Verse I.24

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.24

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Verse I.24 Variations

गोत्रं रत्नत्रयस्यास्य विषयः सर्वदर्शिनाम्
चतुर्विधः स चाचिन्त्यश्चतुर्भिः कारणैः क्रमात्

gotraṃ ratnatrayasyāsya viṣayaḥ sarvadarśinām
caturvidhaḥ sa cācintyaścaturbhiḥ kāraṇaiḥ kramāt

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

།དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་པོ་འདི་ཡི་རིགས།
།ཐམས་ཅད་གཟིགས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཡུལ།
།དེ་ཡང་རྣམ་བཞི་གོ་རིམས་བཞིན།
།རྒྱུ་བཞི་ཡིས་ནི་བསམ་མི་ཁྱབ།

Dege, PHI, 111

The disposition of the three jewels
Is the object of those who see everything.
It is fourfold and is inconceivable
For four reasons in due order

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 352. ^[2]

La filiation spirituelle des Trois Joyaux

Est l’objet de ceux qui voient tout.

Les quatre points sont inconcevables

Pour quatre raisons. Respectivement :

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.24

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

Full Tibetan Commentary
Full English Commentary
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Other English translations[edit]

Listed by date of publication

Obermiller (1931) ^[5]

The source of these 3 Jewels

Is accessible only to the Omniscient;

It has four varieties

And is inconceivable for four motives, respectively.

Takasaki (1966) ^[6]

The Germ of these Three Jewels

Is the sphere of the Omniscience,

And it is inconceivable in fourfold

For four reasons, respectively.

Holmes (1985) ^[7]

The potential for these three rare and supreme gems

is the domain of knowledge of the omniscient.

In respective order there are four reasons for

these four aspects being inconceivable. They are:

Holmes (1999) ^[8]

The potential for the rare and sublime

is the domain of wisdom of the omniscient.

In respective order, there are four reasons why

these four aspects are inconceivable:

Fuchs (2000) ^[9]

The disposition of the Three Rare and Sublime Ones

is the object [of vision] of those who see everything.

Furthermore, these four aspects in the given order

are inconceivable, for the following four reasons:

