Verse IV.58

From Buddha-Nature
Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse IV.58

Verse IV.58 Variations

सूर्ये यथा तपति पद्मगणप्रबुद्धिर् एकत्र कालसमये कुमुदप्रसुप्तिः
बुद्धिप्रसुप्तिगुणदोषविधावकल्पः सूर्यो ऽम्बुजेष्व् अथ च तद्वद् इहार्यसूर्यः
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
sūrye yathā tapati padmagaṇaprabuddhir ekatra kālasamaye kumudaprasuptiḥ
buddhiprasuptiguṇadoṣavidhāvakalpaḥ sūryo ’mbujeṣv atha ca tadvad ihāryasūryaḥ
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[2]
ཇི་ལྟར་ཉི་མས་གདུངས་པའི་དུས་གཅིག་ཚེ་ཉིད་ལ། །
པད་སོགས་རྒྱས་དང་ཀུ་མུ་ཏ་ནི་རབ་ཟུམ་པ། །
ཆུ་སྐྱེས་བྱེ་དང་ཟུམ་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་སྐྱོན་དག་ལ། །
ཉི་མ་རྟོག་མེད་འདིར་ནི་འཕགས་པའི་ཉི་དེ་བཞིན། །
When the sun warms them, the hosts of lotuses bloom
And kumuda [flowers] close at the very same time.
However, just as the sun does not think about the blooming and closing of these
Water-born [flowers] as being a quality or a flaw, the sun of the noble one here [does not think thus either].
Le soleil brûle tout. Au même instant, le lotus et d’autres fleurs
S’ouvrent tandis que le nénuphar blanc se referme.
Ces [fleurs] nées de l’eau ont la qualité de s’ouvrir
et le défaut de se refermer,
Mais l’astre n’y pense pas : de même le soleil de l’être sublime.

RGVV Commentary on Verse IV.58

།ཉི་མ་བཞིན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ནི། ཇི་ལྟར་ཉི་མས་གདུངས་པ་དུས་གཅིག་ཚེ་ཉིད་ལ། །པད་སོགས་རྒྱས་དང་ཀུ་མུ་ཏ་ནི་{br}རབ་ཟུམ་པ། །ཆུ་སྐྱེས་འབྱེད་དང་ཟུམ་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན་སྐྱོན་དག་ལ། །ཉི་མ་རྟོག་མེད་འདིར་ནི་འཕགས་པའི་ཉིད་དེ་བཞིན།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) [6]
Warmed by the sun, at one and the same time,
The lotus flower expands and the Kumuda folds its leaves;
But the sun, it has no searching thought
About the qualities and the defects
Of the water-born flowers as they open and fold.
Similar to that is the Saint (in his acts).
Takasaki (1966) [7]
When the sun becomes shining, at one and the same time
The lotus flowers awake and the Kumuda folds its flowers;
But the sun has no discrimination in regard to the water-born flowers
Similar is the sun of the Saint [in his acts] in the world
In regard to the awakening of virtues and closing of defects.
Fuchs (2000) [8]
When the sun blazes down, lotuses and so on open
while simultaneously kumuta flowers totally close.
On the benefit and fault of the water-born flowers' opening and closing
the sun does not shed any thought. The sun of the Noble acts likewise.

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. Jñānālokālaṃkārasūtra, D100, fols. 284b.5–286a.7.
  5. Kumuda flowers are edible white water-lilies (nymphaea esculenta), which bloom at night and close their leaves during the day.
  6. Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.