Verse I.126

From Buddha-Nature
Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.126

Verse I.126 Variations

यद्वन्निर्मलदीप्तकाञ्चनमयं बिम्बं मृदन्तर्गतं
स्याच्छान्त तदवेत्य रत्नकुशलः संचोदयेन्मृत्तिकाम्
तद्वच्छान्तमवेत्य शुद्धकनकप्रख्यं मनः सर्ववि-
द्धर्माख्याननयप्रहारविधितः संचोदयत्यावृतिम्
yadvannirmaladīptakāñcanamayaṃ bimbaṃ mṛdantargataṃ
syācchānta tadavetya ratnakuśalaḥ saṃcodayenmṛttikām
tadvacchāntamavetya śuddhakanakaprakhyaṃ manaḥ sarvavi-
ddharmākhyānanayaprahāravidhitaḥ saṃcodayatyāvṛtim
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
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། །
Dege, PHI, 120
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.
When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 399 [2]
離垢明淨像 在於穢泥中

鑄師知無熱 然後去泥障
如來亦如是 見眾生佛性
儼然處煩惱 如像在摸中
能以巧方便 善用說法椎
打破煩惱摸 顯發如來藏

http://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/en/T31n1611_p0816a13
Au fait de la vraie nature de la forme en or, brillante et pure,
Confinée dans l’argile refroidie, l’orfèvre l’en dégage.
De même, les omniscients, qui connaissent l’or pur de l’esprit apaisé,
Enseignent-ils le Dharma pour faire disparaître les voiles
en frappant « là où il faut ».
Charrier, Christian and Patrick Carré. Traité de la Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule. Plazac: Éditions Padmakara, 2019.

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.126

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

།ཉོན་མོངས་པ་ནི་སའི་འདམ་གོས་པ་དང་འདྲ་ལ། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཁམས་ནི་གསེར་གྱི་གཟུགས་བཞིན་ཏེ། ཇི་ལྟར་ནང་གི་གསེར་ཞུན་གཟུགས་རྒྱས་པ། །ཞི་བ་ཕྱི་རོལ་ས་
ཡི་རང་བཞིན་ཅན། །མཐོང་ནས་དེ་ཤེས་པ་དག་ནང་གི་གསེར། །སྦྱང་ཕྱིར་ཕྱི་རོལ་སྒྲིབ་པ་སེལ་བྱེད་ལྟར། །རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་དྲི་མ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་ནི། །གློ་བུར་བར་ནི་རྣམ་པར་གཟིགས་གྱུར་ནས། །རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་གནས་ལྟ་བུའི་འགྲོ་བ་རྣམས། །སྒྲིབ་པ་དག་ལས་སྦྱོང་མཛད་བྱང་ཆུབ་{br}མཆོག །ཇི་ལྟར་དྲི་མེད་གསེར་འབར་ལས་བྱས་ས་ཡི་ནང་དུ་ཆུད་གྱུར་གཟུགས། །ཞི་དེ་རང་བཞིན་མཁས་པས་རིག་ནས་ས་དག་སེལ་བར་བྱེད་པ་ལྟར། །དེ་བཞིན་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་དག་པའི་གསེར་འདྲ་ཞི་བའི་ཡིད་ནི་མཁྱེན་གྱུར་ནས། །ཆོས་འཆད་ཚུལ་གྱིས་བརྡེག་སྤྱད་བསྒྲུབས་པས་སྒྲིབ་པ་དག་ནི་{br}སེལ་བར་མཛད།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) [6]
Ju s t as a statue wrought of pure, shining gold and covered by earth
Is seen by one who, knowing its true nature, removes the earth,一
In the same way the Omniscient perceives
The quiescent Spirit which is like gold,
And, by teaching the Doctrine, produces a cisel
Through which he removes all the Obscurations.
The meaning of all these examples is in short as follows:一
Takasaki (1966) [7]
Just as a statue made of pure, shining gold
Would become cool within the earthen covering,
And, knowing this, a skillful jewel-maker would remove the clay;
In the same way the Omniscient perceives that
The Mind, which is like pure gold, is quiescent,
And, by means of a stroke [called] the method of teaching the Doctrine
He removes the obscurations.
Fuchs (2000) [8]
Recognizing the nature of an image of peaceful appearance,
flawless and made from shimmering gold,
while it is [still] contained in its mold, an expert removes the layers of clay.
Likewise the omniscient know the peaceful mind, which is similar to pure gold,
and remove the obscurations by teaching the Dharma, [just as the mold] is struck and chipped away.

Textual sources

Commentaries on this verse

Academic notes

  1. Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input
  2. Brunnhölzl, Karl. When the Clouds Part: The Uttaratantra and its Meditative Tradition as a Bridge between Sūtra and Tantra. Boston: Snow Lion Publications, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, 2014.
  3. Skt. śāntam, DP zhi ba. This means that the molten gold has cooled down and has become solid.
  4. With Schmithausen, I follow MA saṃchedayed (corresponding to DP sell bar byed) against J saṃcodayed (the same goes for saṃchedayen and saṃchedayaty against saṃcodayen and saṃcodayaty in I.126).
  5. I follow MA/MB prahāravidhibhiḥ against J prahāravidhitaḥ. "Strokes to the strokes with a chisel or hammer (DP bridge spayed) to remove the clay mold from the golden statue inside.
  6. Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
  7. Takasaki, Jikido. A Study on the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantra): Being a Treatise on the Tathāgatagarbha Theory of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Serie Orientale Roma 33. Roma: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (ISMEO), 1966.
  8. Fuchs, Rosemarie, trans. Buddha Nature: The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra. Commentary by Jamgon Kongtrul and explanations by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso. Ithaca, N. Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 2000.
Retrieved from "https://buddhanature-new.tsadra.org/index.php?title=Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga_Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra/Root_Verses/Verse_I.126&oldid=48916"
Buddha-Nature
A Tsadra Foundation Initiative
A multimedia resource hub for scripture, scholarship,
and teachings on tathāgatagarbha.
Sign up for the Buddha-Nature mailing list:

Tsadra Foundation
Translation & Transmission Conference
DharmaCloud Tibetan eBooks
Buddha-Nature
Śāntideva's Life and Works
Rinchen Terdzö Chenmo
Damngak Rinpoche Dzö
Khyentse Lineage
Dharma Dictionary

བོད་སྐད་
About
Site Guide
Read
Watch
Glossary
Login

Project Description

The purpose of the buddha-nature website is to provide a resource hub for trustworthy information for learning about and teaching the concept of buddha-nature, its associated texts, teachings, lineages, and relevant Buddhist ideas. Unique content will be shared here, but the site will primarily act as a broker for other projects and authors that have already created quality materials, which we will curate for a wide range of audiences.

About us ...
© Tsadra Foundation. Please feel free to use this website and its content in accordance with fair use policies for teaching, scholarship, education, and research.