Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra/Root Verses

Title

Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra—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

Verse I.1

Buddha, dharma, assembly, basic element,

Awakening, qualities, and finally buddha activity—

The body of the entire treatise

Is summarized in these seven vajra points. I.1

Verse I.2

In accordance with their specific characteristics {P76a}

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. I.2

Verse I.3

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. I.3

Chapter 1
The Three Jewels and the Tathāgata Heart

Verse I.4

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. I.4

Verse I.5

Being unconditioned, effortless,

Not being produced through other conditions,

And possessing wisdom, compassion, and power,

Buddhahood is endowed with the two welfares. I.5

Verse I.6

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. I.6

Verse I.7

It is not produced through other conditions

Because it is to be realized personally. {D78a}

Thus, it is wisdom because it is threefold awakening.

It is compassion because it teaches the path. I.7

Verse I.8

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. I.8

Verse I.9

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—{J11}

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. I.9

Verse I.10

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. I.10

Verse I.11

Freedom from attachment {P81a} consists of

The two realities of cessation and the path.

In due order, these two are to be understood

Through three qualities each. I.11

Verse I.12

Because of being inscrutable, because of being inexpressible,

And because of being the wisdom of the noble ones, it is inconceivable.

Because of being peaceful, it is free from the dual and without conceptions.

[In its] three [qualities] such as being pure, it is like the sun. I.12

Verse I.13

They perfectly realize that the endpoint of the identitylessness of the entire world is peace

Because they see that, by virtue of the natural luminosity of the minds in this [world], the afflictions are without nature. {D82a}

I pay homage to those who see that perfect buddhahood is allpervading, whose intelligence is unobscured,

And whose wisdom vision has the purity and infinitude of beings as its objects. I.13

Verse I.14

By virtue of the purity of the inner

Wisdom vision of suchness and variety,

The assembly of the irreversible intelligent ones

Is [endowed] with unsurpassable qualities. I.14

Verse I.15

[The wisdom of] suchness by virtue of

Realizing the world’s true nature of peace

Is due to the natural complete purity [of the mind]

And due to seeing the primordial termination of the afflictions. I.15

Verse I.16

[The wisdom of] being variety is due to

The intelligence that encompasses the entire range of the knowable

Seeing the existence of the true nature

Of omniscience in all sentient beings. I.16

Verse I.17

Such a realization is the vision

Of one’s own personal wisdom.

It is pure in the stainless basic element

Because it lacks attachment and lacks obstruction. I.17

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

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

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

vajrapada - Literally, vajra-footing, or base. In the context of the Ratnagotravibhāga, this is the name given to the seven subjects that are addressed in the treatise. These seven are the buddha, dharma, saṅgha, the element (dhātu), enlightenment (bodhi), enlightened qualities (guṇa), and enlightened activities (karman). Skt. वज्रपद Tib. རྡོ་རྗེའི་གནས་

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

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

tathatā - Suchness itself, absolute reality, or thusness, as in the ultimate state of being of phenomena. Skt. तथता Tib. དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་

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།

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

RGVV - Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā

āvaraṇa - Literally, that which obscures or conceals. Often listed as a set of two obscurations (sgrib gnyis): the afflictive emotional obscurations (Skt. kleśāvaraṇa, Tib. nyon mongs pa'i sgrib pa) and the cognitive obscurations (Skt. jñeyāvaraṇa, Tib. shes bya'i sgrib pa). By removing the first, one becomes free of suffering, and by removing the second, one becomes omniscient. Skt. आवरण Tib. སྒྲིབ་པ་

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