Verse II.9

From Buddha-Nature
Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse II.9

Verse II.9 Variations

मुनिवृषमधुसारहेमरत्न-
प्रवरनिधानमहाफलद्रुमाभम्
सुगतविमलरत्नविग्रहाग्र-
क्षितिपतिकाञ्चनबिम्बवज्जिनत्वम्
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
munivṛṣamadhusārahemaratna-
pravaranidhānamahāphaladrumābham
sugatavimalaratnavigrahāgra-
kṣitipatikāñcanabimbavajjinatvam
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[2]
ཐུབ་པ་ཁྱུ་མཆོག་སྦྲང་རྩི་སྙིང་པོ་དང་། །
རིན་ཆེན་གསེར་དང་གཏེར་དང་ལྗོན་པ་བཞིན། །
དྲི་མེད་རིན་ཆེན་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྐུ་དང་ནི། །
ས་བདག་གསེར་གྱི་གཟུགས་འདྲ་རྒྱལ་བ་ཉིད། །
The state of the victor is like the chief of sages, honey, a kernel, gold,
A treasure of excellent jewels, and a big fruit tree,
Like a stainless precious representation of the Sugata,
A supreme lord of the earth, and a golden image.
Le Vainqueur est comparable au plus grand des sages, au miel,
Au grain, à l’or précieux, à un trésor et à un grand arbre ;
On le compare encore à une pure et précieuse image du Bouddha,
À un maître de la terre et à une statue en or.

RGVV Commentary on Verse II.9

།དེ་ལ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པའི་རྣམ་པར་དག་པའི་འབྲས་བུའི་དོན་ལས་བརྩམས་ཏེ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། དྲི་མེད་ཆུ་ལྡན་རིམ་རྒྱས་པདྨས་ཁེབས་པའི་མཚོ་བཞིན་དང་། །སྒྲ་གཅན་ཁ་ནས་ཐར་བའི་ཟླ་བ་ཉ་བ་ལྟ་བུ་དང་། །སྤྲིན་ཚོགས་

ཉོན་མོངས་དག་ལས་གྲོལ་བའི་ཉི་མ་ལྟ་བུར་ནི། །དྲི་མེད་ཡོན་ཏན་ལྡན་ཕྱིར་འོད་ཟེར་སྣང་ལྡན་དེ་ཉིད་དོ། །ཐུབ་པའི་ཁྱུ་མཆོག་སྦྲང་རྩི་སྙིང་པོ་དང་། །རིན་ཆེན་གསེར་དང་གཏེར་དང་ལྗོན་པ་བཞིན། །དྲི་མེད་རིན་ཆེན་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྐུ་དང་ནི། །ས་བདག་གསེར་གྱི་གཟུགས་འདྲ་རྒྱལ་བ་ཉིད།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) [7]
Like the Highest of Sages, like honey, and like the kernel (of a fruit),
Like precious gold, like a treasure and like a tree,
Like the immaculate images of the Buddha,
Like the ruler of the earth and like a golden statue—such is Buddhahood.
Takasaki (1966) [8]
This Buddhahood is [also] like the Highest of Sages,
Like honey, like the kernel [of corns], like gold,
Like a precious store of jewels, like a great fruit-tree,
Like an immaculate precious image of the Buddha,
Like the Highest Lord of the world,
And like a golden statue.
Fuchs (2000) [9]
Being similar to the [statue of the] Muni, the leader of beings,
and to the honey, the grain, the precious gold, the treasure, the mighty tree,
the Sugata's statue [made from] immaculate precious material,
the ruler of the earth, and the golden image, [a buddha] has gained victory.

Textual sources[edit]

Commentaries on this verse[edit]

Academic notes[edit]

  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. I follow Schmithausen in reading MA as phullapadmadrumāḍhyaḥ (which also makes better sense) against J phullapadmakramāḍhyaḥ (MB very unclear) and DP rim rgyas padmas khebs pa.
  5. VT (fol. 14r3) glosses "this very" as "the mind free from duality" and "liberation" as "free from afflictions."
  6. DP mistakenly snang ldan (corresponding to bhātiyuktaṃ instead of bhāti muktaṃ), which is moreover immediately preceded by ’od zer (raśmi), thus reading "just as the sun’s having been liberated from the defilements of clouds and so on, this [buddhahood] possesses radiant light rays . . ."
  7. Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.