Verse IV.48

From Buddha-Nature
Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse IV.48

Verse IV.48 Variations

ग्रीष्मान्ते ऽम्बुधरेष्व् असत्सु मनुजा व्योम्न्य् अप्रचाराः खगा वर्षास्व् अप्य् अतिवर्षणप्रपतनात् प्रेताः क्षितौ दुःखिताः
अप्रादुर्भावनोदये ऽपि करुणामेघाभ्रधर्माम्भसो धर्माकाङ्क्षिणि धर्मताप्रतिहते लोके च सैवोपमा
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
grīṣmānte ’mbudhareṣv asatsu manujā vyomny apracārāḥ khagā varṣāsv apy ativarṣaṇaprapatanāt pretāḥ kṣitau duḥkhitāḥ
aprādurbhāvanodaye ’pi karuṇāmeghābhradharmāmbhaso dharmākāṅkṣiṇi dharmatāpratihate loke ca saivopamā
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[2]
དཔྱིད་མཐར་སྤྲིན་མེད་པ་ནི་མི་དང་མཁའ་མི་རྒྱུ་བའི་བྱ་དག་དང་། །
དབྱར་ཚེ་ས་ལ་ཆར་བབས་པ་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་དག་ན་དཔེ་དེ་ཉིད། །
Dege, PHI, 138
At the end of the summer, when there are no clouds, humans and the birds that cannot fly in the sky
[Suffer] on the ground, but hungry ghosts suffer due to the abundance of rainfall during the rainy season.
Similarly, those in the world who desire the dharma and those who are hostile toward the dharma [suffer], respectively,
When the water of the dharma from the cloud banks of compassion does not appear or appears.
When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 445-446 [3]
À la fin du printemps, les hommes et les oiseaux
qui ne volent pas souffrent de l’absence des nuages,
Alors que les prétas pâtissent des pluies d’été qui s’abattent sur la terre.
De même, suivant que, des nuées de la compassion,
l’eau des enseignements jaillit ou non,
Ceux qui, dans les mondes, aspirent au Dharma
et ceux qui lui sont hostiles correspondent
aux éléments de la comparaison.
Charrier, Christian and Patrick Carré. Traité de la Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule. Plazac: Éditions Padmakara, 2019.

RGVV Commentary on Verse IV.48

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

།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]
When, at the end of spring, there are no clouds,
The human beings and the birds that do not move in the skies are distressed,
And, on the contrary, when, in summer-time,
The rain descends on earth, the ghosts are suffering;
Similar is the state of the living beings
Desirous of the Doctrine and hostile to it,
When, from the clouds of Commiseration,
The waters of the Doctrine descend or not.
Takasaki (1966) [11]
Towards the end of the summer, being of no cloud,
Men and those birds who cannot fly in the sky
Experience sufferings [from lack of rain];
In the rainy season, however, because of much rainfall,
The ghosts in the ground experience sufferings;
In the case of the living beings in the world,
Those desirous of the Doctrine and those hostile to it,
The non-arising and the arising of the water of Doctrine
From the clouds of Compassion [cause suffering in each turn];
This is the point of similarity.
Fuchs (2000) [12]
At the end of spring, when there are no clouds, human beings and
the birds that rarely fly
[are unhappy or neutral, respectively]. When rain is falling in
summertime, the craving spirits suffer.
Similar to this example, the arising and non-arising of the Dharmarain
from the host of clouds of compassion
also [leads to opposite reactions] in worldly beings who long for
Dharma or are hostile to it, respectively.

Textual sources[edit]

Commentaries on this verse[edit]

Academic notes[edit]

  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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