The Nine Similes
From Buddha-Nature
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
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.
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.;Michael Zimmermann at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Indian Buddhism;History of buddha-nature in India;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Early Buddhism;Tathāgatagarbhasūtra;Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra;Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;tathāgatagarbha;Defining buddha-nature;Radich, M.;Critical Buddhism;Terminology;Michael Zimmermann; New Research on the Concept of Buddha-Nature in India: The Beginnings
On Learning about the Uttaratantrashastra in the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Shedra by Tokpa Tulku
Tokpa Tulku discusses his experiences learning about the Uttaratantrashastra, or Gyü Lama, in the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling shedra. This is a topic, he explains, that comes later on in the eighth year of studies, after the the study of the sūtras. He describes how the text acts as a bridge between sūtra and tantra, as there is a certain transition that one goes through when moving from one to the other. The text aids in this transition.
Tokpa Tulku. “On Learning about the Uttaratantrashastra in the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Shedra.” Interview by Marcus Perman. Tsadra Foundation Research Department, April 22, 2019. Video, 4:13. https://youtu.be/Jj3gRgZ3dl0.
Tokpa Tulku. “On Learning about the Uttaratantrashastra in the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Shedra.” Interview by Marcus Perman. Tsadra Foundation Research Department, April 22, 2019. Video, 4:13. https://youtu.be/Jj3gRgZ3dl0.;On Learning about the Uttaratantrashastra in the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Shedra by Tokpa Tulku;Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra;The doctrine of buddha-nature in Tibetan Buddhism;Bde gshegs snying po'i stong thun chen mo seng+ge'i nga ro;Mi pham rgya mtsho;Tokpa Tulku;On Learning about the Uttaratantrashastra in the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Shedra
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
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.
Dalai Lama, 14th
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
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, become disgusting and give 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
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, pp. 140-141.
- 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.
Dalai Lama, 14th
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
Thrangu Rinpoche explains the first simile as:
mkm~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989.
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
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, pp. 140-141.
- 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.
Dalai Lama, 14th
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
Thrangu Rinpoche explains the second simile as:
mkm~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989.
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 goodfamily, [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
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, pp. 140-141.
- 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.
Dalai Lama, 14th
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
Thrangu Rinpoche explains the third simile as:
mkm~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989.
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 designationfor 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
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, pp. 140-141.
- 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.
Dalai Lama, 14th
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
Thrangu Rinpoche explains the fourth simile as:
mkm~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989.
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
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, pp. 140-141.
- 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.
Dalai Lama, 14th
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
Thrangu Rinpoche explains the fifth simile as:
mkm~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989.
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
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, pp. 140-141.
- 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.
Dalai Lama, 14th
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
Thrangu Rinpoche explains the sixth simile as:
mkm~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989.
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 diedowing 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
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, pp. 140-141.
- 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.
Dalai Lama, 14th
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
Thrangu Rinpoche explains the seventh simile as:
mkm~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989.
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 presentwithin 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
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, pp. 140-141.
- 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.
Dalai Lama, 14th
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
Thrangu Rinpoche explains the eighth simile as:
mkm~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989.
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
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, pp. 140-141.
- 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.
Dalai Lama, 14th
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
Thrangu Rinpoche explains the ninth simile as:
mkm~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989.
From the Masters
Sajjana
Those who follow the three methods
Or those who wish for common results,
Having recognized the [three] jewels, resort to these jewels
As they manifest for different mind streams.[1]
However, [the three jewels] are [included in] the ultimate refuge—
They are not different in actuality.
Here, the purpose [of the ultimate refuge] is to generate [bodhi]citta,
Which has the full attainment [of awakening] as its sphere.[2]
This full attainment is accomplished
Through [the stages of] impurity and purity,
By way of the distinction of one’s own welfare and that of others
And through engaging in this [ultimate] refuge among those to be taken refuge in.[3]
Therefore, without having gathered the accumulations,
The Buddha, the dharma, and likewise the assembly
Turn into being conditions
That successively arise in their due order. [4]
From the perfect Buddha, the turning of the wheel
Of the dharma [arises], whose sphere is the saṃgha.
The saṃgha [consists of] its authoritative properties,
Which are the manifestations of the qualities of compassion. [5]
Those who gradually purify the basic element
Through the [buddha]dharmas and through means (upāya)
Progress on the paths of what is conducive to liberation
And penetration as well as on the uninterrupted path. [6]
Based on the directly manifest conditions
Called "awakening," "the qualities," and "activity"
And then based on the [ten] topics of the basic element,
One should engage in reflection and familiarization. [7]~ Sajjana. Mahāyānottaratantraśāstropadeśa (महायानोत्तरतन्त्रशास्त्रोपदेश). Critical Sanskrit edition in Kano, 2006, Appendix B, 505-519. Also see Takasaki, J. 1974. Nyoraizō shisō no keisei. 如来蔵思想の形成. Tokyo: Shunjūsha.
