Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse II.3

Verse II.3 Variations

बुद्धत्वं प्रकृतिप्रभास्वरमिति प्रोक्तं यदागन्तुक-
क्लेशज्ञेयघनाभ्रजालपटलच्छन्नं रविव्योमवत्
सर्वैर्बुद्धगुणैरुपेतममलैर्नित्यं ध्रुवं शाश्वतं
धर्माणां तदकल्पनप्रविचयज्ञानाश्रयादाप्यते
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
buddhatvaṃ prakṛtiprabhāsvaramiti proktaṃ yadāgantuka-
kleśajñeyaghanābhrajālapaṭalacchannaṃ ravivyomavat
sarvairbuddhaguṇairupetamamalairnityaṃ dhruvaṃ śāśvataṃ
dharmāṇāṃ tadakalpanapravicayajñānāśrayādāpyate
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[2]
རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་ཞེས་བརྗོད་གང་ཡིན་ཉི་དང་མཁའ་བཞིན་གློ་བུར་གྱི། །
ཉོན་མོངས་ཤེས་བྱའི་སྤྲིན་ཚོགས་སྟུག་པོའི་སྒྲིབ་པ་ཡིས་ནི་བསྒྲིབས་གྱུར་པ། །
དྲི་མེད་སངས་རྒྱས་ཡོན་ཏན་ཀུན་ལྡན་རྟག་བརྟན་གཡུང་དྲུང་སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད། །
དེ་ནི་ཆོས་ལ་མི་རྟོག་རྣམ་འབྱེད་ཡེ་ཤེས་དག་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་འཐོབ། །
Buddhahood, spoken of as being luminous by nature [but] having been obscured by the massive web
Of the thick clouds of adventitious afflictive and cognitive [obscurations], just as the sun and the sky,
Is endowed with all the stainless buddha qualities and is permanent, everlasting, and eternal.
It is attained based on the wisdom that is nonconceptual about [all] phenomena and discriminates them.
On l’appelle « luminosité naturelle » et elle évoque le soleil et le ciel.
L’épaisse nuée des [voiles] adventices du connaissable
et des affections la recouvrent
[Mais elle reste] la bouddhéité permanente, stable et éternelle,
dotée de toutes les qualités immaculées des bouddhas.
On peut l’atteindre avec les deux sagesses qui discernent
tous les phénomènes sans la moindre pensée.

RGVV Commentary on Verse II.3

།དེ་ལ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད་དང་དེ་ཐོབ་པའི་ཐབས་སུ་གྱུར་པ་ངོ་བོའི་དོན་དང་རྒྱུའི་དོན་ལས་བརྩམས་ཏེ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་ཞེས་བརྗོད་གང་ཡིན་ཉི་མ་མཁའ་བཞིན་གློ་བུར་གྱི། །{br}ཉོན་མོངས་ཤེས་བྱའི་སྤྲིན་ཚོགས་སྟུག་པོའི་སྒྲིབ་པ་ཡིས་ནི་བསྒྲིབས་གྱུར་པ། །དྲི་མེད་སངས་རྒྱས་ཡོན་ཏན་ཀུན་ལྡན་རྟག་བརྟན་གཡུང་དྲུང་སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད། །དེ་ནི་ཆོས་ལ་མི་རྟོག་རྣམ་འབྱེད་ཡེ་ཤེས་དག་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་འཐོབ།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) [4]
Buddhahood5 is that which is called pure and radiant,
(Shining) like the sun and (immaculate) like the sky,
Which was darkened by the Obscurations
Of defilement and ignorance as by dense multitudes of clouds
And is now perfectly pure, possessed of all the properties of the Buddha,
Is eternal, firm and indestructible.
It is attained on the foundation of the knowledge of the Truth,
Which is free from dialectical thoüght-construction,
And the knowledge analyzing (the elements of existence).
Takasaki (1966) [5]
Buddhahood has been spoken of as being radiant by nature,
[however] as being covered with the net of the multitude of clouds,
In the form of [obstructions on account of] defilements
And knowable things which are of accidental nature,
Just as the sun and the sky [are often interrupted by clouds
Though they are radiant and immaculate, respectively];
This Buddhahood is now eternal, everlasting and constant,
Being endowed with all the the pure properties of the Buddha,
And is attained when the elements [of existence] take resort
To the Non-discriminative and Analytical Wisdom.
Fuchs (2000) [6]
[Enlightenment, of which the Buddha] said: "It is by nature clear light," is similar to the sun and space.
It is free from the stains of the adventitious poisons and hindrances to knowledge, the veils of which obscured it [like] a dense sea of clouds.
Buddhahood is permanent, steadfast, and immutable, possessing all the unpolluted buddha qualities.
It is attained on the basis of [two] primordial wisdoms: [one is] free from ideation with regard to phenomena, [the other is] discriminative.

Textual sources

Commentaries on this verse

Academic notes

  1. Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input
  2. Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input
  3. 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.
  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.