Verse I.96

From Buddha-Nature
Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.96

Verse I.96 Variations

बुद्धः कुपद्मे मधु मक्षिकासु
तुषेसु साराण्य शुचौ सुवर्णम्।
निधिः क्षितावल्पफलेऽङ्कुरादि
प्रक्लिन्नवस्त्रेषु जिनात्मभावः
buddhaḥ kupadme madhu makṣikāsu
tuṣesu sārāṇya śucau suvarṇam
nidhiḥ kṣitāvalpaphale 'ṅkurādi
praklinnavastreṣu jinātmabhāvaḥ
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
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། །
Dege, PHI, 116
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,
When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 393 [2]
萎華中諸佛 眾蜂中美蜜

皮糩等中實 糞穢中真金
地中珍寶藏 諸果子中芽
朽故弊壞衣 纏裹真金像

http://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/en/T31n1611_p0837a15
Like the Buddha in an ugly lotus flower,

Like honey surrounded by bees,
Like kernels of grains covered by the husk, Like gold fallen into impurities, Like a treasure under the ground, Like a sprout, etc. grown from a small fruit, Like an image of the Buddha wrapped in a tattered garment,

Takasaki, p. 268-269[3], from Sanskrit with reference to the Chinese.
Comme un bouddha dans un lotus flétri, le miel au milieu des abeilles,
Le grain dans la balle, l’or dans les immondices,
Un trésor enterré, le germe [d’un grand arbre né] d’un petit fruit,
Une statue de bouddha dans des haillons,
Charrier, Christian and Patrick Carré. Traité de la Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule. Plazac: Éditions Padmakara, 2019.

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.96

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་འདི་རྣམ་པར་གཞག་པ་བཤད་པ་ཡིན་ནོ། །ཐོག་མ་མེད་པའི་དུས་ནས་ཉེ་བར་གནས་པ་མ་འབྲེལ་བའི་རང་བཞིན་གྱི་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་སྦུབས་ཉིད་དང་། ཐོག་མ་མེད་པའི་དུས་ནས་ཉེ་བར་གནས་པ་འབྲེལ་བའི་{br}རང་བཞིན་དག་པའི་ཆོས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་དབང་དུ་བྱས་ནས། དཔེ་དགུས་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་གཉེན་པོ་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་སྦུབས་བྱེ་བ་མཐའ་ཡས་པས་གཏུམས་པ་ནི། མདོ་ཇི་ལྟ་བ་བཞིན་རྟོགས་པར་བྱའོ། །དཔེ་དགུ་གང་ཞེ་ན། སངས་རྒྱས་པད་ངན་སྦྲང་རྩི་སྦྲང་མ་ལ། །སྦུན་པ་སྙིང་པོ་{br}མི་གཙང་ནང་ན་གསེར། །ས་ལ་གཏེར་དང་མྱུག་སོགས་འབྲས་ཆུང་དང་། །གོས་ཧྲུལ་ནང་ན་རྒྱལ་བའི་སྐུ་དང་ནི། །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་{br}འདི་གནས། །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་{br}དང་དྲི་མེད་ཁམས་མཆོག་མཚུངས་པ་ཉིད།

Other English translations

Listed by date of publication
Obermiller (1931) [10]
Like the Buddha in an ugly lotus flower,
Like honey (concealed by) a swarm of bees，
Like a kernel of a fruit in the bark, and like gold buried in impurities,
Like a treasure in the ground, and like a sprout hidden in a small seed,
Like the image of the Lord covered, by a tattered garment[11]
Takasaki (1966) [12]
Like the Buddha in an ugly lotus flower,
Like honey surrounded by bees,
Like kernels of grains covered by the husk,
Like gold fallen into impurities,
Like a treasure under the ground,
Like a sprout, etc. grown from a small fruit,
Like an image of the Buddha wrapped in a tattered garment,
Holmes (1985) [13]
Similar to a buddha in a decaying lotus,
honey amidst bees, grains in their husks,
gold in filth, a treasure in the ground,
shoots and so on piercing through fruits,
a buddha-statue inside tattered rags,
Holmes (1999) [14]
Similar to a buddha in a decaying lotus,
honey amidst bees, grains in their husks,
gold in filth, a treasure under the ground,
shoots and the like piercing through fruits,
a buddha statue inside tattered rags,
Fuchs (2000) [15]
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,

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. These nine examples stem from the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra (D258, fols. 248a.3–254b.3).
  5. I follow MA tuṣeṣu sārāny against J tuṣesu sārāny.
  6. DP "lowly" (ngan ma).
  7. Skt. prāṇi (lit. "living beings" or "animals").
  8. With Schmithausen, I follow MA °strīrūpa° against J °strīduḥkha° and take °jvalanābhitaptapṛthivīdhātu° as a unit, which is also confirmed by VT (fol. 13v2) that relates jvalanābhitaptaṃ to pṛthivīdhātuḥ, saying that jvalanābhitaptaṃ refers to heated gold and pṛthivīdhātuḥ to the earth that covers that gold. However, DP read "a lowly woman tormented by the blaze of suffering, and the element of earth" (dug bsngal ’bar bas mngon par gdungs pa’i bud med sa yi khans).
  9. I follow Schmithausen in linking °vimalaprakhyaḥ with sa dhātuḥ paraḥ and not with °ratnabimba° ("precious statue"in VI.98d). DP read "the stainless supreme basic element resembles . . ." (dang dri med khams mchog mtshungs pa nyid).
  10. Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
  11. This is verse 94 in Obermiller's translation
  12. 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.
  13. Holmes, Ken & Katia. The Changeless Nature. Eskdalemuir, Scotland: Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling, 1985.
  14. Holmes, Ken & Katia. Maitreya on Buddha Nature. Scotland: Altea Publishing, 1999.
  15. 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.
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