Root Verses

Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

रत्नगोत्रविभाग महायानोत्तरतन्त्रशास्त्र

Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra

ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས།

theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos

究竟一乘寶性論

jiu jing yi cheng bao xing lun

Traité de la Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule

The Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna (84000)

D4024  ·  001 T1,611

SOURCE TEXT

Back to text page ·   Switch to: Root VersesEnglishFrenchSanskritTibetanChinese

Root Verses

The root verses presented here have been parsed from the Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra (Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos), which according to the Tibetan tradition is attributed to Maitreya. More on the history of this text can be found here. This page was created for ease of reference to allow readers to quickly navigate between verses. The prose commentary that accompanies these verses has also been extracted so that it may be read alongside the associated verses. This commentary, attributed to Asaṅga, is known in the contemporary scholarship that follows the Tibetan tradition as the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā (Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa).

This page also allows the reader to view the verses and commentary in a variety of languages, namely Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, English, and French. We have undertaken this concordance with the understanding that none of these texts are the same; ours is at best an approximation. This is because both the Tibetan and the Chinese versions are not translations of the surviving Sanskrit text, which was discovered in a Tibetan monastery in the 1930s. At best the three versions can be said to share a common ancestor. The English translation we have used from Karl Brunnhölzl is based on both the Tibetan and the Sanskrit.

Keep reading...

As for the sources of the various languages presented, the English is taken from Karl Brunnhölzl's translation of the Ratnagotravibhāga published in his book When the Clouds Part and the French is from Christian Charrier and Patrick Carré's 2019 translation, Traité de la Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule. However, on the individual verse pages we have also presented a selection of alternative translations as well. The Tibetan is taken from the Derge edition of the Tengyur (sde dge bstan 'gyur), with the verses extracted from Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos and the commentary extracted from the Theg pa chen po rgyud bla ma'i bstan bcos rnam par bshad pa. The digitized input of these were drawn from the input provided on the Adarsha website. As for the Sanskrit, both the verses and the commentary were taken from E. H. Johnston's 1950 publication of the Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra, with the digitized text extracted from the input created by the University of the West as part of the Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Project. And, finally, the Chinese verses have been extracted from the website of the Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association. Furthermore, readers can find links to these various sources on the individual verse pages, as well.

In terms of the numbering of the verses and their order, we have followed Brunnhölzl's presentation in When the Clouds Part. The order appears to be fairly standard, except for one instance in which verses I.27 and I.28 are reversed in the Tibetan edition found in the Derge Tengyur. However, in terms of the numbering, there are a couple of instances in which verses appear to have been added to the Tibetan redactions. In these cases, such as the two verses appearing between verses I.83 and I.84, these presumed additions have been numbered as I.83.1 and I.83.2 in order to maintain the numbering schema of the core verses. There are many complex issues with the Chinese text where it does not match as closely to the other versions and we hope to get expert input on updating the information here for Chinese readers.

An Analysis of the Jewel Disposition, A Treatise on the Ultimate Continuum of the Mahāyāna

Oṃ namaḥ Śrī Vajrasattvāya—Oṃ I pay homage to Glorious Vajrasattva

Chapter I

I.1

སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་ཚོགས་ཁམས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་དང་། །

ཡོན་ཏན་སངས་རྒྱས་ཕྲིན་ལས་ཐ་མ་སྟེ། །
བསྟན་བཅོས་ཀུན་གྱི་ལུས་ནི་མདོར་བསྡུ་ན། །

རྡོ་རྗེ་ཡི་ནི་གནས་བདུན་འདི་དག་གོ། །

बुद्धश्च धर्मश्च गणश्च धातु-

र्बोधिर्गुणाः कर्म च बौद्धमन्त्यम्
कृत्स्नस्य शास्त्रस्य शरीरमेतत्

समासतो वज्रपदानि सप्त

Buddha, dharma, assembly, basic element,

Awakening, qualities, and finally buddha activity–
The body of the entire treatise

Is summarized in these seven vajra points.

Le Bouddha, le Dharma, la Communauté, l’Élément, l’Éveil,

Les qualités et, enfin, les activités éveillées Le corps du traité tout entier se ramène

À ces sept points de vajra.

French

English

佛法及眾僧性道功德業
略說此論體七種金剛句

Verse page

I.2

འདི་དག་རང་མཚན་ཉིད་ཀྱི་རྗེས་འབྲེལ་བ། །

གོ་རིམས་ཇི་བཞིན་གཟུངས་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་མདོར། །
གླེང་གཞི་ལས་ནི་གནས་གསུམ་རིག་བྱ་སྟེ། །

བཞི་ནི་བློ་ལྡན་རྒྱལ་ཆོས་དབྱེ་བ་ལས། །

स्वलक्षणेनानुगतानि चैषां

यथाक्रमं धारणिराजसूत्रे
निदानतस्त्रीणि पदानि विद्या-

च्चत्वारि धीमज्जिनधर्मभेदात्

In accordance with their specific characteristics

And in due order, the [first] three points of these [seven]
Should be understood from the introduction in the Dhāraṇirājasūtra

And the [latter] four from the distinction of the attributes of the intelligent and the victors.

