The Treatise's Closing Verses
The treatise closes by naming three marks of an authentic teaching — its dharma, its meaning, and its mark — before issuing its severest warning of the entire text: that slandering this profound teaching outweighs even the gravest ordinary crimes. It ends with reverence for those who teach it faithfully after the Buddha's own passing, and the author's personal dedication of whatever merit this work has produced.
Three Marks of an Authentic Teaching
又自此已下明向所說義。依何等法說？依何等義說？依何等相說？
初依彼法故，說二偈：
我此所說法， 為自心清淨，
依諸如來教， 修多羅相應。
若有智慧人， 聞能信受者，
我此所說法， 亦為攝彼人。
自此已下，次依彼義故，說二偈：
依燈電摩尼， 日月等諸明，
一切有眼者， 皆能見境界。
依佛法光明， 慧眼者能見，
以法有是利， 故我說此法。
自此已下，次依彼相故，說二偈：
若一切所說， 有義有法句，
能令修行者， 遠離於三界，
及示寂靜法， 最勝無上道，
佛說是正經， 餘者顛倒說。
Furthermore, from here on, the meaning of what has been explained above is clarified. In dependence on what dharma is it spoken? In dependence on what meaning is it spoken? In dependence on what mark is it spoken?
First, in dependence on that dharma, two verses are spoken:
What I have taught here is for the purification of my own mind,
in accordance with the teaching of the tathāgatas, corresponding to the sūtras.
If there is a wise person who, upon hearing it, is able to have faith in and accept it,
what I have taught here is also for the sake of gathering in that person.
From here on, next, in dependence on that meaning, two verses are spoken:
In dependence on the light of a lamp, lightning, a maṇi-jewel, the sun, the moon, and every other source of light,
everyone with eyes is able to see their domain.
In dependence on the light of the buddha-dharma, one with the eye of wisdom is able to see;
because the Dharma has this benefit, I therefore teach this Dharma.
From here on, next, in dependence on that mark, two verses are spoken:
Whatever is taught, if it has meaning, and has the phrasing of the Dharma,
able to cause the practitioner to become apart from the three realms,
and reveals the tranquil Dharma, the most supreme, unsurpassed path —
this the Buddha declares to be a right sūtra; anything else is a distorted teaching.
The author's own admission that this teaching "is for the purification of my own mind" is a rare first-person moment in a treatise otherwise written almost entirely in the voice of impersonal doctrinal analysis — a reminder that the whole eleven-chapter structure was, from its author's own stated perspective, personal practice before it was ever public instruction. The three marks that follow give a working test that has traveled well beyond this text: not whether a teaching claims Buddhist authority, but whether it functions — whether it actually shows a path apart from the three realms and toward the tranquil, unsurpassed way.
Protecting the Dharma, and the Danger of Reasoning It Away
自此已下，依護法方便故，說七偈：
雖說法句義， 斷三界煩惱，
無明覆慧眼， 貪等垢所纏。
又於佛法中， 取少分說者，
世典善言說， 彼三尚可受，
何況諸如來， 遠離煩惱垢。
無漏智慧人， 所說修多羅，
以離於諸佛， 一切世間中，
更無勝智慧， 如實知法者。
如來說了義， 彼不可思議，
思者是謗法， 不識佛意故。
謗聖及壞法， 此諸邪思惟，
煩惱愚癡人， 妄見所計故。
故不應執著， 邪見諸垢法，
以淨衣受色， 垢膩不可染。
From here on, in dependence on the skillful means of protecting the Dharma, seven verses are spoken:
Although a teaching may speak of phrases and meanings said to sever the afflictions of the three realms,
if its speaker's eye of wisdom remains covered by ignorance, bound by the taint of greed and the rest, it should not simply be trusted.
Furthermore, with regard to the buddha-dharma, if a teaching takes up only a small portion of it,
yet is spoken in well-reasoned worldly discourse, such partial teachings may still be weighed with discernment —
how much more so the teaching of the tathāgatas, who are far removed from the taint of affliction.
The sūtras spoken by a person of uncontaminated wisdom deserve full trust —
for apart from the buddhas, there is, within the whole world, no wisdom superior to theirs,
no one else who knows the Dharma as it truly is.
