Verse I.98

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.98

Verse I.98 Variations

पद्मप्राणितुषाशु चिक्षितिफलत्वक्पूतिवस्त्रावर-
स्त्रीदुःखज्वलनाभितप्तपृथिवीधातुप्रकाशा मलाः
बुद्धक्षौद्रसुसारकाञ्चननिधिन्यग्रोधरत्नाकृति-
द्विपाग्राधिपरत्नबिम्बविमलप्रख्यः स धातुः परः

padmaprāṇituṣāśu cikṣitiphalatvakpūtivastrāvara-
strīduḥkhajvalanābhitaptapṛthivīdhātuprakāśā malāḥ
buddhakṣaudrasusārakāñcananidhinyagrodharatnākṛti-
dvipāgrādhiparatnabimbavimalaprakhyaḥ sa dhātuḥ paraḥ

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.^[1]

།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།

Dege, PHI, 117

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.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 394 ^[2]

華蜂糩糞穢
地果故壞衣

貧賤女泥模
煩惱垢相似

佛蜜實真金 
 寶牙金像王

上妙寶像等
如來藏相似

http://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/en/T31n1611_p0837a27

Le lotus, les insectes, la balle du grain, les immondices,

la terre, le fruit et les haillons, De même que la femme tourmentée par les flammes de la souffrance et l’argile, représentent les souillures, Tandis que le bouddha, le miel, le grain, l’or, le trésor, le banian, l’image, Le maître suprême des continents et la statue en or représentent l’Élément sublime et immaculé.

Charrier, Christian and Patrick Carré. Traité de la Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule. Plazac: Éditions Padmakara, 2019.

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.98

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

Full Tibetan Commentary
Full English Commentary
Full Sanskrit Commentary
Full Chinese Commentary

དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་འདི་རྣམ་པར་གཞག་པ་བཤད་པ་ཡིན་ནོ། །ཐོག་མ་མེད་པའི་དུས་ནས་ཉེ་བར་གནས་པ་མ་འབྲེལ་བའི་རང་བཞིན་གྱི་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་སྦུབས་ཉིད་དང་། ཐོག་མ་མེད་པའི་དུས་ནས་ཉེ་བར་གནས་པ་འབྲེལ་བའི་{br}རང་བཞིན་དག་པའི་ཆོས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་དབང་དུ་བྱས་ནས། དཔེ་དགུས་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་གཉེན་པོ་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་སྦུབས་བྱེ་བ་མཐའ་ཡས་པས་གཏུམས་པ་ནི། མདོ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་རྟོགས་པར་བྱའོ། །དཔེ་དགུ་གང་ཞེ་ན། སངས་རྒྱས་པད་ངན་སྦྲང་རྩི་སྦྲང་མ་ལ། །སྦུན་པ་སྙིང་པོ་{br}མི་གཙང་ནང་ན་གསེར། །ས་ལ་གཏེར་དང་མྱུག་སོགས་འབྲས་ཆུང་དང་། །གོས་ཧྲུལ་ནང་ན་རྒྱལ་བའི་སྐུ་དང་ནི། །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་{br}འདི་གནས། །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་{br}དང་དྲི་མེད་ཁམས་མཆོག་མཚུངས་པ་ཉིད།

Other English translations

Listed by date of publication

Obermiller (1931) ^[10]

These stains are like a lotus, like bees,

Like the b ark, like impurities, and like the ground,

Like a seed, like a tattered garment,

Like a Woman tormented by violent pain, and like dust.

The Immaculate Germ has a resemblance

With the Buddha, with honey, with the kernel of a fruit,

With gold, with a treasure, with the Nyagrodha tree, and a precious image,

With the Highest Lord of the Universe, and with a golden statue.^[11]

Takasaki (1966) ^[12]

[In these illustrations], pollutions are like

A lotus flower, bees, husk, impurities and the ground,

Like the bark of a fruit, like a tattered garment,

Like a woman of misery, and like earth tormented by the fire of pains;

And the Buddha, honey, cleaned kernels, gold, treasure,

A Nyagrodha tree, a precious image, the Highest Lord of the world,

And a purified precious statue,

The excellent Essence has a resemblance to them.

Holmes (1985) ^[13]

The impurities correspond to the lotus, the insects, the husks,

filth, the ground, the fruit, the tattered rags,

the woman strongly afflicted by burning sorrows and the clay.

The buddha, the honey, the grains, the gold, the treasure,

the nyagrodha tree, the precious statue,

the supreme ruler of the continents and the precious image

correspond to this supreme, immaculate nature.

Holmes (1999) ^[14]

The impurities correspond to the lotus, the insects, the husks,

filth, the ground, the fruit, the tattered rags,

the woman severely afflicted by burning sorrows and the clay.

