Verse I.39

From Buddha-Nature
Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.39

Verse I.39 Variations

छित्त्वा स्नेहं प्रज्ञयात्मन्यशेषं
सत्त्वस्नेहान् नैति शान्तिं कृपावान्
निःश्रित्यैवं धीकृपे बोध्युपायौ
नोपैत्यार्यः संवृतिं निर्वृतिं वा
chittvā snehaṃ prajñayātmanyaśeṣaṃ
sattvasnehān naiti śāntiṃ kṛpāvān
niḥśrityaivaṃ dhīkṛpe bodhyupāyau
nopaityāryaḥ saṃvṛtiṃ nirvṛtiṃ vā
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
བདག་སྲེད་མ་ལུས་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིས་བཅད་དེ། །
སེམས་ཅན་སྲེད་ཕྱིར་བརྩེ་ལྡན་ཞི་ཐོབ་མིན། །
དེ་ལྟར་བློ་བརྩེ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཐབས་བརྟེན་ནས། །
འཕགས་པ་འཁོར་བའམ་མྱ་ངན་འདའ་མི་འགྱུར། །
With prajñā, they cut through all self-cherishing without exception.
Because they cherish sentient beings, those full of compassion do not approach peace.
Relying in this way on intelligence and compassion, the two means for awakening,
The noble ones approach neither saṃsāra nor nirvāṇa.
無分別之人 不分別世間

不分別涅槃 涅槃有平等

Les compatissants ont coupé sans reste la soif du soi
avec la connaissance transcendante ;
Et comme ils ont soif des êtres vivants, ils ne consomment pas la paix.
Avec l’intelligence et la compassion pour méthodes d’Éveil,
Les êtres sublimes ne se tiennent ni dans le saṃsāra ni dans le nirvāṇa.

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.39

།དེ་ལྟར་ན་ཆོས་གཉིས་པོ་འདི་ནི་བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་རྩ་བའི་གནས་སུ་བསྟན་པ་ནི། བདག་སྲེད་མ་ལུས་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིས་བཅད་དེ། །སེམས་ཅན་སྲེད་ཕྱིར་བརྩེ་ལྡན་ཞི་ཐོབ་མིན། །དེ་ལྟར་བློ་བརྩེ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཐབས་བརྟེན་ནས། །{br}འཕགས་པ་འཁོར་བའམ་མྱ་ངན་འདའ་མི་འགྱུར།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) [5]
(The Saint) by his great wisdom rejects all selfish (worldly) inclinations.
But, being merciful and attached to the cause of the living beings, he does not attain Quiescence.
Thus, having his stand in Wisdom and Love, these means of Supreme Enlightenment,
The Saint neither resides in this world, nor does he depart to (egoistic) peace.
Takasaki (1966) [6]
[Though] Having destroyed affection for himself
By means of the Intellect, completely,
The Saint, being full of Mercy, does not approach
Quiescence because of his affection for the people;
Thus standing on both the Intellect and Mercy,
These two means of Enlightenment,
The Saint approaches neither this world nor Nirvāṇa.
Fuchs (2000) [7]
Their analytical wisdom has cut all self-cherishing without exception.
Yet, cherishing beings, those possessed of compassion do not adhere to peace.
Relying on understanding and compassionate love, the means to enlightenment,
noble ones will neither [abide] in samsara nor in a [limited] nirvana.

Textual sources[edit]

Commentaries on this verse[edit]

Academic notes[edit]

  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 omits nirdiśati after pratiṣṭhānam iti, which is however found in MB (confirmed by DP bstan pa ni).
  4. Following Schmithausen and DP ’khor ba, saṃvṛtiṃ is emended to saṃsṛtiṃ.
  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. 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.