Verse I.51

From Buddha-Nature
Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.51

Verse I.51 Variations

दोषागन्तुकतायोगाद् गुणप्रकृतियोगतः
यथा पूर्वं तथा पश्चादविकारित्वधर्मता
doṣāgantukatāyogād guṇaprakṛtiyogataḥ
yathā pūrvaṃ tathā paścādavikāritvadharmatā
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
།ཉེས་པ་གློ་བུར་དང་ལྡན་དང་།
།ཡོན་ཏན་རང་བཞིན་ཉིད་ལྡན་ཕྱིར།
།ཇི་ལྟར་སྔར་བཞིན་ཕྱིས་དེ་བཞིན།
།འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པའི་ཆོས་ཉིད་དོ།
Since it is adventitiously associated with flaws
And since it is naturally endowed with qualities,
Its true nature of being changeless
Is the same before as after.
諸過客塵來 性功德相應

真法體不變 如本後亦爾

Vu le caractère adventice de ses défauts
Et le caractère naturel de ses qualités,
Telle elle était, telle elle sera
L’essence du réel est immuable.

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.51

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) [5]
It is possessed of occasional defects
And of virtuous properties relating to its essence;
But in the initial and in the subsequent states
It remains the unalterable Absolute.
Takasaki (1966) [6]
Being possessed of faults by occasion,
It is, however, endowed with virtues by nature;
Therefore it is of unchangeable character
In the beginning as well as afterwards.
Fuchs (2000) [7]
Having faults that are adventitious
and qualities that are its nature,
it is afterwards the same as before.
This is dharmata ever unchanging.

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. VT (fol. 12v6) glosses "[can]not be realized as being divisible" as "they do not part from a tathāgata."
  4. The references to the number of verses about the changelessness of buddha nature in each one of its three phases are rather confusing here since the twelve verses I.52–63 on the phase of its being impure are followed by two further verses (I.64–65) that elaborate on them. The one verse about its phase of being both impure and pure is then I.66, which is followed by twelve more explanatory verses (I.67–78). Finally, the one verse about its phase of being completely pure is I.79, again followed by four commentarial verses (I.80–83).
  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. 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.