Verse I.160

From Buddha-Nature
Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.160

Verse I.160 Variations

पूर्वमेवं व्यवस्थाप्य तन्त्रे पुनरिहोत्तरे
पञ्चदोषप्रहाणाय धात्वस्तित्वं प्रकाशितम्
pūrvamevaṃ vyavasthāpya tantre punarihottare
pañcadoṣaprahāṇāya dhātvastitvaṃ prakāśitam
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
།སྔར་ནི་དེ་ལྟར་རྣམ་བཞག་ནས།
།སླར་ཡང་བླ་མའི་རྒྱུད་འདིར་ནི།
།ཉེས་པ་ལྔ་དག་སྤང་བའི་ཕྱིར།
།ཁམས་ཡོད་ཉིད་ཅེས་བསྟན་པ་ཡིན།
Dege, PHI, 123
It was presented in this way before
But later in this ultimate continuum here
It is explained that the basic element exists
In order to relinquish the five flaws.
When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 413 [2]
En plus des premiers exposés,
La Continuité suprême enseigne
La présence de l’Élément spirituel
Pour éliminer les cinq défauts.
Charrier, Christian and Patrick Carré. Traité de la Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule. Plazac: Éditions Padmakara, 2019.

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.160

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།ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་གཉིས་པོ་འདིའི་དོན་ནི་མདོར་བསྡུས་ཏེ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་བཅུས་རིག་པར་བྱ་སྟེ། ཡང་དག་མཐའ་ནི་འདུས་བྱས་ཀྱིས། །རྣམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་དབེན་པ་སྟེ། །ཉོན་མོངས་ལས་དང་རྣམ་སྨིན་དོན། །སྤྲིན་{br}ལ་སོགས་པ་བཞིན་དུ་བརྗོད། །ཉོན་མོངས་སྤྲིན་འདྲ་བྱ་བ་ཡི། །ལས་ནི་རྨི་ལམ་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་བཞིན། །ཉོན་མོངས་ལས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་སྨིན། །ཕུང་པོ་སྒྱུ་མ་སྤྲུལ་པ་བཞིན། །སྔར་ནི་དེ་ལྟར་རྣམ་གཞག་ནས། །སླར་ཡང་བླ་མའི་རྒྱུད་འདིར་ནི། །ཉེས་པ་ལྔ་དག་སྤང་བའི་ཕྱིར། །ཁམས་ཡོད་ཉིད་{br}ཅེས་བསྟན་པ་ཡིན། །འདི་ལྟར་དེ་ནི་མ་ཐོས་པས། །བདག་ལ་བརྙས་པའི་ཉེས་པ་ཡིས། །སེམས་ནི་ཞུམ་པ་འགའ་ཞིག་ལ། །བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ནི་སྐྱེ་མི་འགྱུར། །གང་ལ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་པས། །བདག་ནི་མཆོག་ཅེས་རློམ་པ་ན། །བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་མ་སྐྱེས་པ་ལ། །དམན་{br}པའི་འདུ་ཤེས་རབ་ཏུ་འཇུག །དེ་ལྟར་སེམས་པ་དེ་ལ་ནི། །ཡང་དག་ཤེས་པ་མི་སྐྱེ་བ། །དེས་ན་ཡང་དག་མི་འཛིན་ཞིང་། །ཡང་དག་དོན་ནི་རིག་མི་འགྱུར། །བཅོས་མ་གློ་བུར་པ་ཉིད་ཕྱིར། །སེམས་ཅན་སྐྱོན་དེ་ཡང་དག་མིན། །ཡང་དག་ཉེས་དེ་བདག་མེད་པ། །ཡོན་ཏན་རང་བཞིན་དག་པ་{br}ཡིན། །ཡང་དག་མིན་པའི་ཉེས་འཛིན་ཞིང་། །ཡང་དག་ཡོན་ཏན་སྐུར་འདེབས་པ། །བློ་ལྡན་བདག་དང་སེམས་ཅན་ནི། །མཚུངས་མཐོང་བྱམས་པ་ཐོབ་མི་འགྱུར། །འདི་ལྟར་དེ་ནི་ཐོས་པ་ལས། །སྤྲོ་དང་སྟོན་པ་བཞིན་གུས་དང་། །ཤེས་རབ་ཡེ་ཤེས་བྱམས་ཆེན་སྐྱེ། །ཆོས་ལྔ་སྐྱེ་ཕྱིར་དེ་{br}ལ་ནི། །ཁ་ན་མ་ཐོ་མེད་མཚུངས་ལྟར། །སྐྱོན་མེད་ཡོན་ཏན་ལྡན་པ་དང་། །བདག་དང་སེམས་ཅན་མཚུངས་བྱས་ཏེ། །སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད་ནི་མྱུར་དུ་འཐོབ།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) [3]
So has it been ascertained before.
Then, subsequently, in this Highest of Teachings,
In order to remove the 5 kinds of defects (in a living being),
It is shown that the Essence of the Buddha exists.
Takasaki (1966) [4]
So has it been ascertained 'before';
But now, in this 'ultimate' Doctrine,
In order to remove the 5 defects [caused by the previous teaching],
It is shown that the Essence of the Buddha exists.
Fuchs (2000) [5]
For the time being it was thus expounded.
Additionally in this unsurpassable continuity
it was then taught: "The element is present,"
so that the five evils would be abandoned.