~ 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. 461-463.
Ngok Lotsāwa Loden Sherab
In terms of the order of the vajrapadas, Ngok Lotsāwa states:སངས་རྒྱས་ལ་སོགས་པ་དོན་དམ་པ་དང་།་བརྡར་བཏགས་པ་རང་གི་རྒྱུད་ལ་འབྱུང་བར་འགྱུར་བའམ། གཞན་ཁོ་ནའི་རྒྱུད་ལ་བྱུང་ཟིན་པ་ནི་འབྲས་བུའམ་རྒྱུའི་རང་བཞིན་ནོ༎ ཁམས་ནི་གཅིག་ཏུ་རྒྱུའི་རང་བཞིན་ཏེ། ཉེ་བར་ལེན་པ་སད་པ་དང་མ་སད་པའོ༎ བྱང་ཆུབ་ལ་སོགས་པ་ཡང་སྐུ་གསུམ་གྱི་རང་བཞིན་ཏེ། གཞན་གྱི་རྒྱུད་ལ་བྱུང་ཟིན་པ་དང་།རང་གི་རྒྱུད་ལ་འབྱུང་བར་འགྱུར་བ་སྟེ།་རྒྱུ་དང་འབྲས་བུའི་རང་བཞིན་ནོ༎ འདི་དག་གི་རང་བཞིན་ཉིད་ནི་གཞུང་ལས་བཤད་པར་ཟད་དོ༎་དེ་ནི་དངོས་པོ་ཉེ་བར་དགོད་པའོ།།
[The Three Jewels] such as the Buddha, both in terms of their ultimate truth and conventional designation, will arise in one's own continuum or they have already arisen in the continuum of only the others. They have either the nature of cause or result [respectively]. The dhātu (the Buddha-element) has only the nature of cause, namely efficient [cause] (upādāna). That is either already activated or not yet. [The remaining three vajrapadas], bodhi, [guṇa, and karman], have the nature of the three bodies [of the Buddha]. Those which have already arisen in the continuum of only others and the ones which will arise in one's own continuum have the nature of cause [of one's own awakening] and [one's expected] result, [respectively]. The nature of those [seven vajrapadas] has been explained in the treatise (i.e. the RGV). That was the presentation of the main topics.~ Rngog lo tsA ba blo ldan shes rab. Theg chen rgyud bla ma'i don bsdus pa. In Rngog lo tsA ba blo ldan shes rab kyi gsung chos skor. Beijing: Krung go'i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2009, p. 545.
~ Translation from Kano, Kazuo. "rNgog Blo‐ldan‐shes‐rab's Summary of the Ratnagotravibhāga: The First Tibetan Commentary on a Crucial Source for the Buddha‐nature Doctrine." PhD diss., University of Hamburg, 2006, pp. 370-371.
གོ་རིམ་ཡང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ནི་སྐྱེ་བའི་རིམ་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བར་བསྟན་ཏོ། ལྷན་ཅིག་བྱེད་པ་དང་ལྡན་པའི་རྒྱུ་ཡང་དགེ་འདུན་ལ་ཡོད་པས་དགེ་འདུན་གྱི་རྗེས་ལ་ཁམས་སོ། ཉེ་བར་ལེན་པ་དེ་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་འབྲས་བུ་ཡིན་པས་བྱང་ཆུབ་དེའི་འོག་ཏུ་བསྟན་ཏོ། དེ་ལ་ཡོན་ཏན་བརྟེན་པས་དེའི་འོག་ཏུ་ཡོན་ཏན་བསྟན་ཏོ། ཡོན་ཏན་དེས་ཀྱང་རྗེས་སུ་མཐུན་པའི་འཕྲིན་ལས་འགྲུབ་པས་དེའི་འོག་ཏུ་འཕྲིན་ལས་བསྟན་ཏོ། དེ་ལྟར་བསྟན་པའི་གོ་རིམ་གྱི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པས་ནི། མི་གནས་པའི་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པའི་འཁོར་ལོའི་ཚུལ་གསལ་བར་བྱས་པའོ།
As to the order [of the vajrapadas], [the order of] the Three Jewels is presented exactly in accordance with the order of their origination. Since the causes including the co-emergent conditions (i.e. the dhātu and the Three Jewels) abide in the Saṃgha, the dhātu is [enumerated] after the Saṃgha. Being a result generated from the efficient cause (i.e. the dhātu), the bodhi is presented after it. Depending on it (i.e. the bodhi), the guṇa is presented after it (i.e. the bodhi). Since the appropriate karman is accomplished by the guṇa, the karman is presented after it (i.e. the guṇa). The verse regarding the order which taught it in such a way (i.e. RGV I.3) clarified the circle of the apratiṣṭhitanirvāṇa.~ Rngog lo tsA ba blo ldan shes rab. Theg chen rgyud bla ma'i don bsdus pa. In Rngog lo tsA ba blo ldan shes rab kyi gsung chos skor. Beijing: Krung go'i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2009, p. 550.
