Verse V.27

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse V.27

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Verse V.27 Variations

आत्मसंरक्षणोपायो द्वाभ्यामेकेन च क्षतेः
हेतुः फलमथ द्वाभ्यां श्लोकाभ्यां परिदीपितम्

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

ātmasaṃrakṣaṇopāyo dvābhyāmekena ca kṣateḥ
hetuḥ phalamatha dvābhyāṃ ślokābhyāṃ paridīpitam

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

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། །

Dege, PHI, 145

Two explain the means of protecting oneself;
One, the causes for the loss [of the dharma];
And the following two verses,
The result [of this loss].

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

Deux strophes enseignent les moyens

De se purifier soi-même. Une strophe

Donne les causes du déclin, dont les effets

Occupent les deux strophes suivantes.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse V.27

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

Full Tibetan Commentary
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]

Two verses refer to the means of self-purification,

And one—to the cause of the bereavement of the Doctrine,

And then, the following 2 verses

Demonstrate the consequences (of this).

Takasaki (1966) ^[8]

Two ślokas refer to the means of self-protection,

And one, to the cause of the loss [of the Doctrine],

And then, the [following] two ślokas

Explain the result of this loss.

Fuchs (2000) ^[9]

Two stanzas [show] the means to purify oneself

and one [shows] the cause of deterioration.

Thereupon, by means of two further stanzas

the fruit [sprung from deterioration] is explained.

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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