Verse II.48

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse II.48

Verse II.48 Variations

उदारत्वादगण्यत्वात् तर्कस्यागोचरत्वतः
कैवल्याद्वासनोच्छित्तेरप्रमेयादयः क्रमात्

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

udāratvādagaṇyatvāt tarkasyāgocaratvataḥ
kaivalyādvāsanocchitteraprameyādayaḥ kramāt

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

རྒྱ་ཆེའི་ཕྱིར་དང་གྲངས་མེད་ཕྱིར། །
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་ནི་མིན་ཕྱིར་དང་། །
འབའ་ཞིག་བག་ཆགས་བཅས་སྤང་ཕྱིར། །
གཞལ་མེད་ལ་སོགས་གོ་རིམས་བཞིན། །

Dege, PHI, 127

By virtue of being vast, not enumerable,
Not the sphere of dialecticians,
Absolutely unique, and the elimination of latent tendencies,
It is, in due order, immeasurable and so on.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 424 ^[3]

Cela, parce que, respectivement, il est immense

Et se dérobe à toute mesure, que ce n’est pas un objet

De spéculation, qu’il est unique

Et n’a plus de propensions karmiques.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse II.48

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

།ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་བཞི་པོ་འདིའི་དོན་ནི། ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་ཉི་ཤུས་རིག་པར་བྱ་སྟེ། རང་འབྱུང་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན། །སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད་ཅེས་གང་བརྗོད་པ། །མཆོག་ཏུ་མྱ་ངན་འདས་བསམ་མེད། །དགྲ་བཅོམ་སོ་སོའི་བདག་གྱུར་པ། །དེ་དབྱེ་ཟབ་དང་རྒྱ་ཆེ་དང་། །བདག་ཉིད་ཆེན་པོའི་ཡོན་ཏན་གྱི། །ཆོས་ཀྱིས་རབ་ཕྱེ་རང་བཞིན་ལ། །སོགས་པའི་སྐུ་གསུམ་དག་གིས་འཇུག །དེ་ལ་སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ནི། །ངོ་

