Verse I.99

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.99

Verse I.99 Variations

यथा विवर्णाम्बुजगर्भवेष्टितं
तथागतं दीप्तसहस्रलक्षणम्
नरः समीक्ष्यामलदिव्यलोचनो
विमोचयेदम्बुजपत्त्रकोशतः

yathā vivarṇāmbujagarbhaveṣṭitaṃ
tathāgataṃ dīptasahasralakṣaṇam
naraḥ samīkṣyāmaladivyalocano
vimocayedambujapattrakośataḥ

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.^[1]

ཇི་ལྟར་མདོག་ངན་པད་མའི་ཁོང་གནས་པ། །
མཚན་སྟོང་གིས་འབར་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ནི། །
དྲི་མེད་ལྷ་ཡི་མིག་ལྡན་མིས་མཐོང་ནས། །
ཆུ་སྐྱེས་འདབ་མའི་སྦུབས་ནས་འབྱིན་བྱེད་པ། །

Dege, PHI, 117

Suppose a man with the stainless divine eye were to see
A tathāgata shining with a thousand marks,
Dwelling enclosed in a fading lotus,
And thus would free him from the sheath of the lotus petals.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 394 ^[2]

功德莊嚴佛住於萎華中
淨天眼者見去花顯諸佛

http://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/en/T31n1611_p0814c07

Dans un lotus aux couleurs défraîchies se trouve

Un tathāgata rayonnant de mille marques.

Un homme qui a purifié l’œil divin le voit

Et l’extrait de la corolle fanée du lotus.

Charrier, Christian and Patrick Carré. Traité de la Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule. Plazac: Éditions Padmakara, 2019.

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.99

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

།ཉོན་མོངས་པ་ནི་པདྨ་ངན་པའི་སྦུབས་དང་འདྲ་ལ། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཁམས་ནི་པདྨ་ལྟ་བུ་སྟེ། ཇི་ལྟར་མདོག་ངན་པདྨ་འི་ཁོང་གནས་པ། །མཚན་སྟོང་གིས་འབར་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ནི། །དྲི་མེད་ལྷ་ཡི་མིག་ལྡན་མིས་{br}མཐོང་ནས། །ཆུ་སྐྱེས་པདྨ་འི་སྦུབས་ནས་འབྱིན་བྱེད་པ། །དེ་བཞིན་བདེ་གཤེགས་མནར་མེད་རྣམས་ལ་ཡང་། །སངས་རྒྱས་སྤྱན་གྱིས་རང་ཆོས་ཉིད་གཟིགས་ཏེ། །སྒྲིབ་མེད་ཕྱི་མའི་མུར་གནས་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཡི། །བདག་ཅག་སྒྲིབ་པ་ལས་ནི་གྲོལ་བར་བྱེད། །ཇི་ལྟར་མི་སྡུག་པདྨ་{br}ཟུམ་ལ་བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ་ནི། །དེ་ཡི་ཁོང་གནས་ལྷ་མིག་མཐོང་ནས་འདབ་མ་གཅོད་བྱེད་ལྟར། །ཆགས་སྡང་སོགས་དྲི་སྦུབས་བསྒྲིབས་རྫོགས་སངས་སྙིང་པོའི་འགྲོ་གཟིགས་ཏེ། །ཐུགས་རྗེས་ཐུབ་པ་དེ་བཞིན་སྒྲིབ་པ་དེ་ནི་འཇོམས་པར་མཛད།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) ^[4]

Suppose, in a lotus flower of ugly form,

The Buddha, shining with a thousand marks of beauty, were abiding,

And a man possessed of immaculate divine sight would perceive him

And draw him out from the petals of the water-born lotus;

Takasaki (1966) ^[5]

Suppose the Buddha, shining with a thousand marks [of virtue],

Were abiding in the inside a faded lotus flower,

And a man of immaculate divine sight would perceive him

And release him from the sheath of petals of lotus; —

Fuchs (2000) ^[6]

Seeing that in the calyx of an ugly-colored lotus

a tathagata dwells ablaze with a thousand marks,

a man endowed with the immaculate divine vision

takes it from the shroud of the water-born's petals.

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.
In the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, this example occurs twice. The introduction of the sūtra describes in detail how the Buddha miraculously manifests in the sky thousands of fragrant opened lotus flowers with buddhas sitting upon them, emitting light. These lotuses blossom and fade at the same time, exuding a foul smell, but the buddhas still remain within them without a stain. In the sūtra’s section of the nine examples proper, this example is presented as it is here in the Uttaratantra. For details of the differences between the nine examples as presented in the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra and the Uttaratantra, see Zimmermann 2002, 105–44.
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.

[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] In the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, this example occurs twice. The introduction of the sūtra describes in detail how the Buddha miraculously manifests in the sky thousands of fragrant opened lotus flowers with buddhas sitting upon them, emitting light. These lotuses blossom and fade at the same time, exuding a foul smell, but the buddhas still remain within them without a stain. In the sūtra’s section of the nine examples proper, this example is presented as it is here in the Uttaratantra. For details of the differences between the nine examples as presented in the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra and the Uttaratantra, see Zimmermann 2002, 105–44.

[4] Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.

[5] 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.

[6] 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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