Verse I.124

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.124

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Verse I.124 Variations

हेम्नो यथान्तःक्वथितस्य पूर्णं
बिम्बं बहिर्मृन्मयमेक्ष्य शान्तम्
अन्तर्विशुद्‍ध्यै कनकस्य तज्ज्ञः
संचोदयेदावरणं बहिर्धा

hemno yathāntaḥkvathitasya pūrṇaṃ
bimbaṃ bahirmṛnmayamekṣya śāntam
antarviśuddhyai kanakasya tajjñaḥ
saṃcodayedāvaraṇaṃ bahirdhā

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.

ཇི་ལྟར་ནང་གི་གསེར་ཞུན་གཟུགས་རྒྱས་པ། །
ཞི་བ་ཕྱི་རོལ་ས་ཡི་རང་བཞིན་ཅན། །
མཐོང་ནས་དེ་ཤེས་པ་དག་ནང་གི་གསེར། །
སྦྱང་ཕྱིར་ཕྱི་རོལ་སྒྲིབ་པ་སེལ་བྱེད་ལྟར། །

Dege, PHI, 120

Suppose an image filled with molten gold inside
But consisting of clay on the outside, after having settled,
Were seen by someone who knows about this [gold inside],
Who would then remove the outer covering to purify the inner gold.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 399

如人融真金 鑄在泥摸中

外有焦黑泥 內有真寶像
彼人量已冷 除去外泥障
開摸令顯現 取內真寶像

http://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/en/T31n1611_p0816a05

La statue coulée dans l’or qui refroidit dans [son moule]

Présente, du dehors, une nature argileuse.

Ce que voyant, les êtres avertis enlèveront l’enveloppe extérieure

Pour nettoyer la [statue en] or qui se trouve à l’intérieur.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.124

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

།ཉོན་མོངས་པ་ནི་སའི་འདམ་གོས་པ་དང་འདྲ་ལ། དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཁམས་ནི་གསེར་གྱི་གཟུགས་བཞིན་ཏེ། ཇི་ལྟར་ནང་གི་གསེར་ཞུན་གཟུགས་རྒྱས་པ། །ཞི་བ་ཕྱི་རོལ་ས་

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ཡི་རང་བཞིན་ཅན། །མཐོང་ནས་དེ་ཤེས་པ་དག་ནང་གི་གསེར། །སྦྱང་ཕྱིར་ཕྱི་རོལ་སྒྲིབ་པ་སེལ་བྱེད་ལྟར། །རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་དྲི་མ་རྣམས་ཀྱང་ནི། །གློ་བུར་བར་ནི་རྣམ་པར་གཟིགས་གྱུར་ནས། །རིན་ཆེན་འབྱུང་གནས་ལྟ་བུའི་འགྲོ་བ་རྣམས། །སྒྲིབ་པ་དག་ལས་སྦྱོང་མཛད་བྱང་ཆུབ་{br}མཆོག །ཇི་ལྟར་དྲི་མེད་གསེར་འབར་ལས་བྱས་ས་ཡི་ནང་དུ་ཆུད་གྱུར་གཟུགས། །ཞི་དེ་རང་བཞིན་མཁས་པས་རིག་ནས་ས་དག་སེལ་བར་བྱེད་པ་ལྟར། །དེ་བཞིན་ཀུན་མཁྱེན་དག་པའི་གསེར་འདྲ་ཞི་བའི་ཡིད་ནི་མཁྱེན་གྱུར་ནས། །ཆོས་འཆད་ཚུལ་གྱིས་བརྡེག་སྤྱད་བསྒྲུབས་པས་སྒྲིབ་པ་དག་ནི་{br}སེལ་བར་མཛད།

[In the ninth example,] the afflictions are like a clay mold, while the tathāgata element resembles a golden image.

Suppose an image filled with molten gold inside

But consisting of clay on the outside, after having settled, {J66}

Were seen by someone who knows about this [gold inside],

Who would then remove the outer covering to purify the inner gold. I.124 {D108b}

Similarly, always seeing the luminosity of [mind’s] nature

And that the stains are adventitious,

The one with the highest awakening purifies beings,

Who are like a jewel mine, from the obscurations. I.125

Just as an image made of stainless shining gold enclosed in clay would settle

And a skillful jeweler, knowing about this [gold], would remove the clay,

So the omniscient one sees that the mind, which resembles pure gold, is settled

And removes its obscurations by way of the strokes that are the means of teaching the dharma. I.126

mṛtpaṅkalepasadṛśāḥ kleśāḥ/ kanakabimbavattathāgatadhāturiti/

hemno yathāntaḥkvathitasya pūrṇaṃ

bimbaṃ bahirmṛnmayamekṣya śāntam/

antarviśuddhyai kanakasya tajjñaḥ

saṃcodayedāvaraṇaṃ bahirdhā//124//

prabhāsvaratvaṃ prakṛtermalānā-

māgantukatvaṃ ca sadāvalokya/

ratnākarābhaṃ jagadagrabodhi-

rviśodhayatyāvaraṇebhya evam//125//

yadvannirmaladīptakāñcanamayaṃ bimbaṃ mṛdantargataṃ

syācchānta tadavetya ratnakuśalaḥ saṃcodayenmṛttikām/

tadvacchāntamavetya śuddhakanakaprakhyaṃ manaḥ sarvavi-

ddharmākhyānanayaprahāravidhitaḥ saṃcodayatyāvṛtim//126//

No Chinese commentary defined.

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931)

Suppose a great statue of melted gold from within,

And from without covered by mud and dust that hides (the gold),

Were seen by some, who, knowing its nature,

Would remove the outward cover in order to purify the gold within;

Takasaki (1966)

Suppose a man who knows [how to make a statue],

Seeing that the statue, filled with melted gold inside

And covered with clay outside, had become cool,

Would, for purifying the inner gold, remove the outer covering; —

Fuchs (2000)

An artistically well-designed image of peaceful appearance,

which has been cast in gold and is [still] inside [its mold],

externally has the nature of clay. Experts, upon seeing this,

will clear away the outer layer and cleanse the gold therein.

Textual sources

Commentaries on this verse

Academic notes

prabhāsvaratā - In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas. Skt. प्रभास्वर Tib. འོད་གསལ་ Ch. 光明