བོ་ཉིད་སྐུ་མཚན་ཉིད་ལྔ། །མདོར་ན་ཡོན་ཏན་ལྔ་དང་ནི། །ལྡན་པ་ཉིད་དུ་རིག་པར་བྱ། །འདུས་མ་བྱས་ཤིང་རྣམ་དབྱེར་མེད། །མཐའ་གཉིས་དག་ནི་རྣམ་པར་སྤང་། །ཉོན་མོངས་ཤེས་བྱའི་སྙོམས་འཇུག་གིས། །སྒྲིབ་གསུམ་ལས་ནི་ངེས་གྲོལ་ཏེ། །དྲི་མེད་རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་མེད་དང་། །རྣལ་འབྱོར་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་ཡིན་ཕྱིར། །ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ནི། །དག་པའི་ཕྱིར་ནི་འོད་གསལ་བ། །གཞལ་མེད་གྲངས་མེད་བསམ་མེད་པ། །མཉམ་མེད་དག་པའི་མཐར་ཐུག་པ། །ཡོན་ཏན་རྣམས་དང་ཡང་དག་པར། །ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ལྡན་ཏེ། །རྒྱ་ཆེའི་ཕྱིར་དང་གྲངས་མེད་ཕྱིར། །རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་ནི་མིན་ཕྱིར་དང་། །འབའ་ཞིག་བག་ཆགས་བཅས་སྤངས་ཕྱིར། །གཞལ་མེད་ལ་སོགས་གོ་རིམས་བཞིན། །སྣ་ཚོགས་ཆོས་ལ་རྫོགས་ལོངས་སྤྱོད། །རང་བཞིན་ཆོས་ནི་སྣང་ཕྱིར་དང་། །ཐུགས་རྗེ་དག་པའི་རྒྱུ་མཐུན་པ། །འགྲོ་དོན་རྒྱུན་མི་འཆད་ཕྱིར་དང་། །རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་མེད་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་པར། །འདོད་པ་ཇི་བཞིན་ཡོངས་སྐོང་ཕྱིར། །ཡིད་བཞིན་ནོར་བུའི་རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱིས། །རྫོགས་པར་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རྣམ་པར་གནས། །བརྗོད་སྟོན་མཛད་རྒྱུན་མི་འཆད་དང་། །མངོན་པར་འདུ་བྱེད་མེད་པ་དང་། །དེ་ཡི་ངོ་བོ་མི་སྟོན་ལ། །འདིར་ནི་སྣ་ཚོགས་རྣམ་ལྔར་བརྗོད། །ཇི་ལྟར་ཚོན་ནི་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས། །ནོར་བུ་དེ་དངོས་མི་སྣང་ལྟར། །དེ་བཞིན་འགྲོ་རྐྱེན་སྣ་ཚོགས་པས། །ཁྱབ་བདག་དེ་དངོས་མིན་པར་སྣང་། །ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེན་པོས་འཇིག་རྟེན་མཁྱེན། །འཇིག་རྟེན་ཀུན་ལ་གཟིགས་ནས་ནི། །ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ལས་མ་གཡོས་པར། །སྤྲུལ་པའི་རང་བཞིན་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས། །སྐྱེ་བ་མངོན་པར་སྐྱེ་བ་དང་། །དགའ་ལྡན་ནས་ནི་འཕོ་བ་དང་། །ལྷུམས་སུ་འཇུག་དང་བལྟམས་པ་དང་། །བཟོ་ཡི་གནས་ལ་མཁས་པ་དང་། །བཙུན་མོའི་འཁོར་གྱིས་དགྱེས་རོལ་དང་། །ངེས་འབྱུང་དཀའ་བ་སྤྱོད་པ་དང་། །བྱང་ཆུབ་སྙིང་པོར་གཤེགས་པ་དང་། །བདུད་སྡེ་འཇོམས་དང་རྫོགས་པར་ནི། །བྱང་ཆུབ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་དང་། །མྱ་ངན་འདས་པར་གཤེགས་མཛད་རྣམས། །ཡོངས་སུ་མ་དག་ཞིང་རྣམས་སུ། །སྲིད་པ་ཇི་སྲིད་གནས་པར་སྟོན། །མི་

རྟག་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བདག་མེད་དང་། །ཞི་བའི་སྒྲ་ཡིས་ཐབས་མཁྱེན་པས། །སེམས་ཅན་སྲིད་གསུམ་སྐྱོ་བསྐྱེད་ནས། །མྱ་ངན་འདས་ལ་རབ་འཇུག་མཛད། །ཞི་བའི་ལམ་ལ་རབ་ཞུགས་པ། །མྱ་ངན་འདས་ཐོབ་འདུ་ཤེས་ཅན། །དམ་ཆོས་པདྨ་དཀར་ལ་སོགས། །ཆོས་ཀྱི་དེ་ཉིད་བསྟན་པ་ཡིས། །དེ་དག་ངར་འཛིན་ལས་བཟློག་སྟེ། །ཐབས་དང་ཤེས་རབ་ཡོངས་བཟུང་བས། །ཐེག་པ་མཆོག་ལ་སྨིན་མཛད་དེ། །བྱང་ཆུབ་མཆོག་ཏུ་ལུང་སྟོན་ཏོ། །ཟབ་དང་མཐུ་ནི་སྣ་ཚོགས་དང་། །བྱིས་པ་དོན་མཐུན་རབ་འདྲེན་ཕྱིར། །འདི་དག་གྲངས་བཞིན་ཟབ་པ་དང་། །རྒྱ་ཆེའི་བདག་ཉིད་ཆེར་ཤེས་བྱ། །འདི་ནི་དང་པོའི་ཆོས་སྐུ་སྟེ། །ཕྱི་མ་དག་ནི་གཟུགས་ཀྱི་སྐུ། །ནམ་མཁའ་ལ་ནི་གཟུགས་གནས་བཞིན། །དང་པོ་ལ་ནི་ཐ་མ་གནས།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) ^[16]

Being great, extensive, and numberless,

Inaccessible to discursive thought,

Unique and devoid of the force of Illusion,

It is immeasurable and so on, respectively.