The Tathāgata teaches the definitive meaning, which is inconceivable;
one who tries merely to reason it out slanders the Dharma, not recognizing the Buddha's true intent.
Slandering the noble ones and destroying the Dharma — these wrong ways of thinking
are the false views conceived by afflicted, foolish people.
For this reason, one should not cling to the tainted dharmas of wrong view —
just as a clean garment readily takes on dye, but grime and grease cannot properly dye it.
The warning that one who "tries merely to reason it out slanders the Dharma" is a deliberately narrow claim, not a blanket rejection of reasoning: the treatise itself is nothing but four hundred verses of careful reasoning, citation, and argument. The distinction is between reasoning that operates in service of a teaching whose ultimate content exceeds ordinary conceptual thought, and reasoning that treats itself as the final court of appeal, dismissing whatever it cannot fully reconstruct on its own terms — the same difference this treatise drew, in Part 24, between purity by nature and purity through actual practice, applied here to how a mind ought to relate to a teaching still beyond its full grasp.
The Gravest Warning: Slandering the Profound Dharma
自此已下，依謗正法故，說三偈：
愚不信白法， 邪見及憍慢，
過去謗法障， 執著不了義，
著供養恭敬， 唯見於邪法，
遠離善知識， 親近謗法者，
樂著小乘法。 如是等眾生，
不信於大乘， 故謗諸佛法。
自此已下，依謗正法得惡果報故，說六偈：
智者不應畏， 怨家蛇火毒，
因陀羅霹靂， 刀杖諸惡獸，
師子虎狼等， 彼但能斷命，
不能令人入， 可畏阿鼻獄。
應畏謗深法， 及謗法知識，
決定令人入， 可畏阿鼻獄。
雖近惡知識， 惡心出佛血，
及殺害父母， 斷諸聖人命，
破壞和合僧， 及斷諸善根，
以繫念正法， 能解脫彼處。
若復有餘人， 誹謗甚深法，
彼人無量劫， 不可得解脫。
From here on, in dependence on slandering the true Dharma, three verses are spoken:
The foolish do not believe in the wholesome Dharma, held back by wrong view and arrogance,
obstructed by past slander of the Dharma, clinging to the provisional rather than the definitive meaning,
attached to offerings and reverence, seeing only wrong teachings,
keeping apart from good spiritual friends, drawing near to those who slander the Dharma,
delighting in attachment to the lesser vehicle's teachings — such sentient beings as these
do not believe in the Mahāyāna, and therefore slander the buddha-dharma.
From here on, in dependence on the evil retribution that results from slandering the true Dharma, six verses are spoken:
The wise should not fear an enemy, a snake, fire, poison, Indra's thunderbolt, blade or staff, every fierce beast,
lion, tiger, wolf, and the rest — these can only end one's life;
they cannot cause a person to enter the fearsome Avīci hell.
One should fear slandering the profound Dharma, and befriending those who slander the Dharma —
this will certainly cause a person to enter the fearsome Avīci hell.
Even one who has drawn near to evil companions, who with a malicious mind has drawn a buddha's blood,
who has killed father or mother, taken the life of noble ones, broken the harmony of the Saṅgha,
and severed every wholesome root — even such a person, by fixing the mind on the true Dharma,
can still be liberated from that place of retribution.
But if there is yet another person who slanders this most profound Dharma,
that person, for immeasurable kalpas, cannot attain liberation.
The comparison against the traditional five heinous crimes — matricide, patricide, killing an arhat, wounding a buddha, and causing schism in the Saṅgha — is deliberately shocking, and its logic is worth stating plainly rather than softening: even those crimes, the verse says, can still be resolved "by fixing the mind on the true Dharma," while slandering the tathāgatagarbha teaching itself forecloses that very route to resolution, since it is precisely the confidence that liberation is truly possible that slander of this kind undermines. Read alongside Chapter Seven's five faults of teaching emptiness without also teaching buddha-nature — timidity, contempt, false clinging, slander, and self-attachment — this warning closes the circle: the entire treatise has been written, by its own account, specifically to prevent this one outcome.
