Verse IV.79

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse IV.79

Verse IV.79 Variations

एतच्छ्रतमयोदारज्ञानालोकाद्यलंकृताः
धीमन्तोऽवतरन्त्याशु सकलं बुद्धगोचरम्

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

etacchratamayodārajñānālokādyalaṃkṛtāḥ
dhīmanto'vatarantyāśu sakalaṃ buddhagocaram

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

ཐོས་པ་ལས་བྱུང་ཤེས་པ་ཡི། །
སྣང་བ་རྒྱ་ཆེན་འདིས་བརྒྱན་པའི། །
བློ་ལྡན་མྱུར་དུ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི། །
སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་ཀུན་ལ་འཇུག་པར་འགྱུར། །

Dege, PHI, 141

The intelligent who are excellently adorned
With this light of the wisdom
That arises from study will swiftly
Enter the sphere of the buddhas in its entirety.

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

Parés de l’immense éclat lumineux

De la connaissance issue de l’étude,

Les sages accéderont vite à toutes

Les sphères d’activité des bouddhas.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse IV.79

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

Full Tibetan Commentary
Full English Commentary
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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]

Adorned by this magnificent light

Of the knowledge which is the result of study,

The wise will speedily penetrate

Into the whole of the sphere of Buddhahood.

Takasaki (1966) ^[12]

Adorned with this light of the great wisdom

Which is the result of study,

The wise men enter rapidly

In the whole region of the Buddha.

Fuchs (2000) ^[13]

Adorned with the far-reaching light

of knowledge arisen from hearing it,

those of insight will quickly enter

the field of experience of a buddha.

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.

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