Takasaki (1966) ^[17]

Being magnificent and numberless,

Being inaccessible to investigation,

Being unique and devoid of the defiling forces,

It is 'immeasurable' and so on, respectively.

Fuchs (2000) ^[18]

Since it is vast, not to be numbered,

not an object of reasoning, and unique,

and since the remaining traces are eliminated,

it is in the same order unfathomable and so on.

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.
VT (fol. 14v1) glosses nirvṛtiḥ/nirvāṇa (lit. "extinction") as "the extinction of the afflictive and cognitive obscurations."
I follow MB paramācintyaprāptiḥ pratyātmam arhatām (confirmed by VT, fol. 14v1–2) against J paramācintyaprāptiḥ pratyātmaveditā (DP mchog tu mya ngan ’das bsam med / dgra bcom so so’i bdag gyur pa /). Schmithausen’s suggested reading paramācintyā prāptiḥ (or praptā) due to DP’s connecting acintya with nirvṛtiḥ not only contradicts both MB and VT but it is also inconclusive as far as DP goes. For it is not definite that "inconceivable"in DP has to go with "nirvāṇa,"which is clearly shown by JKC and GC taking "inconceivable" as a characteristic of its own (as does C). VT relates both "highest" and "inconceivable"to attainment, speaking of "the arhats’ attainment of the highest inconceivable dharma,"which is then glossed as "buddhahood."
Schmithausen suggests dharmadhātusvabhāvataḥ instead of MB dharmadhātoḥ svabhāvataḥ. DP "it is luminous because it is pure by virtue of having the nature of the dharmadhātu" (chos dbyings ngo bo nyid kyis / dag pa’i phyir ni ’od gsal ba /). Verses II.45–46 comment on II.38 and II.44ac, so the five characteristics of the svābhāvikakāya are its being (1) unconditioned, (2) undifferentiable from its qualities, (3) free from the two extremes, (4) liberated from the three obscurations, and (5) pure and luminous. Verses II.47–48 explain the five qualities of the svābhāvikakāya, verses II.49–51 the five characteristics of the sambhogakāya, and verses II.52–59 the features of the nirmāṇakāya.
VT (fol. 14v2–3) divides the compound vicitradharmasaṃbhogarūpadharmāvabhasataḥ into vicitrasaṃbhogadharmāvabhasaḥ (glossing it as "teaching the dharma") and rūpadharmāvabhasaḥ (glossing it as "the display of form"). However, DP read rang bzhin for °rūpa°, and the Tibetan commentaries usually take this compound to mean "By way of enjoying all kinds of dharma and by way of appearing through its natural attributes."Both interpretations come down to the same meaning, referring to the first two characteristics of the sambhogakāya—dharma instructions and the display of a sambhogakāya form with its major and minor marks (as briefly repeated in II.51a). The remaining three characteristics of the sambhogakāya are listed in II.49cd–50c, and all five are briefly repeated in II.51.
VT (fol. 14v3) glosses "not having their nature" (atatsvabhāva°) as "the dharmadhātu’s lack of nature" (dharmadhātvasvabhāvatā).
With DP ma g.yos par, aviralaṃ is to be read as avicalan.
Schmithausen suggests śilpasthānātikauśalam for śilpasthānāni kauśalam.
DP ngar ’dzin ("ego-clinging"), which is an obvious misreading of sngar ’dzin since arhats of course lack ego-clinging.
Ut (D) phun tshogs DP sna tshogs ("various").
Skt. sārtha can also mean " (travel) company" (see Takasaki) or "assembly," but DP don mthun pa confirms the more likely meaning here.
VT (fol. 14v3–4) glosses "for them" (eṣu) as "for sentient beings."
As mentioned before, the first six topics that explain the fourth and the fifth vajra points have the same names (nature, cause, fruition, function, endowment, and manifestation). In terms of their contents, the fourth vajra point refers to the tathāgata heart with stains (the cause) and the fifth one to the very same tathāgata heart without stains (the fruition). Therefore, the six topics in each of these two vajra points are naturally related in terms of cause and fruition or in terms of what buddha nature is like while it is still obscured by adventitious stains versus what it is like when it is completely unobscured. For a detailed comparison of the contents of the first six topics of the fourth and fifth vajra points, see appendix 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.
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] VT (fol. 14v1) glosses nirvṛtiḥ/nirvāṇa (lit. "extinction") as "the extinction of the afflictive and cognitive obscurations."

