Verse IV.1

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse IV.1

Verse IV.1 Variations

विनेयधातौ विनयाभ्युपाये
विनेयधातोर्विनयक्रियायाम्
तद्देशकाले गमने च नित्यं
विभोरनाभोगत एव वृत्तिः

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

vineyadhātau vinayābhyupāye
vineyadhātorvinayakriyāyām
taddeśakāle gamane ca nityaṃ
vibhoranābhogata eva vṛttiḥ

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

གདུལ་བྱའི་ཁམས་དང་འདུལ་བའི་ཐབས་དང་ནི། །
གདུལ་བྱའི་ཁམས་ཀྱི་གདུལ་བྱའི་བྱ་བ་དང་། །
དེ་ཡི་ཡུལ་དང་དུས་སུ་གཤེགས་པ་ལ། །
ཁྱབ་བདག་རྟག་ཏུ་ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པར་འཇུག །

Dege, PHI, 133

The lord always engages without effort
In the constitutions of those to be guided, the means to guide them,
The activities of guidance [that suit] the constitutions of those to be guided,
And in finding the [proper] place and time for this [activity]

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 437 ^[3]

L’Omniprésent se manifeste toujours spontanément

Et arrive sur les lieux au moment opportun

Selon les dispositions du disciple, les moyens de le discipliner

Et la discipline qu’il convient d’appliquer.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse IV.1

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

།།ད་ནི་དེའི་ལས་རྒྱལ་བའི་མཛད་པ་བརྗོད་པར་བྱའོ། །དེ་{br}ཡང་མདོར་བསྡུ་ན་ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པ་དང་། རྒྱུན་མི་འཆད་པ་རྣམ་པ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་འཇུག་སྟེ། དེས་ན་དེའི་རྗེས་ལ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་མཛད་པ་ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་ཅིང་རྒྱུན་མི་འཆད་པ་ཉིད་ལས་བརྩམས་ཏེ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། གདུལ་བྱའི་ཁམས་དང་འདུལ་བྱེད་ཐབས་དང་ནི། །གདུལ་བྱའི་ཁམས་ཀྱི་{br}གདུལ་བྱའི་བྱ་བ་དང་། །དེ་ཡི་ཡུལ་དང་དུས་སུ་གཤེགས་པ་ལ། །ཁྱབ་བདག་རྟག་ཏུ་ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པར་འཇུག །ཡོན་ཏན་རིན་ཆེན་མཆོག་ཚོགས་དང་ལྡན་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཆུ་མཚོ་བསོད་ནམས་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཉི་འོད་ཅན། །ཐེག་པ་མ་ལུས་ངེས་པར་བསྒྲུབས་ཏེ་མཐའ་དང་དབུས་མེད་རྒྱ་ཆེན་ནམ་མཁའ་ལྟར་{br}ཁྱབ་པ། །སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད་ནི་ཡོན་ཏན་དྲི་མ་མེད་སྟེར་སེམས་ཅན་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱད་མེད་རྣམས་གཟིགས་ནས། །ཉོན་མོངས་ཤེས་བྱའི་སྤྲིན་གྱི་དྲ་བ་སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་རླུང་གིས་རྣམ་པར་འཐོར།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) ^[10]

The constitution of the converts, the means of conversion,

The benefit of the convert in accordance with his nature,

The place and time at which he is to act,—

The Lord pervades (by his Wisdom)

And constantly manifests himself without effort.

Takasaki (1966) ^[11]

The acts of the Lord are always effortless

With regard to the constitution of the converts,

The means of conversion, and its functions

[In accordance with the capacity] of the converts,

Working in [proper] place and in [proper] time.

Fuchs (2000) ^[12]

An All-Embracing One always has spontaneous access

to the disciples' temperaments, the means of training,

the [various] trainings that suit their temperaments,

and to seeking them wherever they are, at the right time.

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 VT (fol. 15v7) apratipraśrabhi° (also suggested by Schmithausen in accordance with J99.16 and J99.21) against J apraśrabdhi°. The same goes for °apratipraśrabdhaṃ against J ° apraśrabdhaṃ (MB aprapra° and °apart°, respectively).
Skt. sattvadhātu is taken by most commentaries as "constitutions of sentient beings" (C also has "constitution"in IV.4a). However, as GC (528.4–5) points out, "the actual object of buddha activity is the stained tathāgata heart of those to be guided." See also IV.10cd, which comments on IV.2c, saying that the basic element in all sentient beings is like a treasure seen by the buddhas.
I follow MB and VT (fol. 15v7) nirmathya against J niṣpādya (referring to niryāṇam in IV.5; Schmithausen suggests niryāya). DP read "accomplished" (bsgrubs te).
See the explanation in IV.9. However, VT (fol. 15v7) glosses "yāna" as "the three yānas."
I follow VT (fol. 16r1) °ratnāmbugarbhaṃ, which is also Schmithausen’s reading of MB and supported by DP chi mtsho, against J °ratnasvagarbhaṃ. Note that DP yon tan rin chen mchog tshogs does not accord with the position of ratna in that compound and moreover contradicts the explanation of the proper order of this compound in IV.9.
DP split the long compound puṇya . . . ābham after °raśmi and wrongly relate "the sun rays of merit and wisdom"to "yāna,"while reading "like the vast [all-]pervasive sky without middle and end."My translation follows de Jong and C.
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 VT (fol. 15v7) apratipraśrabhi° (also suggested by Schmithausen in accordance with J99.16 and J99.21) against J apraśrabdhi°. The same goes for °apratipraśrabdhaṃ against J ° apraśrabdhaṃ (MB aprapra° and °apart°, respectively).

[5] Skt. sattvadhātu is taken by most commentaries as "constitutions of sentient beings" (C also has "constitution"in IV.4a). However, as GC (528.4–5) points out, "the actual object of buddha activity is the stained tathāgata heart of those to be guided." See also IV.10cd, which comments on IV.2c, saying that the basic element in all sentient beings is like a treasure seen by the buddhas.

[6] I follow MB and VT (fol. 15v7) nirmathya against J niṣpādya (referring to niryāṇam in IV.5; Schmithausen suggests niryāya). DP read "accomplished" (bsgrubs te).

[7] See the explanation in IV.9. However, VT (fol. 15v7) glosses "yāna" as "the three yānas."

[8] I follow VT (fol. 16r1) °ratnāmbugarbhaṃ, which is also Schmithausen’s reading of MB and supported by DP chi mtsho, against J °ratnasvagarbhaṃ. Note that DP yon tan rin chen mchog tshogs does not accord with the position of ratna in that compound and moreover contradicts the explanation of the proper order of this compound in IV.9.

[9] DP split the long compound puṇya . . . ābham after °raśmi and wrongly relate "the sun rays of merit and wisdom"to "yāna,"while reading "like the vast [all-]pervasive sky without middle and end."My translation follows de Jong and C.

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

[11] 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.

[12] 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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