Verse V.26

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse V.26

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Verse V.26 Variations

यतश्च यन्निमित्तं च यथा च यदुदाहृतम्
यन्निष्यन्दफलं श्लोकैश्चतुर्भिः परिदीपितम्

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

yataśca yannimittaṃ ca yathā ca yadudāhṛtam
yanniṣyandaphalaṃ ślokaiścaturbhiḥ paridīpitam

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

གང་ལས་རྒྱུ་མཚན་གང་གི་ཕྱིར། །
ཇི་ལྟ་བུར་ནི་གང་བཤད་དང་། །
རྒྱུ་མཐུན་པ་ནི་གང་ཡིན་ཏེ། །
ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་བཞིས་བསྟན་ཏོ། །

Dege, PHI, 145

The [first] four verses explain
On what [basis] it was expounded,
What caused it, how and what [was expounded],
And what the natural outflow [of the dharma] is.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 460 ^[3]

Quatre strophes expliquent

Sur quelle base, pour quelles raisons,

Sur quel mode a lieu l’explication,

Ce qui en est l’objet et ce qui lui correspond.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse V.26

Tibetan
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Sanskrit
Chinese

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Full English Commentary
Full Sanskrit Commentary
Full Chinese Commentary

།ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་བཅུ་པོ་འདི་དག་གིས་བསྡུས་པའི་དོན་ཡང་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་རྣམ་པ་གསུམ་གྱིས་རིག་པར་བྱ་སྟེ། གང་ལས་{br}རྒྱུ་མཚན་གང་ཕྱིར་ནི། །ཇི་ལྟ་བུར་ནི་གང་བརྗོད་དང་། །རྒྱུ་མཐུན་པ་ནི་གང་ཡིན་དེ། །ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་བཞིས་བསྟན་ཏོ། །གཉིས་ཀྱི་བདག་ཉིད་དག་པ་ཡི། །ཐབས་དང་གཅིག་གིས་ཉམས་པའི་རྒྱུ། །དེ་ནས་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་ནི། གཉིས་ཀྱིས་འབྲས་བུ་བསྟན་པ་ཡིན། །འཁོར་གྱི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་བཟོད་པ་དང་། །{br}བྱང་ཆུབ་ཐོབ་པའི་ཆོས་བརྗོད་པའི། །མདོར་ན་འབྲས་བུ་རྣམ་གཉིས་ནི། །ཐ་མ་ཡིས་ནི་བསྟན་པ་ཡིན།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) ^[7]

Owing to what cause and for what motive,

What and in what manner has been expounded,

And what is the natural outflow (of the Doctrine),

This is demonstrated by 4 verses.

Takasaki (1966) ^[8]

Owing to what basis, for what motive,

How and what is expounded [in this treatise],

And what is the natural outflow [of the Buddha's Doctrine],

These topics are explained by the [first] 4 ślokas.

Fuchs (2000) ^[9]

On what basis, for what reason, and in what way

[this has been given], what it explains

and what cause is conducive [to understanding it]

have been taught by means of four stanzas.

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.
I follow MA yann iṣyandaṃ ca tac chlokaiḥ (supported by DP rgyu mthun pa ni gang yin de) against J yann iṣyandaphalaṃ ślokaiś.
I follow MA parṣanmaṇḍalakṣantir and VT (fol. 17r4) parṣanmaṇḍale kṣānter against J saṃsāramaṇḍalakṣāntir.
MA and J dharmārthavāda, VT (fol. 17r4) dharmānuvāda, DP chos brjod pa. According to VT (fol. 17r4), "explaining the dharma" (dharmānuvāda) refers to "engaging in commenting on the seven points such as the Buddha." The first (temporary) result of this is the attainment of poised readiness (for profound true reality) on the bhūmis of the noble ones in the maṇḍala of the retinue of the tathāgata Amitābha, with these bodhisattvas being the chief persons among those who have entered Amitābha’s retinue because they are noble ones. The second (ultimate) result of explaining the dharma is great awakening. In line V.28c, I follow J’s reading of MA as dvidhā ("twofold"), which is confirmed by VT (fol. 17r3) and DP rnam gnyis. Schmithausen suggests taking MA here (which is difficult to read) as "threefold" (tridhā; as in C and Taishō 1595, 270b6) instead of "twofold." For, he says, lines V.25cd enumerate three kinds of result: (1) seeing Amitāyus ("[attaining] the maṇḍala of the retinue"), (2) the arising of the stainless eye of dharma ("[attaining] poised readiness"), and (3) attaining awakening. Therefore, Schmithausen also suggests reading MA "poised readiness in the maṇḍala of the retinue" (parṣanmaṇḍalakṣantir) as "the maṇḍala of the retinue, poised readiness . . ." (pariṣanmaṇḍalaṃ kṣantir). However, it is difficult to take the phrase "by virtue of the arising of the stainless eye of dharma" (amaladharmacakṣur udayāt) in V.25d as a separate result rather than as that through which awakening (the second result) is attained. In addition, the existence of three results is contradicted by VT’s explicit comments on only two results, which are also found in all Tibetan commentaries.
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] I follow MA yann iṣyandaṃ ca tac chlokaiḥ (supported by DP rgyu mthun pa ni gang yin de) against J yann iṣyandaphalaṃ ślokaiś.

[5] I follow MA parṣanmaṇḍalakṣantir and VT (fol. 17r4) parṣanmaṇḍale kṣānter against J saṃsāramaṇḍalakṣāntir.

[6] MA and J dharmārthavāda, VT (fol. 17r4) dharmānuvāda, DP chos brjod pa. According to VT (fol. 17r4), "explaining the dharma" (dharmānuvāda) refers to "engaging in commenting on the seven points such as the Buddha." The first (temporary) result of this is the attainment of poised readiness (for profound true reality) on the bhūmis of the noble ones in the maṇḍala of the retinue of the tathāgata Amitābha, with these bodhisattvas being the chief persons among those who have entered Amitābha’s retinue because they are noble ones. The second (ultimate) result of explaining the dharma is great awakening. In line V.28c, I follow J’s reading of MA as dvidhā ("twofold"), which is confirmed by VT (fol. 17r3) and DP rnam gnyis. Schmithausen suggests taking MA here (which is difficult to read) as "threefold" (tridhā; as in C and Taishō 1595, 270b6) instead of "twofold." For, he says, lines V.25cd enumerate three kinds of result: (1) seeing Amitāyus ("[attaining] the maṇḍala of the retinue"), (2) the arising of the stainless eye of dharma ("[attaining] poised readiness"), and (3) attaining awakening. Therefore, Schmithausen also suggests reading MA "poised readiness in the maṇḍala of the retinue" (parṣanmaṇḍalakṣantir) as "the maṇḍala of the retinue, poised readiness . . ." (pariṣanmaṇḍalaṃ kṣantir). However, it is difficult to take the phrase "by virtue of the arising of the stainless eye of dharma" (amaladharmacakṣur udayāt) in V.25d as a separate result rather than as that through which awakening (the second result) is attained. In addition, the existence of three results is contradicted by VT’s explicit comments on only two results, which are also found in all Tibetan commentaries.

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

[8] 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.

[9] 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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