Verse IV.47

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse IV.47

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Verse IV.47 Variations

यानाग्रे ऽभिप्रसन्नानां मध्यानां प्रतिघातिनाम्
मनुष्यचातकप्रेतसदृशा राशयस् त्रयः

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

yānāgre ’bhiprasannānāṃ madhyānāṃ pratighātinām
manuṣyacātakapretasadṛśā rāśayas trayaḥ

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

ཐེག་པ་མཆོག་ལ་དང་བ་དང་། །
བར་མ་དང་ནི་སྡང་བ་ཡི། །
ཕུང་པོ་གསུམ་ནི་མི་དག་དང་། །
རྨ་བྱ་དང་ནི་ཡི་དགས་འདྲ། །

Dege, PHI, 138

Those who are very open, those who are intermediate
And those who are hostile toward the highest yāna,
These three categories of [beings] respectively
Resemble humans, peacocks, and hungry ghosts.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 445 ^[3]

Ceux qui ont foi dans le véhicule suprême,

Ceux qui restent neutres et ceux qui lui sont hostiles

Forment trois groupes d’êtres comparables

À des êtres humains, des paons et des prétas

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse IV.47

Tibetan
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Full Tibetan Commentary
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།ལྟོས་པ་མེད་པར་འཇུག་པ་ལས་ནི། ཐེག་པ་མཆོག་ལ་དང་བ་དང་། །བར་མ་དང་ནི་སྡང་བ་ཡི། །ཕུང་པོ་གསུམ་ནི་མི་དག་དང་། །རྨ་བྱ་དང་ནི་ཡི་དགས་འདྲ། །དཔྱིད་མཐར་{br}སྤྲིན་མེད་པ་ན་མི་དང་མཁའ་མི་རྒྱུ་བའི་བྱ་དག་དང་། །དབྱར་ཚེ་ས་ལ་ཆར་བབ་པས་ན་ཡི་དགས་དག་ནི་སྡུག་པ་ལྟར། །སྙིང་རྗེའི་སྤྲིན་ཚོགས་དག་གིས་ཆོས་ཆུ་བྱུང་དང་མ་བྱུང་བ་ལས་ཀྱང་། །ཆོས་འདོད་པ་དང་ཆོས་ལ་སྡང་བའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ན་ནི་དཔེ་དེ་ཉིད། །ཐིགས་པ་རགས་འབེབས་རྡོ་ཚན་དང་{br}ནི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་མེ་ནི་འབེབས་པས་ན། །སྲོག་ཆགས་ཕྲ་དང་རི་སུལ་སོང་བ་དག་ལ་ཇི་ལྟར་སྤྲིན་ལྟོས་མེད། །ཕྲ་དང་རྒྱ་ཆེན་རིགས་ཐབས་ཚུལ་གྱིས་མཁྱེན་པ་དང་ནི་བརྩེ་བའི་སྤྲིན། །ཉོན་མོངས་དག་འགྱུར་བདག་ལྟའི་བག་ཆགས་དག་ལས་རྣམ་པ་ཀུན་ལྟོས་མེད།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) ^[10]

Tho three categories of living beings,

Those that have faith in the Great Vehicle,

Those of intermediate character, and the hostile,

Are (respectively) like men, like tho peacocks,

And like the ghosts (with regard to the rain).

Takasaki (1966) ^[11]

Those who have faith in the Highest Vehicle,

Those of intermediate nature, and those who resist the Doctrine,

These are the three kinds of living beings,

And have similarity with men, peacocks and ghosts, respectively.

Fuchs (2000) ^[12]

Those of devotion towards the supreme vehicle,

those who are neutral, and those with animosity

are three groups [of beings] who are similar

to humans, peacocks, and craving spirits.

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. 16r6) glosses "those who are intermediate" as "śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas."
VT (fol. 16r7) glosses "those who desire the dharma" as "bodhisattvas, śrāvakas, and so on."
I follow VT °meghaughād, which accords with Schmithausen’s reading °meghaughadharma° of MB and is also supported by DP sprain tshogs dagga, against J °meghābhra°.
I follow DP rod tshan dang ni rdo rje’i me; Skt. aśani and vajrāgni both meaning "lightning."
VT (fol. 16r7–16v1) takes the compound sūkṣmaprāṇakaśailadeśagamikān to consist of the three components "subtle creatures," "rocks/mountains," and "those who travel the terrain,"glossing them as "those who are hostile [toward the mahāyāna]," "bodhisattvas," and "śrāvakas and so on,"respectively. However, line IV.49d suggests only the two components "subtle creatures" and "those who travel rocky terrains,"which exemplify "the latencies of the afflictions" and "the latencies of the views about a self,"respectively. Also, all Tibetan commentaries speak about those two components, though they interpret them in different ways. Most say that hail and lightning harm many subtle creatures but not peacocks ("those who travel rocky terrain"), while rain benefits the latter. Likewise, the rain of the wisdom of knowing what is subtle (emptiness) and the compassion of what is vast (generosity and so on) pours down equally on the fortunate who have faith in the mahāyāna, purifying their afflictions, and the unfortunate who have strong habitual tendencies of views about a self.
I follow Takasaki’s emendation of MA/MB kleśagatān dṛṣṭyanuśayān to kleśagatātmadṛṣṭyanuśayān (supported by DP nyon mongs dag ’gyur bdag lta’i bag chags and C). VT (fol. 16v1) glosses °gata° as svarūpa.
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. 16r6) glosses "those who are intermediate" as "śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas."

[5] VT (fol. 16r7) glosses "those who desire the dharma" as "bodhisattvas, śrāvakas, and so on."

[6] I follow VT °meghaughād, which accords with Schmithausen’s reading °meghaughadharma° of MB and is also supported by DP sprain tshogs dagga, against J °meghābhra°.

[7] I follow DP rod tshan dang ni rdo rje’i me; Skt. aśani and vajrāgni both meaning "lightning."

[8] VT (fol. 16r7–16v1) takes the compound sūkṣmaprāṇakaśailadeśagamikān to consist of the three components "subtle creatures," "rocks/mountains," and "those who travel the terrain,"glossing them as "those who are hostile [toward the mahāyāna]," "bodhisattvas," and "śrāvakas and so on,"respectively. However, line IV.49d suggests only the two components "subtle creatures" and "those who travel rocky terrains,"which exemplify "the latencies of the afflictions" and "the latencies of the views about a self,"respectively. Also, all Tibetan commentaries speak about those two components, though they interpret them in different ways. Most say that hail and lightning harm many subtle creatures but not peacocks ("those who travel rocky terrain"), while rain benefits the latter. Likewise, the rain of the wisdom of knowing what is subtle (emptiness) and the compassion of what is vast (generosity and so on) pours down equally on the fortunate who have faith in the mahāyāna, purifying their afflictions, and the unfortunate who have strong habitual tendencies of views about a self.

[9] I follow Takasaki’s emendation of MA/MB kleśagatān dṛṣṭyanuśayān to kleśagatātmadṛṣṭyanuśayān (supported by DP nyon mongs dag ’gyur bdag lta’i bag chags and C). VT (fol. 16v1) glosses °gata° as svarūpa.

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

[11] 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.

[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.

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