On connaîtra ces sept points selon leurs caractéristiques propres

Et dans le même ordre. Les trois premiers viennent De l’introduction du Soûtra du Roi Dhāraṇīśvara Et les quatre derniers de la classification

des qualités des Vainqueurs et des sages.

French

English

七種相次第總持自在王

菩薩修多羅序分有三句
餘殘四句者在菩薩如來

智慧差別分應當如是知

Verse page

I.3

སངས་རྒྱས་ལས་ཆོས་ཆོས་ལས་འཕགས་པའི་ཚོགས། །

ཚོགས་ལས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཁམས་ཐོབ་མཐར། །
ཡེ་ཤེས་དེ་ཐོབ་བྱང་ཆུབ་མཆོག་ཐོབ་སོགས། །

སེམས་ཅན་ཀུན་དོན་བྱེད་ཆོས་རྣམས་དང་ལྡན། །

बुद्धाद्धर्मो धर्मतश्चार्यसंघः

संघे गर्भो ज्ञानधात्वाप्तिनिष्ठः।
तज्ज्ञानाप्तिश्चाग्रबोधिर्बलाद्यै-

र्धमैर्युक्ता सर्वसत्त्वार्थकृद्भिः

From the Buddha [comes] the dharma and from the dharma, the noble saṃgha.

Within the saṃgha, the [tathāgata] heart leads to the attainment of wisdom.
The attainment of that wisdom is the supreme awakening that is endowed with

The attributes such as the powers that promote the welfare of all sentient beings.

Du Bouddha vient le Dharma et du Dharma

la Communauté des êtres sublimes.

De la Communauté vient l’obtention de la quintessence,

l’Élément de la sagesse primordiale.

Enfin, l’obtention de cette sagesse est l’Éveil suprême doté des forces

Et des autres qualités utiles au bien de tous les êtres.

French

English

從佛次有法次法復有僧

僧次無礙性從性次有智
十力等功德為一切眾生

而作利益業有如是次第

Verse page

I.4

གང་ཞིག་ཐོག་མ་དབུས་མཐའ་མེད་ཞི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད་རང་རྣམ་སངས་རྒྱས། །
སངས་རྒྱས་ནས་ནི་མ་རྟོགས་རྟོགས་ཕྱིར་འཇིག་མེད་རྟག་པའི་ལམ་སྟོན་པ། །
མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་རལ་གྲི་རྡོ་རྗེ་མཆོག་བསྣམས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མྱུ་གུ་གཅོད་མཛད་ཅིང་། །
སྣ་ཚོགས་ལྟ་ཐིབས་ཀྱིས་བསྐོར་ཐེ་ཚོམ་རྩིག་པ་འཇིག་མཛད་དེ་ལ་འདུད། །

यो बुद्धत्वमनादिमध्यनिधनं शान्तं विबुद्धः स्वयं
बुद्ध्वा चाबुधबोधनार्थमभयं मार्गं दिदेश ध्रुवम्
तस्मै ज्ञानकृपासिवज्रवरधृग्दुःखङ्कुरैकच्छिदे
नानादृग्गहनोपगूढविमतिप्राकारभेत्त्रे नमः

You awakened to peaceful buddhahood without beginning, middle, or end.
Upon your self-awakening, you taught the fearless everlasting path so that the unawakened may awake.
I pay homage to you who wield the supreme sword and vajra of wisdom and compassion, cut the sprouts of suffering to pieces,
And break through the wall of doubts concealed by the thicket of various views.

À celui qui, de lui-même, s’est éveillé à la paisible bouddhéité

dépourvue de commencement, de milieu et de fin,

Qui, pleinement éveillé, montre la voie indestructible et éternelle

pour que les non-réalisés se réalisent,

Qui brandit le vajra suprême, l’épée de la sagesse et de la compassion,

et tranche les pousses de la souffrance.

À lui qui abat le mur des doutes cerné par la jungle des vues,

je rends hommage.

