འཕགས་པ་བླ་གྲས་རྒྱ་མཚས་ཞས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.7

intro.7

Because the sūtra is quoted (as mentioned above) in the Ratna­gotra­vibhāga­vyākhyā (RGVV), it is sometimes included in lists of scriptures that are sources for—or otherwise connected with—the Ratna­gotra­vibhāga and the buddha-nature literature in general. The passages quoted (–) are used in the RGVV to explain how the afflictions that obscured the buddha-nature during the impure phase of ordinary sentient beings have, in the intermediate phase of bodhisattvas, been understood for what they really are and thus instead of causing involuntary rebirth in saṃsāra as before, now assume a more positive form as the compassionate motivation for taking voluntary rebirth in order to help beings. Although the sūtra makes no mention of the buddha-nature as such, the analogy included in this quoted passage of the jewel that has been in the mud for a thousand years () is strikingly similar to the famous analogies in the Tathāgata­garbha­sūtra and the Ratna­gotra­vibhāga .