- Ratna-gotra-vibhaga
Ratna-gotra-vibhāga, "The Analysis of the Source of the [Three] Jewels", is an important text of
Buddhist philosophy associated with "tathāgatagarbha " thought. A secondary title for this work is "Uttara-tantra" (The Ultimate Doctrine), highlighting the text's claim that the "tathāgata-garbha" teachings represent the final, definitive teachings of the Buddha, in contrast to the earlier teachings on emphasizing intrinsic emptiness, such as contained in thePerfection of Insight Sutras ("prajñā-pāramitā") and otherMahāyāna scriptures. In addition to the group of scriptures known as the "Tathāgata-garbha" sūtras, this work is the corner-stone of the "tathāgata-garbha" trend of thought in Mahāyāna Buddhism.The text consists of about 430 verses with a prose commentary that includes substantial quotations from "
tathāgata-garbha " oriented sūtras; as well as a single extantSanskrit version, translations exist in Chinese and Tibetan, though it should be noted that each of these versions show a degree of recensional variation.The text is attributed to a certain
Sthiramati or Sāramati in the earlier Chinese tradition, while the Tibetan tradition considers the verse portion to have been composed byMaitreya-nātha and the prose commentary byAsanga . The question of authorship may possibly be resolved by an analysis of the structure of this multi-layered text. The verses actually comprise two separate groups: a core set of 27 verses ("śloka ") and 405 additional or supplementary verses of explication ("kārikā "). Some scholars have suggested that the former set of verses should be attributed to Maitreya-nātha, the secondary verses to Asanga, and the prose commentary to Sāramati.In English Translation
The Ratna-gotra-vibhāga was translated into English by Rosemary Fuchs and published in 2000. ["Buddha Nature: The Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra with Commentary" by Rosemary Fuchs. Snow Lion Publications. Ithica: 2000]
Notes
References
Takasaki, Jikido "A Study on the Ratnagotravibhāga – Being a Treatise on the Tathāgatagarbha Theory of Mahāyāna Buddhism", Serie Orientale Roma XXXIII ISMEO 1966
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