Verse I.4

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.4

Verse I.4 Variations

यो बुद्धत्वमनादिमध्यनिधनं शान्तं विबुद्धः स्वयं
बुद्ध्‍वा चाबुधबोधनार्थमभयं मार्गं दिदेश ध्रुवम्
तस्मै ज्ञानकृपासिवज्रवरधृग्दुःखङ्कुरैकच्छिदे
नानादृग्गहनोपगूढविमतिप्राकारभेत्त्रे नमः

yo buddhatvamanādimadhyanidhanaṃ śāntaṃ vibuddhaḥ svayaṃ
buddhvā cābudhabodhanārthamabhayaṃ mārgaṃ dideśa dhruvam
tasmai jñānakṛpāsivajravaradhṛgduḥkhaṅkuraikacchide
nānādṛggahanopagūḍhavimatiprākārabhettre namaḥ

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

།གང་ཞིག་ཐོག་མ་དབུས་མཐའ་མེད་ཞི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད་རང་རྣམ་སངས་རྒྱས།
།སངས་རྒྱས་ནས་ནི་མ་རྟོགས་རྟོགས་ཕྱིར་འཇིག་མེད་རྟག་པའི་ལམ་སྟོན་པ།
།མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་རལ་གྲི་རྡོ་རྗེ་མཆོག་བསྣམས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མྱུ་གུ་གཅོད་མཛད་ཅིང་།
།སྣ་ཚོགས་ལྟ་ཐིབས་ཀྱིས་བསྐོར་ཐེ་ཚོམ་རྩིག་པ་འཇིག་མཛད་དེ་ལ་འདུད།

Dege, PHI, 108-109

You awakened to peaceful buddhahood without beginning, middle, or end.
Upon your self-awakening, you taught the fearless everlasting path so that the unawakened may awake.
I pay homage to you who wield the supreme sword and vajra of wisdom and compassion, cut the sprouts of suffering to pieces,
And break through the wall of doubts concealed by the thicket of various views.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 337. ^[2]

À celui qui, de lui-même, s’est éveillé à la paisible bouddhéité

dépourvue de commencement, de milieu et de fin,

Qui, pleinement éveillé, montre la voie indestructible et éternelle

pour que les non-réalisés se réalisent,

Qui brandit le vajra suprême, l’épée de la sagesse et de la compassion,

et tranche les pousses de la souffrance.

À lui qui abat le mur des doutes cerné par la jungle des vues,

je rends hommage.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.4

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།ད་ནི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་དོན་བརྗོད་པར་བྱ་སྟེ། སེམས་ཅན་གང་དག་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པས་བཏུལ་བ་དེ་དག་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་འགྲོའོ། །ཆོས་ཉིད་ཀྱི་རྒྱུ་མཐུན་པའི་དང་བས་ཆོས་དང་དགེ་འདུན་ལ་{br}ཡང་སྐྱབས་སུ་འགྲོའོ། །དེས་ན་དེ་དང་པོ་ཉིད་ཡིན་པས་ན་སངས་རྒྱས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་དབང་དུ་བྱས་ཏེ། ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། གང་ཞིག་ཐོག་མ་དབུས་མཐའ་མེད་ཞི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད་རང་རྣམ་སངས་རྒྱས། །སངས་རྒྱས་ནས་ནི་མ་རྟོགས་རྟོགས་ཕྱིར་འཇིག་མེད་རྟག་པའི་{br}ལམ་སྟོན་པ། །མཁྱེན་བརྩེའི་རལ་གྲི་རྡོ་རྗེ་མཆོག་བསྣམས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མྱུ་གུ་གཅོད་མཛད་ཅིང་། །སྣ་ཚོགས་ལྟ་ཐིབས་ཀྱིས་བསྐོར་ཐེ་ཚོམ་རྩིག་པ་འཇིག་མཛད་དེ་ལ་འདུད།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) ^[3]

I bow before him, who has neither beginning, middle, nor end,

Who is quiescent and fully enlighted, (perceiving) his own (Cosmical) Essence of Buddhahood,

Who, himself illuminated, shows to the ignorant

The Path sure and free from danger, in order that they might know (the Truth),

Who, raising high the sword and the thunder-bolt of Mercy and Wisdom

Cuts down the sprout of Phenomenal Life,

And breaks the wall of Doubt surrounded

By the dense thickets of the different heresies.一

Takasaki (1966) ^[4]

I bow to the one, who has realized the Buddhahood

Which has neither beginning, middle nor end, and is quiescent,

And who, having realized himself, taught the Path,

Fearless and eternal, in order to enlighten the ignorant

And who, having in hand the excellent sword and thunderbolt

Of Wisdom and Mercy, cuts in pieces all sprouts of Sufferings,

And breaks the wall of doubts concealed

In the forest of various views.

Fuchs (2000) ^[5]

Buddha is without beginning, middle, or end. He is peace itself,

fully self-awakened and self-expanded in buddhahood.

Having reached this state, he shows the indestructible, permanent

path so that those who have no realization may realize.

Wielding the supreme sword and vajra of knowledge and

compassionate love, he cuts the seedling of suffering

and destroys the wall of doubts along with its surrounding thicket

of various views. I bow down to this Buddha.

Textual sources[edit]

Commentaries on this verse[edit]

Academic notes[edit]

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.
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] 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.

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

[4] 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.

[5] 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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