Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra/Root Verses/Verse IV.53

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse IV.53

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Verse IV.53 Variations

सर्वत्र देवभवने ब्राह्म्याद् अविचलन् पदात्
प्रतिभासं यथा ब्रह्मा दर्शयत्य् अप्रयत्नतः

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.

sarvatra devabhavane brāhmyād avicalan padāt
pratibhāsaṃ yathā brahmā darśayaty aprayatnataḥ

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.

།ཇི་ལྟར་ཚངས་པ་ཚངས་པ་ཡི།
།གནས་ནས་འཕྲོ་བ་མེད་བཞིན་དུ།
།ལྷ་ཡི་གནས་ནི་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ།
།སྣང་བ་འབད་མེད་སྟོན་པ་ལྟར།

Dege, PHI, 138-139

Just as Brahmā, without moving away
From the abode belonging to Brahmā,
Effortlessly displays his appearance
Everywhere in the sphere of the gods,

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 447

De même que, sans quitter son palais,

Brahma manifeste des apparences

De lui-même dans tous les lieux divins

Sans fournir le moindre effort,

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse IV.53

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

།ཚངས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་བཞིན་{br}ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ནི། ཇི་ལྟར་ཚངས་པ་ཚངས་པ་ཡི། །གནས་ནས་འཕོ་བ་མེད་བཞིན་དུ། །ལྷ་ཡི་གནས་ནི་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ། །སྣང་བ་འབད་མེད་སྟོན་པ་ལྟར། །དེ་བཞིན་ཐུབ་པའི་ཆོས་སྐུ་ལས། །བསྐྱོད་པ་མེད་པར་ཁམས་ཀུན་ཏུ། །སྐལ་ལྡན་རྣམས་ལ་འབད་མེད་པར། །སྤྲུལ་

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པ་དག་གིས་སྟོན་པར་མཛད། །ཇི་ལྟར་ཚངས་རྟག་གཞལ་ཡས་ཁང་ནས་མི་གཡོ་འདོད་ཁམས་ཞུགས་པ་དེ། །ལྷ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མཐོང་དེ་མཐོང་དེ་ཡང་ཡུལ་ལ་དགའ་བ་སྤོང་བྱེད་ལྟར། །དེ་བཞིན་བདེ་གཤེགས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ལས་མི་བསྐྱོད་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཀུན་དུ་དེ། །སྐལ་ལྡན་གྱིས་{br}མཐོང་དེ་ནི་མཐོང་དེ་རྟག་ཏུ་དྲི་མ་ཀུན་སེལ་བྱེད། །སྔོན་གྱི་རང་ཉིད་སྨོན་ལམ་དང་། །ལྷ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ནི་དགེ་བའི་མཐུས། །ཇི་ལྟར་ཚངས་པ་འབད་མེད་སྣང་། །རང་བྱུང་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་དེ་བཞིན་ནོ།

(4) (J107) [That sūtra also] says that [buddha activity] is like Mahābrahmā.

Just as Brahmā, without moving away

From the abode belonging to Brahmā,

Effortlessly displays his appearance

Everywhere in the sphere of the gods, IV.53

So the sage, without moving away

From the dharmakāya,

Effortlessly displays himself to the suitable (D125b)

Through emanations in all realms. IV.54

Just as Brahmā does not move away from his palace and yet his constant manifestation in the desire realm

Is seen by the gods, with their desire for objects being relinquished through this seeing,

So the Sugata does not move away from the kāya of the genuine dharma and yet is seen by the suitable ones

In all worlds, with their stains always being relinquished in their entirety by this seeing. IV.55

Just as, by virtue of his own previous aspiration prayers

And as a result of the virtues of the gods,

Brahmā manifests his appearance without effort,

So does the self-arisen one by means of the nirmāṇakāya. IV.56

mahābrahmavad iti /

sarvatra devabhavane brāhmyād avicalan padāt /

pratibhāsaṃ yathā brahmā darśayaty aprayatnataḥ // 53 //

tadvan munir anābhogān nirmāṇaiḥ sarvadhātuṣu /

dharmakāyād avicalan bhavyānām eti darśanam // 54 //

yadvad brahmā vimānān na calati satataṃ kāmadhātupraviṣṭaṃ devāḥ paśyanti cainaṃ

viṣayaratiharaṃ darṣanaṃ tac ca teṣām /

tadvad saddharmakāyān na calati sugataḥ sarvalokeṣu cainaṃ bhavyāḥ paśyanti

śaśvatsakalamalaharaṃ darśanaṃ tac ca teṣām // 55 //

svasyaiva pūrvapraṇidhānayogān marudgaṇānāṃ ca śubhānubhāvāt /

brahmā yathā bhāsam upaity ayatnān nirmāṇakāyena tathā svayaṃbhūḥ // 56 //

No Chinese commentary defined.

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931)

As Brahma, without moving from his abode,

In all the regions of the gods

Demonstrates his apparition without effort,

Takasaki (1966)

Just as Brahmā, without moving from his palace,

Manifests his apparition, without any effort,

In the world of gods everywhere;—

Fuchs (2000)

Just like the way in which Brahma,

without departing from his abode,

effortlessly shows his appearance

in all the residences of the gods,

Textual sources

Commentaries on this verse

Academic notes

sūtra - Sūtras mainly refer to the discourses delivered by the Buddha and his disciples, and the Sūtra corpus is one of the three main sets of teachings which form the Buddhist canon. Skt. सूत्र Tib. མདོ། Ch. 佛经

dharmakāya - "Truth body" or "true being" — One of the three bodies of a buddha. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, it often refers to a kind of fundamental principle or the true nature of reality itself. Skt. धर्मकाय Tib. ཆོས་སྐུ་ Ch. 法身

ātman - Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena. Skt. आत्मन् Tib. བདག་ Ch. 我,灵魂

nirmāṇakāya - An fully enlightened Buddha is said to have the power to manifest in many forms in order to help the sentient beings. The emanation body of a buddha, as the third of the three bodies of a buddha, refers to the many forms in which a buddha can manifest and which are accessible to ordinary sentient beings. Buddhist scholars present four types of emanation bodies: emanation as supreme being, emanation as rebirth, emanation as artisan and emanation in diverse forms. Skt. निर्माणकाय Tib. སྤྲུལ་སྐུ། Ch. 化身

Uttaratantra - The Ultimate Continuum, or Gyü Lama, is often used as a short title in the Tibetan tradition for the key source text of buddha-nature teachings called the Ratnagotravibhāga of Maitreya/Asaṅga, also known as the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra. Skt. उत्तरतन्त्र Tib. རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་ Ch. 寶性論

These are the root verses of the Uttaratantra attributed to Maitreya by the Tibetan tradition.