Verse I.21

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.21

Previous Verse

Next Verse

Verse I.21 Variations

जगच्छरणमेकत्र बुद्धत्वं पारमार्थिकम्
मुनेर्धर्मशरीरत्वात् तन्निष्ठत्वाद्‍गणस्य च

jagaccharaṇamekatra buddhatvaṃ pāramārthikam
munerdharmaśarīratvāt tanniṣṭhatvādgaṇasya ca

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.

།དམ་པའི་དོན་དུ་འགྲོ་བ་ཡི།
།སྐྱབས་ནི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཉག་གཅིག་ཡིན།
།ཐུབ་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ཅན་ཕྱིར།
།ཚོགས་ཀྱང་དེ་ཡི་མཐར་ཐུག་ཕྱིར།

Dege, PHI, 110

Ultimately, however, the single refuge
Of the world is buddhahood
Because the sage possesses the body of the dharma
And because it is the consummation of the assembly.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 350.

Au sens le plus sacré, les êtres

N’ont qu’un seul refuge : le Bouddha, Car le Sage a pour corps le Dharma Et qu’il est le but ultime de la Communauté.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.21

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

---

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

{P86b}

Ultimately, however, the single refuge

Of the world is buddhahood

Because the sage possesses the body of the dharma

And because it is the consummation of the assembly. I.21

By virtue of the principle stated earlier, this [verse about the buddha’s being the ultimate refuge explains the following]. Because the sage who is characterized by being unarisen and unceasing possesses the kāya of the dharma that is [characterized by] the two realities of purification and is free from attachment and because the assembly of those in the three yānas has [nothing but] the attainment of the consummate purity of the dharmakāya as its goal, {D85a} ultimately, [buddhahood] is the inexhaustible refuge, the permanent refuge, and the everlasting refuge, which lasts as long as the end of time in this world without protection and refuge. That is, [the ultimate refuge] consists of the tathāgata arhats, the completely perfect buddhas. This instruction on the permanent, everlasting, peaceful, and eternal refuge should be understood in detail according to the Āryaśrīmālā[devī]sūtra.

jagaccharaṇamekatra buddhatvaṃ pāramārthikam/

munerdharmaśarīratvāt tanniṣṭhatvādgaṇasya ca//21//

anena tu pūrvoktena vidhinānutpādānirodhaprabhāvitasya munervyavadānasatyadvayavirāgadharmakāyatvād dharmakāyaviśuddhiniṣṭhādhigamaparyavasānatvācca traiyānikasya gaṇasya pāramārthikamevātrāṇe'śaraṇe loke'parāntakoṭisamamakṣayaśaraṇaṃ nityaśaraṇaṃ dhruvaśaraṇaṃ yaduta tathāgatā arhantaḥ samyaksaṃbuddhāḥ/ eva ca nityadhruvaśivaśāśvataikaśaraṇanirdeśo vistareṇāryaśrīmālāsūtrānusāreṇānugantavyaḥ/

此明何義偈言

眾生歸一處 佛法身彼岸 依佛身有法 依法究竟僧

此偈明何義如向所說諸佛如來不生不滅寂靜不二離垢法身故以唯一法身究竟清

---

淨處故又三乘之人無有救者無歸依者以唯有彼岸無始本際畢竟無盡是可歸依恒可歸依所謂唯是諸佛如來故如是常恒清涼不變故可歸依聖者勝鬘經中廣說應知

Other English translations

Listed by date of publication

Obermiller (1931)

In the absolute sense, the refuge

Of all living beings is only the Buddha.

Indeed, the Lord is possessed of the Cosmical Body,

And the multitudes of Saints, too, have their issue in the latter.

Takasaki (1966)

From the ultimate standpoint,

Buddhahood is the sole Refuge of the world,

Because the Sage has the body of the Doctrine,

And because in that the Community sets the ultimate goal.

Holmes (1985)

Ultimately, only the buddha constitutes a refuge for beings

because that great victor is the embodiment of dharma

which is the ultimate attainment of the sangha.

Holmes (1999)

Ultimately, only buddha constitutes a refuge for beings,

because the great victor is the embodiment of dharma,

which is the ultimate attainment of the saṃgha.

Fuchs (2000)

In a true sense only the Buddha is beings' refuge,

since the Great Sage embodies the dharmakaya,

and the Assembly also reaches its ultimate goal

when these [qualities of dharmakaya are attained].

Textual sources

Commentaries on this verse

Academic notes