Verse I.97

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.97

Verse I.97 Variations

जघन्यनारीजठरे नृपत्वं
यथा भवेन्मृत्सु च रत्नबिम्बम्।
आगन्तुकक्लेशमलावृतेषु
सत्त्वेषु तद्वत् स्थित एष धातुः

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

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

།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།

Dege, PHI, 116-117

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.

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

貧賤醜陋女懷轉輪聖王

焦黑泥模中有上妙寶像
眾生貪瞋癡妄想煩惱等
塵勞諸垢中皆有如來藏

http://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/en/T31n1611_p0837a19

Un maître des hommes dans le ventre d’une pauvresse,

Ou encore comme une précieuse image dans l’argile [du moule] Cet Élément ainsi présent dans les êtres est voilé Par les souillures adventices des affections.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.97

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
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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]

Like the Chieftain of men in the womb of a miserable woman,

And like a precious statue covered by dust,

In such a way does this Germ abide

In the living beings obscured by the occasional stains.^[11]

Takasaki (1966) ^[12]

Like the kinghood in the womb of a poor woman,

And like a precious statue in the earthen mould;

In such a way, there abides this Essence

In the living beings obscured by occasional stains of defilements.

Holmes (1985) ^[13]

a monarch in a poor and ugly woman's womb

or a precious image inside some clay,

this nature is within all beings present

but obscured by the impurity of passing defilement.

Holmes (1999) ^[14]

a monarch in a poor and wretched woman’s womb,

or a precious image inside some clay,

this nature is present within all beings

but obscured by the impurity of passing defilement.

Fuchs (2000) ^[15]

a ruler of mankind in a destitute woman's womb,

and a precious image under [a layer of] clay,

this [buddha] element abides within all sentient beings,

obscured by the defilement of the adventitious poisons.

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 95 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 95 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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