Verse I.148

From Buddha-Nature
Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.148

Verse I.148 Variations

प्रकृतेरविकारित्वात् कल्याणत्वाद्विशुद्धितः
हेममण्डलकौपम्यं तथतायामुदाहृतम्
prakṛteravikāritvāt kalyāṇatvādviśuddhitaḥ
hemamaṇḍalakaupamyaṃ tathatāyāmudāhṛtam
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
།རང་བཞིན་འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པ་དང་།
།དགེ་དང་རྣམ་པར་དག་པའི་ཕྱིར།
།དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་འདི་གསེར་གྱི་ནི།
།གཟུགས་དང་མཚུངས་པར་བརྗོད་པ་ཡིན།
Because of being changeless by nature,
Because of being excellent, and because of being pure,
Suchness is illustrated
By the analogy of a piece of gold.
En raison de sa nature immuable,
Vertueuse et parfaitement pure,
L’ainsité est comparable
À une forme en or.

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.148

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) [3]
Being by nature inalterable,
Sublime, and perfectly pure,
This Absolute is spoken of
As having a resemblance with gold.
Takasaki (1966) [4]
Being unchangeable, by nature,
Sublime, and perfectly pure,
Reality is illustrated
By the analogy with a piece of gold.
Fuchs (2000) [5]
Since the nature is unchanging,
full of virtue, and utterly pure,
suchness is said to correspond
to the shape and color of gold.

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. Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.