Verse I.23

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.23

Verse I.23 Variations

समला तथताथ निर्मला विमलाः बुद्धगुणा जिनक्रिया
विषयः परमार्थदर्शिनां शुभरत्नत्रयसर्गको यतः

samalā tathatātha nirmalā vimalāḥ buddhaguṇā jinakriyā
viṣayaḥ paramārthadarśināṃ śubharatnatrayasargako yataḥ

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.^[1]

དྲི་བཅས་དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་དང་དྲི་མ་མེད། །
དྲི་མེད་སངས་རྒྱས་ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱལ་བའི་མཛད། །
གང་ལས་དཀོན་མཆོག་དགེ་བ་གསུམ་འབྱུང་བ། །
དོན་དམ་གཟིགས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་ཉིད་དོ། །

Dege, PHI, 110-111

Suchness with stains, the one without stains,
Stainless buddha qualities, and the activity of the victors
Are the objects of those who see the ultimate,
From which the three splendid jewels arise.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 351. ^[2]

真如有雜垢及遠離諸垢

佛無量功德及佛所作業
如是妙境界是諸佛所知
依此妙法身出生於三寶

http://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/en/T31n1611_p0826c23

De l’ainsité avec et sans souillures,

Des qualités immaculées des bouddhas

et de leurs activités de Vainqueurs

Émergent les Trois Joyaux de vertu,

L’objet même de ceux qui voient la vérité absolue.

Charrier, Christian and Patrick Carré. Traité de la Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule. Plazac: Éditions Padmakara, 2019.

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.23

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།དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་བསྟན་པའི་རྗེས་ཐོགས་ལ་གང་ཡོང་ན་འཇིག་རྟེན་པ་དང་འཇིག་རྟེན་ལས་འདས་པའི་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་སྐྱེ་བའི་གནས་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་སྐྱེ་བར་འགྱུར་བ་དེའི་དབང་དུ་བྱས་ནས་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། དྲི་བཅས་དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་དང་དྲི་{br}མ་མེད། །དྲི་མེད་སངས་རྒྱས་ཡོན་ཏན་རྒྱལ་བའི་མཛོད། །གང་ལས་དཀོན་མཆོག་དགེ་བ་གསུམ་འབྱུང་བ། །དོན་དམ་གཟིགས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་ཉིད་དོ།

Other English translations[edit]

Listed by date of publication

Obermiller (1931) ^[5]

The Absolute mingled with defilement,

The Absolute free from all the stains,

The immaculate attributes and the acts of the Buddha，

(These elements) from which the 3 illustrious Jewels arise,

(These 4 items) are only accessible to him who perceives the

Absolute Truth.

Takasaki (1966) ^[6]

The Reality mingled with pollution,

And [the Reality] apart from pollution,

The Immaculate Qualities of the Buddha, and his Acts;

[These are the four aspects of] the sphere

Of those who perceive the Highest Truth,

From which arise the pure Three Jewels.

Holmes (1985) ^[7]

That those three, excellent, rare and supreme

arise from the suchness, polluted and unpolluted,

the qualities of immaculate buddhahood and the victors' deeds -

such is knowledge's domain for those who the ultimate perceive.

Holmes (1999) ^[8]

That these three rare and supreme arise from tainted suchness,

untainted suchness, the qualities of immaculate enlightenment

and the deeds of the Victorious Ones

is precisely the domain of those aware of the ultimate.

Fuchs (2000) ^[9]

The virtuous Three Jewels, which are rare and sublime,

arise from suchness bound up with pollution, from the one free

from pollution,

from the qualities of unpolluted buddhahood, and from the deeds of

the Victor.

This is the object of those who see the ultimate truth.

Textual sources[edit]

Commentaries on this verse[edit]

Academic notes[edit]

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input
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.
J śubha, which can also mean "beautiful," "good," "virtuous," "pleasant," "eminent," "bright," and "pure"; DP dge ba. GC (209.21–23) explains that dge ba can refer to Sanskrit śuddhi ("pure"), sukha ("bliss"), and śobha ("beautiful" or "excellent"). What this means here is that the three jewels possess all these qualities.
I follow Schmithausen’s reading of MB °sambhavo against J °sargako.
Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
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.
Holmes, Ken & Katia. The Changeless Nature. Eskdalemuir, Scotland: Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling, 1985.
Holmes, Ken & Katia. Maitreya on Buddha Nature. Scotland: Altea Publishing, 1999.
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.

[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] J śubha, which can also mean "beautiful," "good," "virtuous," "pleasant," "eminent," "bright," and "pure"; DP dge ba. GC (209.21–23) explains that dge ba can refer to Sanskrit śuddhi ("pure"), sukha ("bliss"), and śobha ("beautiful" or "excellent"). What this means here is that the three jewels possess all these qualities.

[4] I follow Schmithausen’s reading of MB °sambhavo against J °sargako.

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

[6] 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.

[7] Holmes, Ken & Katia. The Changeless Nature. Eskdalemuir, Scotland: Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling, 1985.

[8] Holmes, Ken & Katia. Maitreya on Buddha Nature. Scotland: Altea Publishing, 1999.

[9] 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.

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