~ Translation from Kano, Kazuo. "rNgog Blo‐ldan‐shes‐rab's Summary of the Ratnagotravibhāga: The First Tibetan Commentary on a Crucial Source for the Buddha‐nature Doctrine." PhD diss., University of Hamburg, 2006, p. 381.
Marpa Dopa Chökyi Wangchuk
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་ལ་ཀུན་རྫོབ་ཀྱི་སངས་རྒྱས་ནི་གཟུགས་སྐུ་གཉིས་ཏེ། དེ་ནི་ཉན་ཐོས་རང་རྒྱལ་དང་སོ་སོའི་སྐྱེ་བོ་ལས་དག་པས་མིག་གིས་བལྟ་བར་ནུས་པས་རྟོགས་པར་དཀའ་བའི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གནས་མ་ཡིན་ཏེ། འོ་ན་དོན་དམ་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་སྐུའོ།
[...]
།ཆོས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་ནི་ཀུན་རྫོབ་ཀྱི་ཆོས་བསྟན་པའི་ཆོས་གསུང་རབ་ཡན་ལག་བཅུ་གཉིས་ཏེ། དེ་ནི་ཉན་ཐོས་དང་རང་རྒྱལ་བ་དང་སོ་སོ་སྐྱེ་བོས་རྣ་བས་མཉན་པར་ནུས་པས་རྟོགས་པར་དཀའ་བས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གནས་མིན་ནོ། །འོ་ན་དོན་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་རྟོགས་པའི་ཆོས་སོ།
[...]
།དགེ་འདུན་གྱི་ངོ་བོ་ནི། ཀུན་རྫོབ་ཀྱི་དགེ་འདུན་སྐྱེས་བུ་ཟུང་བཞི་གང་ཟག་ཡ་བརྒྱད་དེ། དེ་ནི་ལུས་དང་སེམས་ཀྱི་བསྙེན་བཀུར་བྱར་ཡོད་པས་རྟོགས་པར་དཀའ་བས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གནས་མིན་ནོ། །འོ་ན་དོན་དམ་པའི་དགེ་འདུན་ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པ་འབྲིང་ས་བཅུ་བར་ལ་གནས་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའོ།
[...]
།ཁམས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་སྒྲོ་སྐུར་གཉིས་དང་བྲལ་བའི་ཆོས་ཉིད་དོ།
[...]
།བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་ནི་ཉན་ཐོས་རང་རྒྱལ་གྱི་བྱང་ཆུབ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གནས་མེད་ཡིན་པས་བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་བོ།
[...]
།ཡོན་ཏན་གྱི་ངོ་བོ་ནི། ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ལ་བརྟེན་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་དེ་བྲལ་བའི་ཡོན་ཏན་སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གཉིས་དང༌། གཟུགས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ལ་བརྟེན་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་ཏེ་རྣམ་པར་སྨིན་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་སུམ་ཅུ་རྩ་གཉིས་སོ།
[...]
།འཕྲིན་ལས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་ནི་གཉིས་ཏེ། ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པའི་འཕྲིན་ལས་དང༌། རྒྱུན་མི་འཆད་པའི་འཕྲིན་ལས་སོ། །དང་པོ་ནི་རྣམ་གཞག་རྣམ་པ་ལྔ་ལ་རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པ་མེད་པར་འཇུག་པའོ།[...]།གཉིས་པ་ནི་ཤེས་པར་བྱ་བའི་གནས་དྲུག་ཤེས་པར་བྱས་ནས་སེམས་ཅན་གྱི་དོན་རྒྱུན་མི་ཆད་པར་བྱེད་པའོ།
[As for] the essence of the Buddha. The seeming Buddha consists of the two rūpakāyas. Since śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and ordinary beings with pure karma are able to look at the [rūpakāyas] with their eyes, they are not a vajra point that is difficult to realize. Rather, [the first vajra point] is the ultimate Buddha—the dharmakāya.
