Verse I.124

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.124

Verse I.124 Variations

हेम्नो यथान्तःक्वथितस्य पूर्णं
बिम्बं बहिर्मृन्मयमेक्ष्य शान्तम्
अन्तर्विशुद्‍ध्यै कनकस्य तज्ज्ञः
संचोदयेदावरणं बहिर्धा

hemno yathāntaḥkvathitasya pūrṇaṃ
bimbaṃ bahirmṛnmayamekṣya śāntam
antarviśuddhyai kanakasya tajjñaḥ
saṃcodayedāvaraṇaṃ bahirdhā

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

།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།

Dege, PHI, 120

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.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 399 ^[2]

La statue coulée dans l’or qui refroidit dans [son moule]

Présente, du dehors, une nature argileuse. Ce que voyant, les êtres avertis enlèveront l’enveloppe extérieure Pour nettoyer la [statue en] or qui se trouve à l’intérieur.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.124

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

།ཉོན་མོངས་པ་ནི་སའི་འདམ་གོས་པ་དང་འདྲ་ལ། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཁམས་ནི་གསེར་གྱི་གཟུགས་བཞིན་ཏེ། 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། །རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་དྲི་མ་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 །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་པ་ལྟར། །དེ་བཞིན་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་དག་པའི་གསེར་འདྲ་ཞི་བའི་ཡིད་ནི་མཁྱེན་གྱུར་ནས། །ཆོས་འཆད་ཚུལ་གྱིས་བརྡེག་སྤྱད་བསྒྲུབས་པས་སྒྲིབ་པ་དག་ནི་སེལ་བར་མཛད།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) ^[6]

Suppose a great statue of melted gold from within,

And from without covered by mud and dust that hides (the gold),

Were seen by some, who, knowing its nature,

Would remove the outward cover in order to purify the gold within;

Takasaki (1966) ^[7]

Suppose a man who knows [how to make a statue],

Seeing that the statue, filled with melted gold inside

And covered with clay outside, had become cool,

Would, for purifying the inner gold, remove the outer covering; —

Fuchs (2000) ^[8]

An artistically well-designed image of peaceful appearance,

which has been cast in gold and is [still] inside [its mold],

externally has the nature of clay. Experts, upon seeing this,

will clear away the outer layer and cleanse the gold therein.

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.
Skt. śāntam, DP zhi ba. This means that the molten gold has cooled down and has become solid.
With Schmithausen, I follow MA saṃchedayed (corresponding to DP sell bar byed) against J saṃcodayed (the same goes for saṃchedayen and saṃchedayaty against saṃcodayen and saṃcodayaty in I.126).
I follow MA/MB prahāravidhibhiḥ against J prahāravidhitaḥ. "Strokes to the strokes with a chisel or hammer (DP bridge spayed) to remove the clay mold from the golden statue inside.
Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
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.
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] Skt. śāntam, DP zhi ba. This means that the molten gold has cooled down and has become solid.

[4] With Schmithausen, I follow MA saṃchedayed (corresponding to DP sell bar byed) against J saṃcodayed (the same goes for saṃchedayen and saṃchedayaty against saṃcodayen and saṃcodayaty in I.126).

[5] I follow MA/MB prahāravidhibhiḥ against J prahāravidhitaḥ. "Strokes to the strokes with a chisel or hammer (DP bridge spayed) to remove the clay mold from the golden statue inside.

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

[7] 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.

[8] 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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