Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.3

Verse I.3 Variations

बुद्धाद्धर्मो धर्मतश्चार्यसंघः

संघे गर्भो ज्ञानधात्वाप्तिनिष्ठः।
तज्ज्ञानाप्तिश्चाग्रबोधिर्बलाद्यै-
र्धमैर्युक्ता सर्वसत्त्वार्थकृद्‍भिः

buddhāddharmo dharmataścāryasaṃghaḥ

saṃghe garbho jñānadhātvāptiniṣṭhaḥ
tajjñānāptiścāgrabodhirbalādyai-
rdhamairyuktā sarvasattvārthakṛdbhiḥ

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
སངས་རྒྱས་ལས་ཆོས་ཆོས་ལས་འཕགས་པའི་ཚོགས། །

ཚོགས་ལས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཁམས་ཐོབ་མཐར། །
ཡེ་ཤེས་དེ་ཐོབ་བྱང་ཆུབ་མཆོག་ཐོབ་སོགས། །
སེམས་ཅན་ཀུན་དོན་བྱེད་ཆོས་རྣམས་དང་ལྡན། །

From the Buddha [comes] the dharma and from the dharma, the noble saṃgha.

Within the saṃgha, the [tathāgata] heart leads to the attainment of wisdom.
The attainment of that wisdom is the supreme awakening that is endowed with
The attributes such as the powers that promote the welfare of all sentient beings.

從佛次有法次法復有僧

僧次無礙性從性次有智
十力等功德為一切眾生
而作利益業有如是次第

From the Buddha comes the Doctrine,

Owing to the Doctrine there is the Holy Community,
In the Community exists the Matrix, which is
The element of Wisdom, aiming at its acquisition;
Its acquisition of the Wisdom is the Supreme Enlightenment,
Which is endowed with the Qualities, 10 Powers and others,
And accompanied by altruistic Acts for all living beings.

Takasaki, p. 153-154[3], from Sanskrit with reference to the Chinese.
Du Bouddha vient le Dharma et du Dharma
la Communauté des êtres sublimes.
De la Communauté vient l’obtention de la quintessence,
l’Élément de la sagesse primordiale.
Enfin, l’obtention de cette sagesse est l’Éveil suprême doté des forces
Et des autres qualités utiles au bien de tous les êtres.

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.3

།འདི་དག་གི་འབྲེལ་པ་གང་ཞེ་ན། སངས་རྒྱས་ལས་ཆོས་ཆོས་ལས་འཕགས་པའི་ཚོགས། །ཚོགས་ལས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཁམས་ཐོབ་མཐར། །ཡེ་ཤེས་དེ་ཐོབ་བྱང་ཆུབ་མཆོག་ཐོབ་སོགས། །སེམས་ཅན་ཀུན་དོན་བྱེད་ཆོས་རྣམས་དད་ལྡན། །{br}བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀྱི་འབྲེལ་པ་བཤད་ཟིན་ཏོ།

Other English translations

Listed by date of publication
Obermiller (1931) [5]
From the Buddha comes the Doctrine, from the Doctrine一the
Congregation of the Saints,
From the Congregation一the (desire of purifying) the Germ till
the attainment of the quintessence of Wisdom.
This Wisdom being attained, one comes to Supreme Enlightenment,
Becomes endowed with it and the other attributes, through
which one acts for the sake of all living beings.
Takasaki (1966) [6]
From the Buddha comes the Doctrine,
Owing to the Doctrine there is the Holy Community,
In the Community exists the Matrix, which is
The element of Wisdom, aiming at its acquisition;
Its acquisition of the Wisdom is the Supreme Enlightenment,
Which is endowed with the Qualities, 10 Powers and others,
And accompanied by altruistic Acts for all living beings.
Holmes (1985) [7]
From the buddha comes the dharma. From the dharma comes the sangha of those who have deep realisation. From the saṅgha comes recognition of the presence of the buddha-essence, the jñāna -nature. Ultimately, when this jñāna has been made manifest, there will be supreme enlightenment, along with its powers and so forth, having every ability to accomplish the good of each and every sentient being.
Holmes (1999) [8]
From the buddha comes the dharma,
from the dharma comes the realised saṃgha,
from the saṃgha, the presence of the jñāna nature, the essence.
Ultimately, when this jñāna has been made manifest,
there will be supreme enlightenment. powers and so forth,
endowed with every ability to accomplish
the good of each and every one.
Fuchs (2000) [9]
From the Buddha [stems] the Dharma, from the Dharma the
Assembly of noble ones,
from the Assembly the attainment of buddha nature, the element of
primordial wisdom.
This wisdom finally attained is supreme enlightenment, the powers
and so on,
[thus] possessing the properties that fulfill the benefit of all sentient
beings.

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. 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.
  4. The five chapter headings to follow in this translation of RGVV are inserted by the translator in accordance with the contents and the chapter indications in RGVV at the end of each chapter.
  5. Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
  6. 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.
  7. Holmes, Ken & Katia. The Changeless Nature. Eskdalemuir, Scotland: Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling, 1985.
  8. Holmes, Ken & Katia. Maitreya on Buddha Nature. Scotland: Altea Publishing, 1999.
  9. 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.