Verse II.3

From Buddha-Nature
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::'''Is endowed with all the stainless buddha qualities and is permanent, everlasting, and eternal.'''
 
::'''Is endowed with all the stainless buddha qualities and is permanent, everlasting, and eternal.'''
 
::'''It is attained based on the wisdom that is nonconceptual about [all] phenomena and discriminates them.''' II.3
 
::'''It is attained based on the wisdom that is nonconceptual about [all] phenomena and discriminates them.''' II.3
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The meaning of this verse is to be understood in brief through the [following] four verses.
 
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::'''Buddhahood is characterized'''
 
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::'''By [its] inseparable pure attributes'''—
 
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::'''The two characteristics of wisdom and relinquishment'''<ref>VT (fol. 14r3) relates "two"to "relinquishment,"referring to the characteristic of the elimination of afflictive and cognitive obscurations. </ref>—
 
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::'''Which are similar to the sun and the sky'''. II.4
 
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::'''It possesses all the buddha attributes'''
 
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::'''Which are beyond the sands of the river Gaṅgā [in number]''',
 
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::'''Luminous, unproduced,'''
 
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::'''And manifesting in an inseparable manner'''. II.5
 
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::'''By virtue of not being established by any nature''',
 
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::'''Being pervasive, and being adventitious,'''
 
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::'''Afflictive and cognitive obscurations'''
 
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::'''Are described as being like clouds in it'''.<ref>I follow MA/MB ''tasmin'' against J ''tasmān''. </ref> II.6
 
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::'''The cause of becoming separated'''
 
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::'''From the two obscurations is twofold wisdom'''.
 
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::'''This wisdom is asserted as the nonconceptual one'''
 
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::'''And the one attained subsequent to that'''. II.7
 
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As for its being said [above] that "purity is the nature of the fundamental change," here, in brief, purity is twofold—natural purity and the purity (P121a) of being without stains. Here, natural purity is [in itself] liberation, but it is not [yet] freed because the '''luminous''' nature of the mind has not become freed from '''adventitious''' stains. The purity of being '''without stains''' is [both] liberation and freed because the '''luminous''' nature of the mind has become freed from all '''adventitious''' stains without exception, just as water and so on [having become freed from] the stains of silt and so on.<ref>I follow MA/MB ''rajomalādibhyaḥ'' against J ''rajojalādibhyaḥ''. </ref>
 
 
|OtherTranslations=<h6>Obermiller (1931) <ref>Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.</ref></h6>
 
|OtherTranslations=<h6>Obermiller (1931) <ref>Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.</ref></h6>
 
