Verse IV.78

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse IV.78

Previous Verse

Next Verse

Verse IV.78 Variations

सूत्रस्य तस्य नाम्नैव दिपितं तत्प्रयोजनम्
यत्रैते नव दृष्टान्ता विस्तरेण प्रकाशिताः

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

sūtrasya tasya nāmnaiva dipitaṃ tatprayojanam
yatraite nava dṛṣṭāntā vistareṇa prakāśitāḥ

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

གང་དུ་དཔེ་དགུ་པོ་འདི་དག །
རྒྱས་པར་རབ་ཏུ་བསྟན་གྱུར་པ། །
མདོ་སྡེ་ཡི་ནི་མིང་ཉིད་ཀྱིས། །
དེ་ཡི་དགོས་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཉིད། །

Dege, PHI, 141

The purpose of this is elucidated
By the very name of the sūtra
In which these nine examples
Are explained in detail.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 451 ^[3]

Ces neuf exemples

Ont été présentés en détail

Dans un soûtra dont le nom

Seul évoque le propos.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse IV.78

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

།དཔེ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བསྡུས་པའི་དོན་ནི། འབད་རྩོལ་མེད་པར་བྱ་བ་འགའ། །བྱེད་པ་{br}མཐོང་མེད་དེ་བས་ན། །གདུལ་བྱའི་ཐེ་ཚོམ་བཅད་པའི་ཕྱིར། །དཔེ་རྣམས་དགུ་ནི་བསྟན་པ་ཡིན། །གང་དུ་དཔེ་དགུ་པོ་འདི་དག །རྒྱས་པར་རབ་ཏུ་བསྟན་གྱུར་པ། །མདོ་སྡེ་ཡི་ནི་མིང་ཉིད་ཀྱིས། །དེ་ཡི་དགོས་པ་བསྟན་པ་ཉིད། །ཐོས་པ་ལས་བྱུང་ཤེས་པ་ཡི། །སྣང་{br}བ་རྒྱ་ཆེན་འདིས་བརྒྱན་པའི། །བློ་ལྡན་མྱུར་དུ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི། །སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་ཀུན་ལ་འཇུག་པར་འགྱུར། །དེ་དོན་བཻ་ཌཱུར་བརྒྱ་བྱིན་གྱི། །གཟུགས་བརྙན་ལ་སོགས་དཔེ་དག་ནི། །རྣམ་པ་དགུ་བརྗོད་དེ་ལ་ནི། །དེ་ཡི་བསྡུས་དོན་ངེས་པར་གཟུང་། །སྟོན་དང་གསུང་དང་ཁྱབ་{br}པ་དང་། །སྤྲུལ་དང་ཡེ་ཤེས་སྤྲོ་བ་དང་། །ཐུགས་གསུང་སྐུ་ཡི་གསང་བ་དང་། །ཐུགས་རྗེའི་བདག་ཉིད་ཐོབ་པ་ཉིད། །འབད་རྩོལ་རྒྱུན་ཀུན་རབ་ཞི་བ། །རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པ་མེད་པའི་ཐུགས། །དྲི་མེད་བཻ་ཌཱུར་བརྒྱ་བྱིན་གྱི། །གཟུགས་བརྙན་ཤར་བ་ལ་སོགས་བཞིན། །འབད་{br}རྩོལ་ཞི་བ་དམ་བཅའ་སྟེ། །རྟོག་མེད་ཐུགས་ནི་གཏན་ཚིགས་སོ། །རང་བཞིན་དོན་ནི་གྲུབ་དོན་དུ། །དཔེ་ནི་བརྒྱ་བྱིན་གཟུགས་སོགས་ཡིན། །འདིར་ནི་སྐབས་དོན་འདི་ཡིན་ཏེ། །སྟོན་པ་ལ་སོགས་རྣམ་དགུ་ནི། །སྟོན་པ་སྐྱེ་འཆི་དང་བྲལ་བ། །འབད་པ་མེད་པར་རབ་ཏུ་འཇུག

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) ^[11]

And the discourse in which these examples

Are shown in detail, by its very name,

Shows the necessity of their indication.

Takasaki (1966) ^[12]

Its purpose [of teaching] is explained

By the very name of that Scripture,

Where these nine illustrations

Are demonstrated in detail.

Fuchs (2000) ^[13]

The place where these nine examples

were explained in very great detail

is the sutra which through its very name

teaches their necessity and purpose.

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.
Prayojana can also mean "motive" or intention" (P dugongs pa).
This refers to the Sarvabuddhaviśayāvatārajñānālokālaṃkārasūtra ("The Sūtra of the Ornament of the Light of Wisdom of Entering the Object of All Buddhas"), which is the source of the nine examples for enlightened activity. The name of this sūtra is explained in IV.79 in order to indicate the purpose or intention behind these examples for effortless buddha activity.
I follow Schmithausen’s emendation jñānālokasvalaṃkṛtāḥ of MA jñānālokāsvalaṃkṛtāḥ against J jñānālokādyalaṃkṛtāḥ and Takasaki jñānālokād alaṃkṛtāḥ.
I follow VT (fol. 16v5) and MA/MB nirmitir against J vikṛtir.
I agree with Takasaki that the phrase "of those whose character is compassion"refers to all nine examples and what they teach since it is explicitly used in examples (2) and (5) and example (3) speaks of "the cloud of compassion." However, DP (thugs rje’i bdag nyid thob pa nyid) relate this phrase only to the ninth example (this could also be read as "the attainment of the character of compassion").
The text has the plural dhiyaḥ, DP thugs.
Against the natural reading of I.84ab and the context of establishing that activity without effort is possible (as explicitly stated in IV.77), VT (fol. 16v6) says that "the nonconceptuality of the Bhagavān" is the thesis and "effort is at peace"the reason.
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] Prayojana can also mean "motive" or intention" (P dugongs pa).

[5] This refers to the Sarvabuddhaviśayāvatārajñānālokālaṃkārasūtra ("The Sūtra of the Ornament of the Light of Wisdom of Entering the Object of All Buddhas"), which is the source of the nine examples for enlightened activity. The name of this sūtra is explained in IV.79 in order to indicate the purpose or intention behind these examples for effortless buddha activity.

[6] I follow Schmithausen’s emendation jñānālokasvalaṃkṛtāḥ of MA jñānālokāsvalaṃkṛtāḥ against J jñānālokādyalaṃkṛtāḥ and Takasaki jñānālokād alaṃkṛtāḥ.

[7] I follow VT (fol. 16v5) and MA/MB nirmitir against J vikṛtir.

[8] I agree with Takasaki that the phrase "of those whose character is compassion"refers to all nine examples and what they teach since it is explicitly used in examples (2) and (5) and example (3) speaks of "the cloud of compassion." However, DP (thugs rje’i bdag nyid thob pa nyid) relate this phrase only to the ninth example (this could also be read as "the attainment of the character of compassion").

[9] The text has the plural dhiyaḥ, DP thugs.

[10] Against the natural reading of I.84ab and the context of establishing that activity without effort is possible (as explicitly stated in IV.77), VT (fol. 16v6) says that "the nonconceptuality of the Bhagavān" is the thesis and "effort is at peace"the reason.

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

[12] 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.

[13] 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]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]