Textual sources[edit]

Commentaries on this verse[edit]

Academic notes[edit]

Notes On the Gloss of the Title of the Text in this Verse:

Eugène Obermiller
1901 ~ 1935
The Uttaratantra of Maitreya, Obermiller, p. 368, nt. 3

Or "the latest Teaching" (Uttaratantra = the Scripture of the latest period).


A Study on the Ratnagotravibhāga (Uttaratantra): Being a Treatise on the Tathāgatagarbha Theory of Mahāyāna Buddhism, Takasaki, pp. 306-307, nt. 18

uttara tantra, T. bla-maḥi rgyud. This is the word which gives this work its title. Here the term tantra... has nothing to do with Tantric Buddhism. The meaning is simply ' doctrine ' or ' philosophy '. Significance lies more in the word ' uttara ' than in ' tantra ' since by the term ' uttara ', the author of the Ratna declared his aim and the position of this theory in the currency of Buddhist philosophy. In one sense, this theory is opposite to that of ' pūrva ', by which is meant here clearly the doctrine of the Prajñāpāramitā and of the Mūlamadhyamaka, since the ' former ' one emphasizes ' śūnyatā ', i.e. unreality of things, while this ' latter ' one emphasizes ' astitva ' of buddhadhātu. In another sense, however, this doctrine is not against the former, but a real successor of the former, as being the ' answer '—giver to the problem which has never been explained ' before '; in other words, as we had already known by previous passages, this ' buddhadhātvastivāda ' is a synthetic śūnyavāda of śūnya and aśūnya, and hence it is the ' ultimate '. T. ' bla-ma ' shows this sense.


Karl Brunnhölzl
When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, pp. 1092-1093, nt. 1394

Skt. tantre punar ihottare. As mentioned before, this phrase uses the title of the present text (Uttaratantra) in the sense of the teachings on buddha nature being the latest and also highest teachings of the Buddha. VT (fol. 14r1–2) glosses this phrase as "latest text" or "latest section" (uttaragrantha).


  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. Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

dhātu - A fundamental component or essential constituent. Skt. धातु Tib. ཁམས་ Ch. 界

ātman - Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena. Skt. आत्मन् Tib. བདག་ Ch. 我,灵魂

prajñā - One of the key terms for wisdom or knowledge, most often having the sense of insight, transcendent knowledge, or perhaps gnosis. In some contexts it can also refer to cognition or intellectual understanding. Skt. प्रज्ञा Tib. ཤེས་རབ་ Ch. 般若

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

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

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

Vajrayāna - The esoteric Buddhist tradition which developed as a syncretic system involving deity worship, use of mantras, physical energy, and mystical practices. It is also known as the mantra tradition and the tantric school as a result of being based on texts known as tantras. Skt. वज्रयान Tib. རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐེག་པ། Ch. 金剛乘

Prajñāpāramitā - A class of Mahāyāna sūtras which represents some of the earliest known literature of this genre of Buddhism. There are around forty texts associated with this category, though the most widespread is the exceedingly brief Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, popularly known as the Heart Sūtra. This class of literature is typically associated with the second turning of the dharma wheel and especially with the teachings on emptiness (śūnyatā). As such, these texts were the primary scriptural source for the philosophy of the Madhyamaka school. Skt. प्रज्ञापारमिता Tib. ཤེར་ཕྱིན་,ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ Ch. 般若波羅蜜多

śūnyatā - The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics. Skt. शून्यता Tib. སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ Ch. 空,空門

buddhadhātu - A synonym for tathāgatagarbha widely used throughout the East Asian Buddhist traditions, as found in its translations as the Chinese term fó xìng and Japanese term busshō. Skt. बुद्धधातु Tib. སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཁམས་ Ch. 佛性

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