Verse II.38

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse II.38

Verse II.38 Variations

अनादिमध्यान्तमभिन्नमद्वयं
त्रिधा विमुक्तं विमलाविकल्पकम्
समाहिता योगिनस्तत्प्रयत्नाः
पश्यन्ति यं धर्मधातुस्वभावम्

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.^[1]

anādimadhyāntamabhinnamadvayaṃ
tridhā vimuktaṃ vimalāvikalpakam
samāhitā yoginastatprayatnāḥ
paśyanti yaṃ dharmadhātusvabhāvam

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.^[2]

ཐོག་མ་དབུས་མཐའ་མེད་ཅིང་རྣམ་དབྱེར་མེད། །
གཉིས་མེད་གསུམ་བྲལ་དྲི་མེད་རྣམ་རྟོག་མེད། །
ཆོས་དབྱིངས་རང་བཞིན་གང་ཡིན་དེ་རྟོགས་པ། །
མཉམ་པར་བཞག་པའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་ཡིས་མཐོང་། །

Dege, PHI, 126-127

Without beginning, middle, and end, undifferentiable,
Nondual, freed in three ways, stainless, and nonconceptual—
This is the nature of the dharmadhātu, which is seen
In meditative equipoise by yogins who strive for it.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 422-423 ^[3]

Sans commencement ni milieu ni fin, indivisible,

Non duelle, dégagée des trois [voiles], immaculée et libre de la pensée

Telle est la nature de la dimension absolue

Dont la réalisation est la vision des yogis établis en méditation.

Charrier, Christian and Patrick Carré. Traité de la Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule. Plazac: Éditions Padmakara, 2019.

RGVV Commentary on Verse II.38

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

Full Tibetan Commentary
Full English Commentary
Full Sanskrit Commentary
Full Chinese Commentary

།དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ཉིད་འདི་ནམ་མཁའ་ལྟར་འདུས་མ་བྱས་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་དང་། རྣམ་པར་དབྱེ་བ་མེད་པར་འཇུག་པ་ཡང་སྲིད་པ་ཇི་སྲིད་ཀྱི་བར་དུ་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པ་ཐབས་{br}ཆེན་པོ་དང་། སྙིང་རྗེ་དང་། ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱིས་ཡོངས་སུ་སྦྱོང་བའི་ཁྱད་པར་གྱིས་འགྲོ་བ་ལ་ཕན་པ་དང་བདེ་བ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་རྒྱུའི་ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་དང་། རྫོགས་པར་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་པ་དང་། སྤྲུལ་པ་སྟེ། དྲི་མ་མེད་པ་གསུམ་གྱིས་བར་ཆད་མེད་ཅིང་རྒྱུན་མི་འཆད་པར་ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པས་འཇུག་པར་{br}བལྟ་བར་བྱ་སྟེ་མ་འདྲེས་པའི་ཆོས་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ། །དེ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་དོན་ལས་བརྩམས་ནས། སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་རྣམ་པར་དབྱེ་བའི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་འདི་བཞི་སྟེ། ཐོག་མ་དབུས་མཐའ་མེད་ཅིང་རྣམ་དབྱེར་མེད། །གཉིས་མེད་གསུམ་བྲལ་དྲི་མེད་རྣམ་རྟོག་མེད། །ཆོས་དབྱིངས་{br}རང་བཞིན་གང་ཡིན་དེ་རྟོགས་པ། །མཉམ་པར་གཞག་པའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་པ་ཡིས་མཐོང་། །གཞལ་མེད་གང་གཱའི་བྱེ་མ་ལས་འདས་པ། །བསམ་མེད་མཉམ་མེད་ཡོན་ཏན་རྣམས་དང་ལྡན། །དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་དྲི་མེད་དབྱིངས་དེ་ནི། །བག་ཆགས་བཅས་པའི་ཉེས་པ་རྣམ་སྤངས་པ། །{br}སྣ་ཚོགས་དམ་ཆོས་འོད་ཟེར་མངའ་བའི་སྐུས། །འགྲོ་བའི་རྣམ་གྲོལ་དོན་གྲུབ་ལ་བརྩོན་པ། །མཛད་པ་ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུའི་རྒྱལ་བཞིན་ཏེ། །སྣ་ཚོགས་དངོས་དང་དེ་ཡི་རང་བཞིན་མིན། །འཇིག་རྟེན་ཞི་བའི་ལམ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་དང་། །རབ་ཏུ་སྨིན་དང་ལུང་སྟོན་རྒྱུ་ཡི་གཟུགས། །གང་{br}ཡིན་དེ་ཡང་འདིར་ནི་རྟག་གནས་ཏེ། །ནམ་མཁའི་ཁམས་སུ་གཟུགས་ཀྱི་ཁམས་བཞིན་ནོ།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) ^[15]

It has neither beginning, middle, nor end，is indivisible,5

Devoid of the 2 (extremities), delivered from the 3 (Obscurations),

Immaculate and free from thought-construction,

Is that which represents the Essence of the Absolute, and is perceived

By the Saint, who cognizes it in concentrated trance.