French

English

佛體無前際及無中間際

亦復無後際寂靜自覺知
既自覺知已為欲令他知
是故為彼說無畏常恒道
佛能執持彼智慧慈悲刀
及妙金剛杵割截諸苦芽
摧碎諸見山覆藏顛倒意

及一切稠林故我今敬禮

Verse page

I.5

འདུས་མ་བྱས་ཤིང་ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ། །
གཞན་གྱི་རྐྱེན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་མིན་པ། །
མཁྱེན་དང་བརྩེ་དང་ནུས་པར་ལྡན། །
དོན་གཉིས་ལྡན་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད། །

असंस्कृतमनाभोगमपरप्रत्ययोदितम्
बुद्धत्वं ज्ञानकारुण्यशक्त्युपेतं द्वयार्थवत्

Being unconditioned, effortless,
Not being produced through other conditions,
And possessing wisdom, compassion, and power,
Buddhahood is endowed with the two welfares.

La bouddhéité est inconditionnée, spontanée,

Réalisée sans conditions étrangères, Pourvue de sagesse, de compassion et de puissance,

Ainsi que des deux bienfaits.

French

English

無為體自然不依他而知
智悲及以力自他利具足

Verse page

I.6

ཐོག་མ་དབུས་མཐའ་མེད་པ་ཡི། །
རང་བཞིན་ཡིན་ཕྱིར་འདུས་མ་བྱས། །
ཞི་བ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ཅན་ཕྱིར། །
ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་ཅེས་བྱ་བར་བརྗོད། །

अनादिमध्यनिधनप्रकृतत्वादसंस्कृतम्
शान्तधर्मशरीरत्वादनाभोगमिति स्मृतम्

It is unconditioned because its nature
Is to be without beginning, middle, and end.
It is declared to be effortless
Because it possesses the peaceful dharma body.

Comme par nature elle n’a ni commencement,

Ni milieu, ni fin, elle est incomposée. Douée de la paix du corps absolu,

On la dit spontanée.

French

English

非初非中後自性無為體
及法體寂靜故自然應知

Verse page

I.7

སོ་སོ་རང་གིས་རྟོགས་བྱའི་ཕྱིར། །
གཞན་གྱི་རྐྱེན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་མིན་པ། །
དེ་ལྟར་རྣམ་གསུམ་རྟོགས་ཕྱིར་མཁྱེན། །
ལམ་སྟོན་ཕྱིར་ན་ཐུགས་བརྩེ་བ། །

प्रत्यात्ममधिगम्यत्वादपरप्रत्ययोदयम्
ज्ञानमेवं त्रिधा बोधात् करुणा मार्गदेशनात्

It is not produced through other conditions
Because it is to be realized personally.
Thus, it is wisdom because it is threefold awakening.
It is compassion because it teaches the path.

Sa réalisation ne dépend pas de conditions étrangères

Car chacun la réalise par soi-même. En raison de ces trois réalisations, elle est sagesse ;

Comme elle montre la voie, elle est compassion.

French

English

唯內身自證故不依他知
如是三覺知慈心為說道

Verse page

I.8

ནུས་པ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཡིས། །
སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཉོན་མོངས་སྤོང་ཕྱིར་རོ། །
དང་པོ་གསུམ་གྱིས་རང་དོན་ཏེ། །
ཕྱི་མ་གསུམ་གྱིས་གཞན་དོན་ཡིན། །

शक्तिर्ज्ञानकृपाभ्यां तु दुःखक्लेशनिबर्हणात्
त्रिभिराद्यैर्गुणैः स्वार्थः परार्थः पश्चिमैस्त्रिभिः

It is power because it overcomes suffering
And the afflictions through wisdom and compassion.
One’s own welfare is by virtue of the first three qualities
And the welfare of others by virtue of the latter three.

Elle est puissance parce que la sagesse et la compassion

Éliminent les souffrances et les affections. Les trois premières qualités représentent le bien propre,

Et les trois dernières le bien d’autrui.

French

English

智悲及力等拔苦煩惱刺
初三句自利後三句利他

Verse page

I.9

གང་ཞིག་མེད་མིན་ཡོད་མིན་ཡོད་མེད་མ་ཡིན་ཡོད་མེད་ལས་གཞན་དུའང་། །
བརྟག་པར་མི་ནུས་ངེས་ཚིག་དང་བྲལ་སོ་སོ་རང་གིས་རིག་ཞི་བ། །
དྲི་མེད་ཡེ་ཤེས་འོད་ཟེར་སྣང་ལྡན་དམིགས་པ་ཀུན་ལ་ཆགས་པ་དང་། །
སྡང་དང་རབ་རིབ་རྣམ་པར་འཇོམས་མཛད་དམ་ཆོས་ཉི་མ་དེ་ལ་འདུད། །

यो नासन्न च सन्न चापि सदसन्नान्यः सतो नासतो
ऽसक्यस्तर्कयितुं निरुक्त्यपगतः प्रत्यात्मवेद्यः शिवः
तस्मै धर्मदिवाकराय विमलज्ञानावभासत्विषे
सर्वारम्वण रागदोषतिमिरव्याघातकर्त्रे नमः

Inscrutable as neither nonexistent nor existent nor [both] existent and nonexistent nor other than existent and nonexistent,
Free from etymological interpretation, to be personally experienced, and peaceful—
I pay homage to this sun of the dharma, which shines the light of stainless wisdom
And defeats passion, aggression, and [mental] darkness with regard to all focal objects.

