Library of Wisdom and Compassion, vol. 3. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018, pp. 308-310.
Thrangu Rinpoche
1933 ~ 2023

Thrangu Rinpoche explains the ninth simile as:

Imagine if there were a very pure statue covered up with a crust of clay. Someone who knew about this could come along and remove the clay to reveal the gold statue. In the same way, the Clear Light nature of the mind in inside us, but covered with impurities. These impurities are not permanent and can be removed like clay crust covering a very pure and beautiful statue. Underneath we can find the Buddha essence. The meaning is if someone knows that the clay is covering the statue, he or she will remove the clay gradually, in the same way the omniscient Bodhisattvas know by their pure jñāna that the pure Buddha essence which is like gold is inside beings and through teaching the dharma they gradually knock off all the impurities covering the pure mind.  
~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989, p. 90.


Further Readings

Book: When the Clouds Part

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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

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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

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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

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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.
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