Verse I.124 Variations
बिम्बं बहिर्मृन्मयमेक्ष्य शान्तम्
अन्तर्विशुद्ध्यै कनकस्य तज्ज्ञः
संचोदयेदावरणं बहिर्धा
bimbaṃ bahirmṛnmayamekṣya śāntam
antarviśuddhyai kanakasya tajjñaḥ
saṃcodayedāvaraṇaṃ bahirdhā
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། །
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.
- La statue coulée dans l’or qui refroidit dans [son moule]
- Présente, du dehors, une nature argileuse.
- Ce que voyant, les êtres avertis enlèveront l’enveloppe extérieure
- Pour nettoyer la [statue en] or qui se trouve à l’intérieur.
RGVV Commentary on Verse I.124
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Obermiller (1931) [6]
- Suppose a great statue of melted gold from within,
- And from without covered by mud and dust that hides (the gold),
- Were seen by some, who, knowing its nature,
- Would remove the outward cover in order to purify the gold within;
Takasaki (1966) [7]
- Suppose a man who knows [how to make a statue],
- Seeing that the statue, filled with melted gold inside
- And covered with clay outside, had become cool,
- Would, for purifying the inner gold, remove the outer covering; —
Fuchs (2000) [8]
- An artistically well-designed image of peaceful appearance,
- which has been cast in gold and is [still] inside [its mold],
- externally has the nature of clay. Experts, upon seeing this,
- will clear away the outer layer and cleanse the gold therein.
Textual sources
Commentaries on this verse
Academic notes
- Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input
- Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014.
- Skt. śāntam, DP zhi ba. This means that the molten gold has cooled down and has become solid.
- With Schmithausen, I follow MA saṃchedayed (corresponding to DP sell bar byed) against J saṃcodayed (the same goes for saṃchedayen and saṃchedayaty against saṃcodayen and saṃcodayaty in I.126).
- I follow MA/MB prahāravidhibhiḥ against J prahāravidhitaḥ. "Strokes to the strokes with a chisel or hammer (DP bridge spayed) to remove the clay mold from the golden statue inside.
- Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
- Takasaki, Jikido. A Study on the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantra): Being a Treatise on the Tathāgatagarbha Theory of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Serie Orientale Roma 33. Roma: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (ISMEO), 1966.
- Fuchs, Rosemarie, trans. Buddha Nature: The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra. Commentary by Jamgon Kongtrul and explanations by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso. Ithaca, N. Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 2000.