:Buddhahood5 is that which is called pure and radiant,
 
:Buddhahood5 is that which is called pure and radiant,

Revision as of 13:19, 5 February 2020

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse II.3

Verse II.3 Variations

बुद्धत्वं प्रकृतिप्रभास्वरमिति प्रोक्तं यदागन्तुक-
क्लेशज्ञेयघनाभ्रजालपटलच्छन्नं रविव्योमवत्
सर्वैर्बुद्धगुणैरुपेतममलैर्नित्यं ध्रुवं शाश्वतं
धर्माणां तदकल्पनप्रविचयज्ञानाश्रयादाप्यते
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
buddhatvaṃ prakṛtiprabhāsvaramiti proktaṃ yadāgantuka-
kleśajñeyaghanābhrajālapaṭalacchannaṃ ravivyomavat
sarvairbuddhaguṇairupetamamalairnityaṃ dhruvaṃ śāśvataṃ
dharmāṇāṃ tadakalpanapravicayajñānāśrayādāpyate
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[2]
།རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་ཞེས་བརྗོད་གང་ཡིན་ཉི་དང་མཁའ་བཞིན་གློ་བུར་གྱི།
།ཉོན་མོངས་ཤེས་བྱའི་སྤྲིན་ཚོགས་སྟུག་པོའི་སྒྲིབ་པ་ཡིས་ནི་བསྒྲིབས་གྱུར་པ།
།དྲི་མེད་སངས་རྒྱས་ཡོན་ཏན་ཀུན་ལྡན་རྟག་བརྟན་གཡུང་དྲུང་སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད།
།དེ་ནི་ཆོས་ལ་མི་རྟོག་རྣམ་འབྱེད་ཡེ་ཤེས་དག་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་འཐོབ།
Dege, PHI, 124
Buddhahood, spoken of as being luminous by nature [but] having been obscured by the massive web
Of the thick clouds of adventitious afflictive and cognitive [obscurations], just as the sun and the sky,
Is endowed with all the stainless buddha qualities and is permanent, everlasting, and eternal.
It is attained based on the wisdom that is nonconceptual about [all] phenomena and discriminates them.
When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 416 [3]
On l’appelle « luminosité naturelle » et elle évoque le soleil et le ciel.
L’épaisse nuée des [voiles] adventices du connaissable
et des affections la recouvrent
[Mais elle reste] la bouddhéité permanente, stable et éternelle,
dotée de toutes les qualités immaculées des bouddhas.
On peut l’atteindre avec les deux sagesses qui discernent
tous les phénomènes sans la moindre pensée.
Charrier, Christian and Patrick Carré. Traité de la Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule. Plazac: Éditions Padmakara, 2019.

RGVV Commentary on Verse II.3

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

Full Tibetan Commentary
Full English Commentary
Full Sanskrit Commentary
Full Chinese Commentary

།དེ་ལ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད་དང་དེ་ཐོབ་པའི་ཐབས་སུ་གྱུར་པ་ངོ་བོའི་དོན་དང་རྒྱུའི་དོན་ལས་བརྩམས་ཏེ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། རང་བཞིན་འོད་གསལ་ཞེས་བརྗོད་གང་ཡིན་ཉི་མ་མཁའ་བཞིན་གློ་བུར་གྱི། །{br}ཉོན་མོངས་ཤེས་བྱའི་སྤྲིན་ཚོགས་སྟུག་པོའི་སྒྲིབ་པ་ཡིས་ནི་བསྒྲིབས་གྱུར་པ། །དྲི་མེད་སངས་རྒྱས་ཡོན་ཏན་ཀུན་ལྡན་རྟག་བརྟན་གཡུང་དྲུང་སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད། །དེ་ནི་ཆོས་ལ་མི་རྟོག་རྣམ་འབྱེད་ཡེ་ཤེས་དག་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་འཐོབ།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) [4]
Buddhahood5 is that which is called pure and radiant,
(Shining) like the sun and (immaculate) like the sky,
Which was darkened by the Obscurations
Of defilement and ignorance as by dense multitudes of clouds
And is now perfectly pure, possessed of all the properties of the Buddha,
Is eternal, firm and indestructible.
It is attained on the foundation of the knowledge of the Truth,
Which is free from dialectical thoüght-construction,
And the knowledge analyzing (the elements of existence).
Takasaki (1966) [5]
Buddhahood has been spoken of as being radiant by nature,
[however] as being covered with the net of the multitude of clouds,
In the form of [obstructions on account of] defilements
And knowable things which are of accidental nature,
Just as the sun and the sky [are often interrupted by clouds
Though they are radiant and immaculate, respectively];
This Buddhahood is now eternal, everlasting and constant,
Being endowed with all the the pure properties of the Buddha,
And is attained when the elements [of existence] take resort
To the Non-discriminative and Analytical Wisdom.
Fuchs (2000) [6]
[Enlightenment, of which the Buddha] said: "It is by nature clear light," is similar to the sun and space.
It is free from the stains of the adventitious poisons and hindrances to knowledge, the veils of which obscured it [like] a dense sea of clouds.
Buddhahood is permanent, steadfast, and immutable, possessing all the unpolluted buddha qualities.
It is attained on the basis of [two] primordial wisdoms: [one is] free from ideation with regard to phenomena, [the other is] discriminative.

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. Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.

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་

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

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་

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

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.

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