Takasaki (1966) ^[16]

That which has neither beginning, middle nor end,

Is indivisible, non-dual, liberated in three ways,

Immaculate and non-discriminative, . . .

That represents the nature of the Absolute Essence,

And is perceived by the Saints,

Who are concentrating their mind, striving after it;

Fuchs (2000) ^[17]

What is the nature of dharmadhatu? It is without beginning, middle, and end.

It is totally indivisible and far away from the two [extremes],

rid of the three [veils], unpolluted, and not an object of thought.

Its realization is the vision of a Yogi who Dwells in Meditative Equipoise.

Textual sources[edit]

Commentaries on this verse[edit]

Academic notes[edit]

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input
Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input
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.
I follow MA °vṛtty api against J °vṛttyāpi.
I follow MB tatreme (confirmed by DP tshigs su bcad pa ’di bzhi) against J tatra.
VT (fol. 14r7) glosses this as "free from the two extremes."
I follow MB °viyuktaṃ (confirmed by DP bral) against J vimuktaṃ.
VT (fol. 14r7) glosses "in three ways" as "afflictive obscurations, cognitive obscurations, and obscurations of meditative equipoise."
DP de rtogs pa.
I follow J amalaḥ sa dhātuḥ, based on DP dri med dbyings de. MB amalo ’sau (which is unmetrical) should, according to VT (fol. 14r7), read amalaś cāsau āśraya. VT glosses this as "the stainless basis that is the dharmakāya" (amalāśrayo dharmakāyaḥ).
VT (fol. 14v1) glosses "in the form of various light rays of the genuine dharma" as "the spoken teachings" (deśanoktā).
Skt. jagadvimokṣārthasamāhṛtodyamaḥ (confirmed by DP ’gro ba’i rnam grol don grub la brtson pa). C has here "it accomplishes the liberation of beings without ever resting,"which seems to correspond to "by way of the welfare of sentient beings being uninterrupted" and "uninterrupted activity"in the commentarial verses II.49d and II.51ab below. Therefore, Schmithausen suggests *jagadvimokṣārtha-sadā-(a)ratodyamaḥ or *°ārtham anāratodyamaḥ for II.40b.
Against MB and DP, Schmithausen gives preference to C and suggests vicitrabhāso for vicitrabhāvo because II.51c has atatsvabhāvākhyāne. However, bhāva can also mean "appearance" and the contrast bhāva/niḥsvabhāva is rather common in mahāyāna texts.
VT (fol. 14v1) says that II.40 describes the sambhogakāya and II.41 the nirmāṇakāya.
Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
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.
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.

[1] Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input

[2] Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input

[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 °vṛtty api against J °vṛttyāpi.

[5] I follow MB tatreme (confirmed by DP tshigs su bcad pa ’di bzhi) against J tatra.

[6] VT (fol. 14r7) glosses this as "free from the two extremes."

[7] I follow MB °viyuktaṃ (confirmed by DP bral) against J vimuktaṃ.

[8] VT (fol. 14r7) glosses "in three ways" as "afflictive obscurations, cognitive obscurations, and obscurations of meditative equipoise."

[9] DP de rtogs pa.

[10] I follow J amalaḥ sa dhātuḥ, based on DP dri med dbyings de. MB amalo ’sau (which is unmetrical) should, according to VT (fol. 14r7), read amalaś cāsau āśraya. VT glosses this as "the stainless basis that is the dharmakāya" (amalāśrayo dharmakāyaḥ).

[11] VT (fol. 14v1) glosses "in the form of various light rays of the genuine dharma" as "the spoken teachings" (deśanoktā).

[12] Skt. jagadvimokṣārthasamāhṛtodyamaḥ (confirmed by DP ’gro ba’i rnam grol don grub la brtson pa). C has here "it accomplishes the liberation of beings without ever resting,"which seems to correspond to "by way of the welfare of sentient beings being uninterrupted" and "uninterrupted activity"in the commentarial verses II.49d and II.51ab below. Therefore, Schmithausen suggests *jagadvimokṣārtha-sadā-(a)ratodyamaḥ or *°ārtham anāratodyamaḥ for II.40b.

[13] Against MB and DP, Schmithausen gives preference to C and suggests vicitrabhāso for vicitrabhāvo because II.51c has atatsvabhāvākhyāne. However, bhāva can also mean "appearance" and the contrast bhāva/niḥsvabhāva is rather common in mahāyāna texts.

[14] VT (fol. 14v1) says that II.40 describes the sambhogakāya and II.41 the nirmāṇakāya.

[15] Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.

[16] 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.

[17] 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.

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