[...]
[As for] the essence of the dharma. The seeming dharma is the dharma of the teachings (the twelve branches of the Buddha’s speech). Since śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and ordinary beings are able to listen to it with their ears, it is not a vajra point that is difficult to realize. Rather, [the second vajra point] is the ultimate dharma—the dharma of realization.
[...]
[As for] the essence of the saṃgha. The seeming saṃgha consists of the four pairs of individuals or the eight persons [in the śrāvakayāna and pratyekabuddhayāna]. Since one can venerate them and render services to them with body and mind, they are not a vajra point that is difficult to realize. Rather [the third vajra point] is the ultimate saṃgha—the medium [persons] who are irreversible, the bodhisattvas dwelling on the ten bhūmis.
[...]
The essence of the basic element. It is the nature of phenomena free from superimposition and denial.
[...]
[As for] the essence of the awakening. Since the awakening of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas is not a vajra point, [the fourth vajra point] is the unsurpassable awakening [of a buddha].
[...]
[As for] the essence of the qualities. The qualities based on the dharmakāya are the thirty-two qualities of freedom, and the qualities based on the rūpakāyas are the thirty-two qualities of maturation.
[...]
[As for] the essence of enlightened activity it is twofold: effortless enlightened activity and uninterrupted enlightened activity. In [the Uttaratantra’s] presentation in five aspects, the first one [is said to] operate in a nonconceptual manner...The second one is the uninterrupted promotion of the welfare of sentient beings through making them understand the six fields of knowledge.~ rgyud bla ma'i tshig don rnam par 'grel pa. In dpal mnga' bdag sgra sgyur mar pa lo tsA ba chos kyi blo gros kyi gsung 'bum, Vol. 1: 414–522. Lhasa: ser gtsug nang bstan dpe rnying 'tshol bsdu phyogs sgrig khang, 2009.
~ 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. 490-493.
Gö Lotsāwa Zhönu Pal
Now the [Ratnagotravibhāga]vyākhyā on this stanza [I.1] will be explained. In this regard there is an explanation of the term vajra point (lit. “vajra base”) and a presentation of canonical sources making the vajra[-like] meanings known. First, the seven meanings (i.e., objects), which must be realized on the basis of the [corresponding] words, are ultimate ones, and thus vajra-like. The words expressing these [meanings] are a basis because they are [their] foundation. Thus all seven words are called vajra bases. To explain them again: since [Tib.] de la ("in this regard”), [in Sanskrit] tatra, is the seventh case, it [can] be taken to imply [Tib.] de na (“at that place,” “there”) and [means]: when explaining this vajra base.
“Listening” means arisen from listening, that is to say, knowing the meaning from scriptures. “Reflection” means arisen from reflection, that is, knowing the meaning from having reflected on reasons and arguments. “Difficult to understand on the basis of these two [types of] knowledge” means that when directly distinguishing the meaning, it is very difficult to actualize it, because these two [forms of knowledge] are conceptual. Therefore you should take [the meaning] to be an indistinguishable quality and [likewise] understand that the seven ultimate [points] are like a vajra. However [the meaning] is understood, since an expression is [always] referring to a thought, the meaning should not be taken as the actual object of the thought. Within the direct [perceptions] of any knowable object whatsoever, it is the meaning and object of comprehension that have the nature of self-realization, [that is,] a direct [perception] arisen from meditation.~ Mathes, Klaus-Dieter. A Direct Path to the Buddha Within: Go Lotsāwa's Mahāmudrā Interpretation of the Ratnagotravibhāga. Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008, pp. 195–196.
Jamgön Kongtrul
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, pp. 140-141.
- 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.
Dalai Lama, 14th
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama explains the first simile as:
mkm~ Dalai Lama, 14th, and Thubten Chodron. Saṃsāra, Nirvāṇa, and Buddha Nature. Library of Wisdom and Compassion, vol. 3. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018.
Thrangu Rinpoche
Thrangu Rinpoche explains the first simile as:
mkm~ Thrangu Rinpoche. A Commentary on the Uttara Tantra. Translated by Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes. Boulder, CO: Namo Buddha Seminar, 1989.
Jamgön Kongtrul
mkm~ 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. 301.
Further Readings
Book: When the Clouds Part
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.
~ 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
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
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.
~ 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
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.
