Verse IV.42

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse IV.42

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Verse IV.42 Variations

प्रावृट्काले यथा मेघः पृथिव्याम् अभिवर्षति
वारिस्कन्धं निराभोगो निमित्तं सस्यसंपदः

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

prāvṛṭkāle yathā meghaḥ pṛthivyām abhivarṣati
vāriskandhaṃ nirābhogo nimittaṃ sasyasaṃpadaḥ

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

ཇི་ལྟར་དབྱར་གྱི་དུས་ན་སྤྲིན། །
ལོ་ཏོག་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པའི་རྒྱུ། །
ཆུ་ཡི་ཕུང་པོ་འབད་མེད་པར། །
ས་ལ་རྒྱུན་དུ་འབེབས་པ་ལྟར། །

Dege, PHI, 137

Just as in the rainy season
Clouds effortlessly rain down
Their masses of water on the earth,
Thus causing abundant harvests,

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 444 ^[3]

De même qu’en été les nuages

Sont des gages d’abondantes récoltes

Quand ils s’abattent sans effort

En trombes d’eau sur la terre,

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse IV.42

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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།སྤྲིན་བཞིན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ནི། ཇི་ལྟར་དབྱར་གྱི་དུས་ན་སྤྲིན། །ལོ་ཏོག་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པའི་རྒྱུ། །ཆུ་ཡི་ཕུང་པོ་འབད་མེད་པར། །ས་ལ་མངོན་པར་འབེབས་པ་ལྟར། །དེ་བཞིན་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་{br}སྤྲིན་ལས་ནི། །རྒྱལ་བའི་དམ་ཆོས་ཆུ་ཡི་ཆར། །འགྲོ་བའི་དགེ་བའི་ལོ་ཏོག་རྒྱུ། །རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པ་མེད་པར་འབེབས། །ཇི་ལྟར་འཇིག་རྟེན་དགེ་བའི་ལམ་འཇུག་པ། །རླུང་བསྐྱོད་ཆུ་ཆར་སྤྲིན་གྱིས་འབེབས་པ་ལྟར། །དེ་བཞིན་བརྩེ་རླུང་འགྲོ་དགེ་མངོན་འཕེལ་ཕྱིར། །སངས་{br}རྒྱས་སྤྲིན་ལས་དམ་ཆོས་ཆར་པ་འབེབས། །སྲིད་ལ་མཁྱེན་དང་བརྩེ་ཆེན་འགྱུར་བ་དང་། །མི་འགྱུར་མ་གོས་ནམ་མཁའི་དཀྱིལ་གནས་པ། །ཏིང་འཛིན་གཟུངས་ཆུ་དྲི་མེད་སྙིང་པོ་ཅན། །ཐུབ་དབང་སྤྲིན་ནི་དགེ་བའི་ལོ་ཏོག་རྒྱུ།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) ^[9]

As, in summer-time, the clouds,

The cause of an abundant harvest,

Discharge, without any effort,

Their torrents of water upon the earth,一

Takasaki (1966) ^[10]

Just as, in the rainy season,

The clouds discharge, without any effort,

The multitudes of water on the earth,

Causing abundance of harvest;

Fuchs (2000) ^[11]

The monsoon clouds in summertime

continuously and without any effort

pour down their vast masses of water,

causing on earth the best possible crops.

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.
Jñānālokālaṃkārasūtra, D100, fols. 282a.4–283a.5.
I follow MB sasyasaṃpadāṃ against J sasyasaṃpadaḥ.
VT (fol. 16r5) glosses "awareness" (saṃvid) as "the four discriminating awarenesses (pratisaṃvid) of dharmas, meanings, semantics, and self-confidence." The awareness of (1) dharmas means to fully know the individual characteristics of all phenomena or to teach the eighty-four thousand doors of dharma as various remedial means in accordance with sentient beings’ different ways of thinking. (2) The awareness of meanings is to fully know the divisions and classifications of all phenomena, that is, knowing the meanings that are expressed by the words and statements about the general characteristics of phenomena—impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and identitylessness—and their ultimate characteristic—the lack of arising and ceasing. (3) The awareness of semantics refers to knowing the languages, symbols, and terms of all the various kinds of sentient beings and being able to please them through this; being able to teach many meanings through a single word; and being free from words that are mistaken, rushed, or repetitive. (4) The awareness that is self-confidence means to be able to hear the dharma from others and eliminate one’s own doubts, explain the dharma to others and thus eliminate their doubts, and speak meaningfully, swiftly, without interruptions, and unimpededly.
VT (fol. 16r5) glosses "perishable" and "not perishable" as "[saṃsāric] existence" and "nirvāṇa,"respectively.
Compare the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya on XX.38cd, which says, "It is called ‘Cloud of dharma’ because the gate of samādhi and the gate of dhāraṇī pervade, like a cloud, the dharma that was heard—the sky-like foundation in which they are deeply immersed" (samādhimukhadhāraṇīmukhavyāpanān meghenevākāśasthālīyāśrayasaṃniviṣṭasya śrūtadharmasya dharmameghety ucyate).
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] Jñānālokālaṃkārasūtra, D100, fols. 282a.4–283a.5.

[5] I follow MB sasyasaṃpadāṃ against J sasyasaṃpadaḥ.

[6] VT (fol. 16r5) glosses "awareness" (saṃvid) as "the four discriminating awarenesses (pratisaṃvid) of dharmas, meanings, semantics, and self-confidence." The awareness of (1) dharmas means to fully know the individual characteristics of all phenomena or to teach the eighty-four thousand doors of dharma as various remedial means in accordance with sentient beings’ different ways of thinking. (2) The awareness of meanings is to fully know the divisions and classifications of all phenomena, that is, knowing the meanings that are expressed by the words and statements about the general characteristics of phenomena—impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and identitylessness—and their ultimate characteristic—the lack of arising and ceasing. (3) The awareness of semantics refers to knowing the languages, symbols, and terms of all the various kinds of sentient beings and being able to please them through this; being able to teach many meanings through a single word; and being free from words that are mistaken, rushed, or repetitive. (4) The awareness that is self-confidence means to be able to hear the dharma from others and eliminate one’s own doubts, explain the dharma to others and thus eliminate their doubts, and speak meaningfully, swiftly, without interruptions, and unimpededly.

[7] VT (fol. 16r5) glosses "perishable" and "not perishable" as "[saṃsāric] existence" and "nirvāṇa,"respectively.

[8] Compare the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya on XX.38cd, which says, "It is called ‘Cloud of dharma’ because the gate of samādhi and the gate of dhāraṇī pervade, like a cloud, the dharma that was heard—the sky-like foundation in which they are deeply immersed" (samādhimukhadhāraṇīmukhavyāpanān meghenevākāśasthālīyāśrayasaṃniviṣṭasya śrūtadharmasya dharmameghety ucyate).

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

[10] 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.

[11] 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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