À ce qui n’est ni inexistant, ni existant, ni existant et inexistant,

ni autre qu’existant et inexistant, Qui est impossible à analyser, indéfinissable, connu par l’expérience personnelle, en paix, Immaculé, rayonnant de la lumière de la sagesse primordiale, Et qui, pour tout objet perçu, détruit l’attachement, l’aversion et la taie [de l’ignorance]

Au soleil du vrai Dharma, je rends hommage.

French

English

非有亦非無 亦復非有無

亦非即於彼 亦復不離彼
不可得思量 非聞慧境界
出離言語道 內心知清涼
彼真妙法日 清淨無塵垢
大智慧光明 普照諸世間
能破諸曀障 覺觀貪瞋癡

一切煩惱等 故我今敬禮

Verse page

I.10

བསམ་མེད་གཉིས་མེད་རྟོག་མེད་པ། །
དག་གསལ་གཉེན་པོའི་ཕྱོགས་ཉིད་ཀྱིས། །
གང་ཞིག་གང་གིས་ཆགས་བྲལ་བ། །
བདེན་གཉིས་མཚན་ཉིད་ཅན་དེ་ཆོས། །

अचिन्त्याद्वयनिष्कल्पशुद्धिव्यक्तिविपक्षतः
यो येन च विरागोऽसौ धर्मः सत्यद्विलक्षणः

By virtue of its being inconceivable, free from the dual, nonconceptual,
Pure, manifesting, and a remedial factor,
It is what is and what makes free from attachment, respectively—
The dharma that is characterized by the two realities.

Inconcevable, libre de deux [voiles] et de la pensée,

Le Dharma est pureté, clarté et antidote. Libre de l’attachement dont il délivre,

Il a pour caractéristiques les deux vérités.

French

English

不思議不二無分淨現對
依何得何法離法二諦相

Verse page

Verses loading...
This may take a minute.

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra'

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra'

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra'

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Go to the page with the definition of 'rgyud bla ma'

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Go to the page with the definition of 'rgyud bla ma'

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Go to the page with the definition of 'rgyud bla ma'

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Ratnagotravibhāga'

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Ratnagotravibhāga'

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Ratnagotravibhāga'

Mahāyāna - Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion. Skt. महायान Tib. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ། Ch. 大乘

Go to the page with the definition of 'Mahāyāna'

kleśa - Often referred to as poisons, these are a class of disturbing or disruptive emotional states that when aroused negatively affect or taint the mind. Skt. क्लेश Tib. ཉོན་མོངས་ Ch. 煩惱

Go to the page with the definition of 'afflictions'

avidyā - Literally "unknowing," it refers to a lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of the nature of reality. As such, it is considered to be the root cause of suffering and the basis for the arising of all other negative mental factors. Skt. अविद्या Tib. མ་རིག་པ་ Ch. 無明

Go to the page with the definition of 'ignorance'

pratipakṣa - An antidote or remedy that contributes or supports the elimination or pacification of a particular ailment or affliction. Skt. प्रतिपक्ष Tib. གཉེན་པོ་ Ch. 對治

Go to the page with the definition of 'antidote'

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Uttaratantra'

Uttaratantra - The Ultimate Continuum, or Gyü Lama, is often used as a short title in the Tibetan tradition for the key source text of buddha-nature teachings called the Ratnagotravibhāga of Maitreya/Asaṅga, also known as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra. Skt. उत्तरतन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ Ch. 寶性論

Go to the page with the definition of 'Uttaratantra'

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Uttaratantra'

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Uttaratantra'

sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt. सूत्र Tib. མདོ། Ch. 佛经

Go to the page with the definition of 'Sūtra'

tantra - Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism. Skt. तन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད། Ch. 密宗

Go to the page with the definition of 'Tantra'

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra'

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra'

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra'

RGVV - Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā

Go to the page with the definition of 'RGVV'

According to the Tibetan tradition this is Asaṅga's commentary to the Uttaratantra.

Go to the page with the definition of 'RGVV'

Mahāyānottaratantraśāstravyākhyā - This is the title of Asaṅga's commentary to the Gyü Lama that is given by Tibetan sources instead of the Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā. Skt. महायानोत्तरतन्त्रशास्त्रव्याख्या Tib. ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་རྒྱུད་བླ་མའི་བསྟན་བཅོས་རྣམ་པར་བཤད་པ།

Go to the page with the definition of 'RGVV'