Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra/Root Verses/Verse II.3

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse II.3

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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.

buddhatvaṃ prakṛtiprabhāsvaramiti proktaṃ yadāgantuka-
kleśajñeyaghanābhrajālapaṭalacchannaṃ ravivyomavat
sarvairbuddhaguṇairupetamamalairnityaṃ dhruvaṃ śāśvataṃ
dharmāṇāṃ tadakalpanapravicayajñānāśrayādāpyate

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.

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

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

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།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།

(J80) Now, [there follows] a verse on buddhahood and the means for its attainment, which refers to (1) the topic of nature and (2) the topic of cause.

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. II.3

tatra svabhāvārthe hetvarthe cārabhya buddhatve tatprāptyupāye ca ślokaḥ/

buddhatvaṃ prakṛtiprabhāsvaramiti proktaṃ yadāgantuka-

kleśajñeyaghanābhrajālapaṭalacchannaṃ ravivyomavat/

sarvairbuddhaguṇairupetamamalairnityaṃ dhruvaṃ śāśvataṃ

dharmāṇāṃ tadakalpanapravicayajñānāśrayādāpyate//3//

No Chinese commentary defined.

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931)

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)

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)

[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

Commentaries on this verse

Academic notes

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

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

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