Honoring the Teacher, and the Author's Dedication
自此已下，依於說法法師生敬重心故，說二偈：
若人令眾生， 學信如是法，
彼是我父母， 亦是善知識。
彼人是智者， 以如來滅後，
迴邪見顛倒， 令入正道故。
自此已下，依彼說法所得功德以用迴向故，說三偈：
三寶清淨性， 菩提功德業，
我略說七種， 與佛經相應。
依此諸功德， 願於命終時，
見無量壽佛， 無邊功德身。
我及餘信者， 既見彼佛已，
願得離垢眼， 成無上菩提。
From here on, in dependence on giving rise to a mind of reverence toward the Dharma-teacher who teaches this Dharma, two verses are spoken:
If a person causes sentient beings to learn and have faith in a teaching such as this,
that person is like my own father and mother, and is also a good spiritual friend.
That person is a wise one, because, after the Tathāgata's parinirvāṇa,
they turn back beings' wrong, inverted views, and cause them to enter the right path.
From here on, in dependence on dedicating the merit attained through teaching this Dharma, three verses are spoken:
The pure nature of the Three Jewels, and bodhi, its qualities, and its activity —
I have briefly explained these seven, corresponding to the Buddha's sūtras.
By these qualities, I vow that, at the time of my death,
I may behold the Buddha of Immeasurable Life, his body of boundless qualities.
May I, and every other person of faith, having beheld that buddha,
attain the stainless eye, and accomplish unsurpassed bodhi.
The treatise's dedication of merit toward beholding "the Buddha of Immeasurable Life" — Amitāyus, better known by his more common name Amitābha — is a quiet but genuine surprise this late in a systematic philosophical treatise: the author of the most rigorous tathāgatagarbha analysis in this literature closes not with a further doctrinal claim but with a devotional aspiration recognizable to any reader of the Pure Land sūtras this site has also translated. It is a reminder that, for the tradition this treatise comes from, systematic philosophy and devotional practice were never understood as two separate paths, but as two expressions of the identical aspiration toward "the stainless eye" and unsurpassed bodhi.
The Treatise's Own Summary of Its Final Chapter
自此已下略說句義。偈言：
依何等法說？ 依何等義說？
依何等相說？ 如彼法而說，
如彼義而說， 如彼相而說。
彼一切諸法， 六行偈示現，
護自身方便， 以七行偈說，
明誹謗正法， 故有三行偈。
六偈示彼因， 以二偈示現，
於彼說法人， 深生敬重心，
大眾聞忍受， 得彼大菩提，
略說三種法， 示現彼果報。
From here on, the meaning of these verses is briefly summarized. A verse says:
In dependence on what dharma is it spoken? In dependence on what meaning is it spoken?
In dependence on what mark is it spoken? Spoken in accordance with that dharma,
spoken in accordance with that meaning, spoken in accordance with that mark.
All these dharmas are revealed in six verses; the skillful means of protecting the Dharma
are spoken in seven verses; the clarification of slandering the true Dharma occupies three verses.
Six verses reveal that cause of evil retribution, and two verses reveal the deep reverence
to be given to the one who teaches that Dharma; the great assembly, having heard and accepted it, attains that great bodhi —
these three kinds of dharma have been briefly explained, revealing their fruit and retribution.
The Ratnagotravibhāga Translation Concluded
With this, the Ratnagotravibhāga (究竟一乘寶性論, Taishō T1611, translated into Chinese by Ratnamati in 511 CE) is complete in this 33-part translation — its eleven chapters covering the Three Jewels, the tathāgatagarbha's ten meanings across all sentient beings, the nine similes of its concealment within affliction, the reasons it must be taught, the fruit of buddhahood in its eightfold and sixty-four-fold analysis, the spontaneity of buddha-activity, and finally the merit of faith in all of it. Alongside the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra, the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa Sūtra, and the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra it quotes throughout, this treatise stands as this site's most systematic single statement of tathāgatagarbha thought — the teaching, argued here from every angle its author could devise, that no sentient being is ever, even for a moment, apart from the buddha-nature they are working to realize.