Verse I.129

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.129

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Verse I.129 Variations

सत्त्वधातोरसंबद्धं क्लेशकोशेष्वनादिषु
चित्तप्रकृतिवैमल्यमनादिमदुदाहृतम्

sattvadhātorasaṃbaddhaṃ kleśakośeṣvanādiṣu
cittaprakṛtivaimalyamanādimadudāhṛtam

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

སེམས་ཅན་ཁམས་ཀྱི་ཉོན་མོངས་སྦུབས། །
མ་འབྲེལ་ཐོག་མ་མེད་པ་ན། །
སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་དྲི་མེད་ནི། །
ཐོག་མ་མེད་པ་ཡིན་པར་བརྗོད། །

Dege, PHI, 120

The beginningless stainlessness of the nature
Of the mind within the beginningless cocoons
Of the afflictions that are not connected to
The basic element of sentient beings is declared to be.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 400 ^[2]

華蜂等諸喻明眾生身中

無始世界來有諸煩惱垢
佛蜜等諸喻明眾生身中
無始來具足自性無垢體

http://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/en/T31n1611_p0837b03

L’Élément des êtres, dit-on, n’a rien de commun

Avec l’enveloppe des affections.

La pureté naturelle de l’esprit

Est telle depuis l’absence de commencement.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.129

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།དཔེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བསྡུས་པའི་དོན་ནི། །པདྨ་སྲོག་ཆགས་བུང་བ་དང་། །སྦུན་པ་དང་ནི་མི་གཙང་ས། །འབྲས་ཤུན་གོས་ཧྲུལ་བུད་མེད་ཀྱི། །མངལ་དང་ས་ཡི་སྦུབས་ན་ཡང་། །སངས་རྒྱས་སྦྲང་རྩི་སྙིང་པོ་བཞིན། །གསེར་བཞིན་གཏེར་བཞིན་ལྗོན་པ་བཞིན། །རིན་{br}ཆེན་སྐུ་དང་འཁོར་ལོ་ཡིས། །སྒྱུར་བ་བཞིན་དང་གསེར་གཟུགས་བཞིན། །སེམས་ཅན་ཁམས་ཀྱི་ཉོན་མོངས་སྦུབས། །མ་འབྲེལ་ཐོག་མ་མེད་པ་ན། །སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་བཞིན་དྲི་མེད་ནི། །ཐོག་མ་མེད་པ་ཡིན་པར་བརྗོད། །མདོར་བསྡུ་ན་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོར་{br}དཔེར་བརྗོད་པ་བསྟན་པ་འདིས་ནི་སེམས་ཅན་གྱི་ཁམས་མ་ལུས་པའི་ཐོགས་པ་མེད་པའི་སེམས་ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་གློ་བུར་བ་ཉིད་དང་། ཐོག་མ་མེད་པའི་སེམས་རྣམ་པར་བྱང་བའི་ཆོས་ལྷན་ཅིག་སྐྱེས་པ་རྣམ་པར་དབྱེ་བ་མེད་པ་ཉིད་དུ་བསྟན་ཏོ། །དེས་ན་སེམས་ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་པའི་ཕྱིར་{br}སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ཀུན་ནས་ཉོན་མོངས་ལ། སེམས་ཅན་རྣམ་པར་བྱང་བའི་ཕྱིར་ནི་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་ཡིན་ནོ་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) ^[6]

The Immaculate Essence of the Spirit in the living beings

Is unaffected by the coverings of defilement;

As such it exists eternally,

Being spoken of as having no beginning.

Takasaki (1966) ^[7]

The Innate Mind of the living beings

Which is pure from beginningless time,

And is not bound by the covering of Defilements,

Though being within them from the outset is thus illustrated.

Fuchs (2000) ^[8]

It is said that the shroud of the mental poisons,

[which causes the veils] of the element of beings,

has had no connection with it since beginningless time,

while the nature of mind, which is devoid of stains,

[has been present within them] since beginningless time.

Textual sources[edit]

Commentaries on this verse[edit]

Academic notes[edit]

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.
With Schmithausen, I follow MA and MB asaṃbaddhakleśakośeṣv against J asaṃbaddhaṃ kleśakośeṣv.
In P, everything from here up through the comments on I.130–31 is missing; the text resumes with I.132. The missing passage is inserted out of place on fols. 114b.6–115b.6. Note that among the nine examples in the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, five are likewise found in other sūtras and three more are at least alluded to. The analogy of a destitute woman carrying a cakravartin in her womb also appears in the Ratnakūta; the example of a treasure below the house of a poor man, in the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra and the Daśabhūmikasūtra; and the similes of a piece of pure gold in a place full of filth, impoverished people living above a treasure beneath their house, a golden statue in rags, and a golden statue within a clay mold, in the Daśabhūmikasūtra. The Laṅkāvatārasūtra, in one of its descriptions of tathāgatagarbha, alludes to both the first example (as found in the introduction of the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra) and the seventh example (a precious jewel’s being wrapped in a filthy garment). Though illustrating something else, the Mahāmeghasūtra refers to winter rice and so on (kernels in their husks) as not yet fulfilling the benefit of beings and the fruits of a palm tree, a mango tree, and sugar cane (the same enumeration as in the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra) having not yet become a tree.
Saṃyutta Nikāya III.151.22–23, 151.31–32, and 152.8–9.
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.

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[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] With Schmithausen, I follow MA and MB asaṃbaddhakleśakośeṣv against J asaṃbaddhaṃ kleśakośeṣv.

[4] In P, everything from here up through the comments on I.130–31 is missing; the text resumes with I.132. The missing passage is inserted out of place on fols. 114b.6–115b.6. Note that among the nine examples in the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra, five are likewise found in other sūtras and three more are at least alluded to. The analogy of a destitute woman carrying a cakravartin in her womb also appears in the Ratnakūta; the example of a treasure below the house of a poor man, in the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra and the Daśabhūmikasūtra; and the similes of a piece of pure gold in a place full of filth, impoverished people living above a treasure beneath their house, a golden statue in rags, and a golden statue within a clay mold, in the Daśabhūmikasūtra. The Laṅkāvatārasūtra, in one of its descriptions of tathāgatagarbha, alludes to both the first example (as found in the introduction of the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra) and the seventh example (a precious jewel’s being wrapped in a filthy garment). Though illustrating something else, the Mahāmeghasūtra refers to winter rice and so on (kernels in their husks) as not yet fulfilling the benefit of beings and the fruits of a palm tree, a mango tree, and sugar cane (the same enumeration as in the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra) having not yet become a tree.

[5] Saṃyutta Nikāya III.151.22–23, 151.31–32, and 152.8–9.

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

[7] 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.

[8] 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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