The buddha, honey, grains, gold, treasure,

the nyagrodha tree, the precious statue,

the supreme ruler of the continents and the precious image

correspond to this supreme, immaculate nature.

Fuchs (2000) ^[15]

The defilements correspond to the lotus,

the insects, the husk, the filth, the earth,

the fruit, the tattered rag, the pregnant woman

direly vexed with burning suffering, and the clay.

The buddha, the honey, the grain, the gold,

the treasure, the nyagrodha tree, the precious statue,

the continents' supreme ruler, and the precious image

are similar to the supreme undefiled element.

Textual sources

Commentaries on this verse

Academic notes

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input
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.
These nine examples stem from the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra (D258, fols. 248a.3–254b.3).
I follow MA tuṣeṣu sārāny against J tuṣesu sārāny.
DP "lowly" (ngan ma).
Skt. prāṇi (lit. "living beings" or "animals").
With Schmithausen, I follow MA °strīrūpa° against J °strīduḥkha° and take °jvalanābhitaptapṛthivīdhātu° as a unit, which is also confirmed by VT (fol. 13v2) that relates jvalanābhitaptaṃ to pṛthivīdhātuḥ, saying that jvalanābhitaptaṃ refers to heated gold and pṛthivīdhātuḥ to the earth that covers that gold. However, DP read "a lowly woman tormented by the blaze of suffering, and the element of earth" (dug bsngal ’bar bas mngon par gdungs pa’i bud med sa yi khans).
I follow Schmithausen in linking °vimalaprakhyaḥ with sa dhātuḥ paraḥ and not with °ratnabimba° ("precious statue"in VI.98d). DP read "the stainless supreme basic element resembles . . ." (dang dri med khams mchog mtshungs pa nyid).
In the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, this example occurs twice. The introduction of the sūtra describes in detail how the Buddha miraculously manifests in the sky thousands of fragrant opened lotus flowers with buddhas sitting upon them, emitting light. These lotuses blossom and fade at the same time, exuding a foul smell, but the buddhas still remain within them without a stain. In the sūtra’s section of the nine examples proper, this example is presented as it is here in the Uttaratantra. For details of the differences between the nine examples as presented in the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra and the Uttaratantra, see Zimmermann 2002, 105–44.
Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
This is verse 96 in Obermiller's translation
Takasaki, Jikido. A Study on the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantra): Being a Treatise on the Tathāgatagarbha Theory of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Serie Orientale Roma 33. Roma: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (ISMEO), 1966.
Holmes, Ken & Katia. The Changeless Nature. Eskdalemuir, Scotland: Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling, 1985.
Holmes, Ken & Katia. Maitreya on Buddha Nature. Scotland: Altea Publishing, 1999.
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.

[1] Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input

[2] 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.

[3] These nine examples stem from the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra (D258, fols. 248a.3–254b.3).

[4] I follow MA tuṣeṣu sārāny against J tuṣesu sārāny.

[5] DP "lowly" (ngan ma).

[6] Skt. prāṇi (lit. "living beings" or "animals").

[7] With Schmithausen, I follow MA °strīrūpa° against J °strīduḥkha° and take °jvalanābhitaptapṛthivīdhātu° as a unit, which is also confirmed by VT (fol. 13v2) that relates jvalanābhitaptaṃ to pṛthivīdhātuḥ, saying that jvalanābhitaptaṃ refers to heated gold and pṛthivīdhātuḥ to the earth that covers that gold. However, DP read "a lowly woman tormented by the blaze of suffering, and the element of earth" (dug bsngal ’bar bas mngon par gdungs pa’i bud med sa yi khans).

[8] I follow Schmithausen in linking °vimalaprakhyaḥ with sa dhātuḥ paraḥ and not with °ratnabimba° ("precious statue"in VI.98d). DP read "the stainless supreme basic element resembles . . ." (dang dri med khams mchog mtshungs pa nyid).

[9] In the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, this example occurs twice. The introduction of the sūtra describes in detail how the Buddha miraculously manifests in the sky thousands of fragrant opened lotus flowers with buddhas sitting upon them, emitting light. These lotuses blossom and fade at the same time, exuding a foul smell, but the buddhas still remain within them without a stain. In the sūtra’s section of the nine examples proper, this example is presented as it is here in the Uttaratantra. For details of the differences between the nine examples as presented in the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra and the Uttaratantra, see Zimmermann 2002, 105–44.

[10] Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.

[11] This is verse 96 in Obermiller's translation

[12] Takasaki, Jikido. A Study on the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantra): Being a Treatise on the Tathāgatagarbha Theory of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Serie Orientale Roma 33. Roma: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (ISMEO), 1966.

[13] Holmes, Ken & Katia. The Changeless Nature. Eskdalemuir, Scotland: Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling, 1985.

[14] Holmes, Ken & Katia. Maitreya on Buddha Nature. Scotland: Altea Publishing, 1999.

[15] 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.

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