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 that delineate the example itself, the meaning of it in relation to buddha-nature, and finally show how these are combined. 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 Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra
Maitreya
In the Ratnagotravibhāga, the nine similes are introduced in verses I.96-97 and then briefly explained in verse I.98:
I.96
I.97
I.98
I.96
I.97
I.98
I.96
I.97
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. 394-394.
Simile One: A Buddha in a Decaying Lotus
Simile Two: Honey Amid Bees
Simile Three: Kernels in their Husks
Simile Four: Gold in Filth
Simile Five: A Treasure in the Earth
Simile Six: A Sprout and so on from a Small Fruit
Simile Seven: An Image of the Victor in a Tattered Garment
Simile Eight: Royalty in the Womb of a Destitute Woman
Simile Nine: A Precious Statue in Clay
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
ཐོབ་པར་བྱ་བ་རང་གཞན་གྱི་དོན་གཉིས་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པ་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་དོན་དང་། འདོད་ཆགས་དང་བྲལ་བའི་བདེན་པ་གཉིས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ཉིད་ཅན་དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དོན་དང་། ཡེ་ཤེས་གཉིས་དང་ལྡན་པས་ཕྱིར་མི་ལྡོག་པའི་ཚོགས་འཕགས་པའི་དགེ་འདུན་གྱི་དོན་དང་། དེ་རྣམས་ཐོབ་པའི་ཚུལ་ཡང་དག་པར་རྟོགས་པར་བྱ་བའི་སེམས་ཅན་གྱི་ཁམས་སམ་དབྱིངས་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་རྣམ་པར་དག་པའི་དོན་དང་། རྟོགས་པའི་ངོ་བོ་ཁམས་དེ་ཉིད་དྲི་མ་མཐའ་དག་གིས་དག་པ་བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་དོན་དང་། རྟོགས་པའི་ཡན་ལག་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཆེན་པོ་དང་འབྲེལ་པ་བྲལ་བ་དང་། རྣམ་པར་སྨིན་པའི་འབྲས་བུས་བསྡུས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་གྱི་དོན་དང་། གཞན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པར་བྱེད་པའི་ཐབས་ཡོན་ཏན་གྱི་ནུས་པ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཕྲིན་ལས་ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་ཅིང་རྒྱུན་མི་འཆད་པའི་དོན་ཐ་མའམ་ཕྱི་མར་བསྟན་པ་དང་བཅས་སྟེ། འཆད་པར་འགྱུར་བའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་མཐའ་དག་གི་ཡན་ལག་ཀུན་གྱི་ལུས་སམ་དངོས་པོ་ནི་མདོར་བསྡུས་པའི་ཚུལ་གྱིས་བསྟན་ནས། བརྗོད་བྱ་ཟབ་མོ་ཐོས་བསམ་གྱི་ཤེས་པས་ཕིགས་པར་དཀའ་བའི་ཕྱིར་རྫས་ཀྱི་དངོས་པོ་རྡོ་རྗེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ལྟ་བུ་བདུན་དང་། རྗོད་བྱེད་ཡི་གེ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་དེ་དག་གི་ལམ་གསལ་བར་སྟོན་ཅིང་གོ་བར་བྱེད་པས་ན་གནས་ཞེས་བྱ་སྟེ། བརྗོད་བྱ་རྣམས་རིམ་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པའི་གཞིའམ་རྟེན་ཏུ་གྱུར་པའི་ཕྱིར་བརྗོད་བྱ་དང་མཚུངས་པར་གྲངས་བདུན་གྱིས་བསྟན་པ་འདི་དག་གོ །
In a condensed way, the entire content or body of the commentary to be explained is taught in terms of seven vajra points. The term "vajra" is used since a precious vajra is composed of indestructible material, and the subject to be expressed is difficult to penetrate by means of the discriminative wisdoms resulting from study and reflection.
The first point contains the explanation of perfect buddhahood, which constitutes what is to be attained—this being the ultimate level of the two benefits, which are benefit for oneself and benefit for others.
The second point explains the sacred Dharma as having the characteristics of the two truths, which are free from attachment.
The third point is the Sangha of the noble ones, the assembly of those who do not fall back since they possess the two types of primordial wisdom (Skt. jñāna, Tib. ye shes).
The fourth point explains the expanse (Tib. dbyings) or the element of beings that is by nature completely pure. This is what needs to be truly realized, its realization constituting the way in which Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are attained.
The fifth point is unsurpassable enlightenment, the essence of realization, the state in which this element is purified from all defilements without the slightest remainder.
The sixth point describes the qualities accompanying great enlightenment. They are the attributes of realization and consist of [two] fruits: those of freedom and complete maturation.
Finally, the seventh point explains buddha activity, which is spontaneous and uninterrupted. This is the power or ability of the qualities, the means causing others to gain realization.~ '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, pp. 98-99.
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso
(1) The state of a buddha is called "perfect" since the two aspects of abandonment and realization are finally perfected.
(2) The two truths are the absolute and the relative truth.
(3) The Sangha of noble ones consists of those who have directly realized emptiness. They are called "noble" since due to this realization they have reached a higher level of mental development than an ordinary being.
(4) Within the system of the Madhyamaka, "Rangtong Madhyamaka" and "Shäntong Madhyamaka" (Tib. dbu ma rang stong dang dbu ma gzhan stong) are distinguished. Literally, Rangtong means "self-empty" and Shäntong "empty of other." In the view of the Rangtong Madhyamaka, "the expanse by nature completely pure" refers to the fact that all phenomena are by nature not truly existent. It is equivalent to emptiness in the sense of complete freedom from conceptual elaboration (Tib. spros pa). In the view of the Shäntong Madhyamaka it is the nature of mind, being the inseparable union of spaciousness and awareness (Tib. dbyings rig dbyer med).
(5) The defilements from which the element or the tathagatagarbha is purified in the state of enlightenment are the adventitious stains of delusion with regard to appearances, or in other words, the veils of the mental poisons and hindrances to knowledge.
(6) The term "fruit of freedom" is used from the viewpoint of complete freedom from all the defilements consisting of delusion with regard to appearances. With this freedom, the thirty-two qualities of the dharmakaya are attained. The fruit of complete maturation results from the fact that the accumulation of merit has been led to complete maturity. It consists of the thirty-two qualities of the form kayas.
(7) When having reached ultimate direct realization, one has disposal over the means causing all other beings to gain this realization. This is buddha activity, which consists of the power or ability of the qualities, or in other words, of the fact that one wields great qualities, those of freedom and complete maturation.~ 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.