[5] I follow MB paramācintyaprāptiḥ pratyātmam arhatām (confirmed by VT, fol. 14v1–2) against J paramācintyaprāptiḥ pratyātmaveditā (DP mchog tu mya ngan ’das bsam med / dgra bcom so so’i bdag gyur pa /). Schmithausen’s suggested reading paramācintyā prāptiḥ (or praptā) due to DP’s connecting acintya with nirvṛtiḥ not only contradicts both MB and VT but it is also inconclusive as far as DP goes. For it is not definite that "inconceivable"in DP has to go with "nirvāṇa,"which is clearly shown by JKC and GC taking "inconceivable" as a characteristic of its own (as does C). VT relates both "highest" and "inconceivable"to attainment, speaking of "the arhats’ attainment of the highest inconceivable dharma,"which is then glossed as "buddhahood."

[6] Schmithausen suggests dharmadhātusvabhāvataḥ instead of MB dharmadhātoḥ svabhāvataḥ. DP "it is luminous because it is pure by virtue of having the nature of the dharmadhātu" (chos dbyings ngo bo nyid kyis / dag pa’i phyir ni ’od gsal ba /). Verses II.45–46 comment on II.38 and II.44ac, so the five characteristics of the svābhāvikakāya are its being (1) unconditioned, (2) undifferentiable from its qualities, (3) free from the two extremes, (4) liberated from the three obscurations, and (5) pure and luminous. Verses II.47–48 explain the five qualities of the svābhāvikakāya, verses II.49–51 the five characteristics of the sambhogakāya, and verses II.52–59 the features of the nirmāṇakāya.

[7] VT (fol. 14v2–3) divides the compound vicitradharmasaṃbhogarūpadharmāvabhasataḥ into vicitrasaṃbhogadharmāvabhasaḥ (glossing it as "teaching the dharma") and rūpadharmāvabhasaḥ (glossing it as "the display of form"). However, DP read rang bzhin for °rūpa°, and the Tibetan commentaries usually take this compound to mean "By way of enjoying all kinds of dharma and by way of appearing through its natural attributes."Both interpretations come down to the same meaning, referring to the first two characteristics of the sambhogakāya—dharma instructions and the display of a sambhogakāya form with its major and minor marks (as briefly repeated in II.51a). The remaining three characteristics of the sambhogakāya are listed in II.49cd–50c, and all five are briefly repeated in II.51.

[8] VT (fol. 14v3) glosses "not having their nature" (atatsvabhāva°) as "the dharmadhātu’s lack of nature" (dharmadhātvasvabhāvatā).

[9] With DP ma g.yos par, aviralaṃ is to be read as avicalan.

[10] Schmithausen suggests śilpasthānātikauśalam for śilpasthānāni kauśalam.

[11] DP ngar ’dzin ("ego-clinging"), which is an obvious misreading of sngar ’dzin since arhats of course lack ego-clinging.

[12] Ut (D) phun tshogs DP sna tshogs ("various").

[13] Skt. sārtha can also mean " (travel) company" (see Takasaki) or "assembly," but DP don mthun pa confirms the more likely meaning here.

[14] VT (fol. 14v3–4) glosses "for them" (eṣu) as "for sentient beings."

[15] As mentioned before, the first six topics that explain the fourth and the fifth vajra points have the same names (nature, cause, fruition, function, endowment, and manifestation). In terms of their contents, the fourth vajra point refers to the tathāgata heart with stains (the cause) and the fifth one to the very same tathāgata heart without stains (the fruition). Therefore, the six topics in each of these two vajra points are naturally related in terms of cause and fruition or in terms of what buddha nature is like while it is still obscured by adventitious stains versus what it is like when it is completely unobscured. For a detailed comparison of the contents of the first six topics of the fourth and fifth vajra points, see appendix 7.

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

[17] 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.

[18] 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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