Verse I.157

From Buddha-Nature
Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.157

Verse I.157 Variations

लीनं चित्तं हीनसत्त्वेष्ववज्ञा-
भूतग्राहो भूतधर्मापवादः
आत्मस्नेहश्चाधिकः पञ्च दोषा
येषां तेषां तत्प्रहाणार्थमुक्तम्
līnaṃ cittaṃ hīnasattveṣvavajñā-
bhūtagrāho bhūtadharmāpavādaḥ
ātmasnehaścādhikaḥ pañca doṣā
yeṣāṃ teṣāṃ tatprahāṇārthamuktam
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
སེམས་ཞུམ་སེམས་ཅན་དམན་ལ་བརྙས་པ་དང་། །
ཡང་དག་མི་འཛིན་ཡང་དག་ཆོས་ལ་སྐུར། །
བདག་ཅག་[2]ལྷག་པའི་སྐྱོན་ལྔ་གང་དག་ལ། །
ཡོད་པ་དེ་དག་དེ་སྤོང་དོན་དུ་གསུངས། །
They taught this so that those in whom they exist
May relinquish the five flaws of faintheartedness,
Contempt for inferior sentient beings, clinging to what is unreal,
Deprecating the real dharma, and excessive self-cherishing.
以有怯弱心 輕慢諸眾生

執著虛妄法 謗真如佛性
計身有神我 為令如是等
遠離五種過 故說有佛性

Perdre courage et mépriser les êtres plus humbles que soi,
Croire à ce qui n’est pas vrai, déprécier le vrai Dharma
Et, enfin, être trop attaché à soi-même : voilà cinq défauts
Que cet enseignement se propose d’éliminer chez ceux qu’ils affectent.

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.157

།སྨྲས་པ། གལ་ཏེ་དེ་ལྟར་ཆགས་པ་མེད་པའི་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པའི་ས་ལ་གནས་པའི་འཕགས་པའི་མཆོག་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཡང་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡུལ་མ་{br}ཡིན་ན། ཁམས་འདི་ལྟ་བར་དཀའ་བ་དེས་ན་བྱིས་པ་སོ་སོའི་སྐྱེ་བོ་ལས་བརྩམས་ཏེ། བསྟན་པ་འདིས་ནི་ཅི་ཞིག་བྱ་ཞེ་ན། བསྟན་པའི་དགོས་པ་སྡུད་པའི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་གཉིས་ཏེ། གཅིག་གིས་ནི་དྲིས་ལ། གཉིས་པས་ནི་ལན་བསྟན་པའོ། །སྤྲིན་དང་རྨི་ལམ་སྒྱུ་བཞིན་དེ་དང་དེར། །{br}ཤེས་བྱ་ཐམས་ཅད་རྣམ་ཀུན་སྟོང་པ་ཞེས། །གསུངས་ནས་ཡང་འདིར་རྒྱལ་རྣམས་སེམས་ཅན་ལ། །སངས་རྒྱས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡོད་ཅེས་ཅི་སྟེ་གསུངས། །སེམས་ཞུམ་སེམས་ཅན་དམན་ལ་བརྙས་པ་དང་། །ཡང་དག་མི་འཛིན་ཡང་དག་ཆོས་ལ་སྐུར། །བདག་ཅག་ལྷག་པའི་སྐྱོན་ལྔ་གང་

དག་ལ། །ཡོད་པ་དེ་དག་དེ་སྤོང་དོན་དུ་གསུངས།

Other English translations[edit]

Listed by date of publication
Obermiller (1931) [7]
There are 5 kinds of defects (in a living being):—
Depression of the mind, contempt regarding those that are inferior,
Evaluation of the unreal, nihilistic views regarding the Absolute Truth.
(The teaching about the element of Buddhahood) has been exposed
In order that those with whom these defects exist
Might become rid of them.[8]
Takasaki (1966) [9]
There are 5 defects [caused by the previous teaching]:
The depressed mind, contempt against those who are inferior,
Clinging to things unreal, speaking ill of Truth,
And besides, affection for one's self.
[The teaching about Essence of the Buddha] has been taught
In order that those who are possessed of these defects
Might get rid of their defects.
Holmes (1985) [10]
There are five mistakes: faint-heartedness,
contempt for those of lesser ability,
to believe in the false,
to speak about the true nature badly
and to cherish oneself above all else.
So that those in whom these above were there
might rid themselves of them, therefore was it declared.
Holmes (1999) [11]
There are five mistakes: faint-heartedness,
contempt for those of lesser ability, belief in the false,
slandering the true meaning and self-cherishing.
So that those in whom the above exist may rid themselves
of these, thus was it declared.
Fuchs (2000) [12]
With regard to faintheartedness, contempt for inferior beings,
perceiving the untrue, disparaging the true nature,
and exceeding self-cherishing, he said this to persuade those
who have any of these five to abandon their defects.

Textual sources[edit]

Commentaries on this verse[edit]

Academic notes[edit]

  1. Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input
  2. In the Sanskrit we have ātmasneha, which most likely should be བདག་ཆགས་, but the Dege edition has ཅག་
  3. 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.
  4. I follow MA/MB bālajanam against J bālapṛthagjanam and DP byi pa so so’i skye bo.
  5. Schmithausen parallels "here and there" (tatra tatra) with "in each sentient being" (sattve sattve) in the last line. Thus, one would have to translate "Having said that, [in sentient beings] here and there, . . ." However, the more likely meaning is "here and there in the mahāyāna sūtras,"which is confirmed by VT (fol. 14r1) that glosses "here and there" as "in the sūtras." This also corresponds to C’s rendering sūtra [koṭi] ṣu ("sūtra"in transcription!) instead of bhūtakoṭiṣu in I.158b.
  6. With Takasaki, the Sanskrit of this line could also be read as "everything is to be understood as being empty in all respects,"but I read it following DP shes bya thams cad rnam kun stong pa zhes.
  7. Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
  8. This is verse 155 in Obermiller's translation
  9. 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.
  10. Holmes, Ken & Katia. The Changeless Nature. Eskdalemuir, Scotland: Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling, 1985.
  11. Holmes, Ken & Katia. Maitreya on Buddha Nature. Scotland: Altea Publishing, 1999.
  12. 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.