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.
As Takasaki 1966a (49–53) points out, chapters 2–5 of the *Anuttarāśrayasūtra (only available in Chinese) bear the titles Tathāgatadhātuparivarta, Tathāgatabodhiparivarta, Tathāgataguṇaparivarta, and Tathāgatakriyāparivarta, thus corresponding to the last four vajra points. At the end of each chapter, the sūtra discusses the inconceivability of these four topics, with its descriptions being literally the same as in RGVV on I.24–25 (J 21.17–18, 22.5, 22.8–9, and 24.9–25.3 correspond, respectively, to *Anuttarāśrayasūtra, Taishō 16, 470c, 473c, 475c, and 476b–c). Takasaki presents evidence for this sūtra’s having been composed after the RGVV, being modeled upon the latter, probably by Paramārtha.
Due to the many different ways in which the term āśrayaparivṛtti is used and understood in different texts, it is very difficult to translate it in a way that covers all its many applications. In different presentations, the term āśraya ("foundation" or "basis") can refer to the body, the entirety of one’s psychophysical existence (ātmabhāva), the five skandhas, the physical or mental impregnations of negative tendencies, the six inner āyatanas, the impure or afflicted dependent nature, the ālaya-consciousness, all eight consciousnesses, adventitious stains, suchness, emptiness, the nature of phenomena, the dharmadhātu, nonconceptual wisdom, the nature of the mind, or tathāgatagarbha. Parivṛtti ("change") may refer to the removal of something (either the removal of something in something or the removal of this very something) and its being explicitly or implicitly replaced by something else, the purification of something, the change of something into something else, or the revealing of something without any change within this something through merely eliminating what obscured it (or the very foundation within which any of the above "changes"take place, but which remains changeless itself). Thus, the outcome of this process may be something entirely new, a new form of something preexisting, or the unobscured manifestation of what existed primordially. Though some texts do not explicitly specify the result of the fundamental change, others identify it in many different ways, such as the purified dependent nature, the pure elements of the mind stream, stainless suchness, purified emptiness, the uncontaminated dharmadhātu, the dharmakāya, all kinds of masteries (over phenomena, wisdom, and so on), or the tathāgatagarbha endowed with twofold purity (naturally pure and pure of adventitious stains). According to Paramārtha’s translations and works (preserved only in Chinese), the fundamental change refers to the change of the ālaya-consciousness into "the pure consciousness" (amalavijñāna). In sum, when the āśraya in āśrayaparivṛtti is the psychophysical continuum of an ordinary being or the ālaya-consciousness, it is to be removed and replaced by something else, but when it refers to the nature of phenomena or buddha nature, it is merely to be revealed just as it is. Thus, more common renderings of āśrayaparivṛtti, such as "transformation of the basis" or "revolution of the basis"may be appropriate in certain of the above cases, but when the term applies to the mere revelation of suchness or the tathāgata heart (which is the way in which the term is used in this text), there is no transformation of anything into anything. The only way in which one can speak of a change here is that the state of the tathāgata heart (the foundation) changes from its being obscured to its being unobscured, while there is no change whatsoever in that tathāgata heart itself (similar to space being with and without clouds). Likewise, one cannot really say that, for example, "the ālaya-consciousness has transformed,"because the texts usually explain either that the ālaya-consciousness is purified or that it ceases to exist altogether, but not that it is actually transformed into something else. For more details, see the section on "fundamental change"in the introduction in Brunnhölzl 2012b.
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.
Holmes, Ken & Katia. The Changeless Nature. Eskdalemuir, Scotland: Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling, 1985.
Holmes, Ken & Katia. Maitreya on Buddha Nature. Scotland: Altea Publishing, 1999.
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] As Takasaki 1966a (49–53) points out, chapters 2–5 of the *Anuttarāśrayasūtra (only available in Chinese) bear the titles Tathāgatadhātuparivarta, Tathāgatabodhiparivarta, Tathāgataguṇaparivarta, and Tathāgatakriyāparivarta, thus corresponding to the last four vajra points. At the end of each chapter, the sūtra discusses the inconceivability of these four topics, with its descriptions being literally the same as in RGVV on I.24–25 (J 21.17–18, 22.5, 22.8–9, and 24.9–25.3 correspond, respectively, to *Anuttarāśrayasūtra, Taishō 16, 470c, 473c, 475c, and 476b–c). Takasaki presents evidence for this sūtra’s having been composed after the RGVV, being modeled upon the latter, probably by Paramārtha.

[4] Due to the many different ways in which the term āśrayaparivṛtti is used and understood in different texts, it is very difficult to translate it in a way that covers all its many applications. In different presentations, the term āśraya ("foundation" or "basis") can refer to the body, the entirety of one’s psychophysical existence (ātmabhāva), the five skandhas, the physical or mental impregnations of negative tendencies, the six inner āyatanas, the impure or afflicted dependent nature, the ālaya-consciousness, all eight consciousnesses, adventitious stains, suchness, emptiness, the nature of phenomena, the dharmadhātu, nonconceptual wisdom, the nature of the mind, or tathāgatagarbha. Parivṛtti ("change") may refer to the removal of something (either the removal of something in something or the removal of this very something) and its being explicitly or implicitly replaced by something else, the purification of something, the change of something into something else, or the revealing of something without any change within this something through merely eliminating what obscured it (or the very foundation within which any of the above "changes"take place, but which remains changeless itself). Thus, the outcome of this process may be something entirely new, a new form of something preexisting, or the unobscured manifestation of what existed primordially. Though some texts do not explicitly specify the result of the fundamental change, others identify it in many different ways, such as the purified dependent nature, the pure elements of the mind stream, stainless suchness, purified emptiness, the uncontaminated dharmadhātu, the dharmakāya, all kinds of masteries (over phenomena, wisdom, and so on), or the tathāgatagarbha endowed with twofold purity (naturally pure and pure of adventitious stains). According to Paramārtha’s translations and works (preserved only in Chinese), the fundamental change refers to the change of the ālaya-consciousness into "the pure consciousness" (amalavijñāna). In sum, when the āśraya in āśrayaparivṛtti is the psychophysical continuum of an ordinary being or the ālaya-consciousness, it is to be removed and replaced by something else, but when it refers to the nature of phenomena or buddha nature, it is merely to be revealed just as it is. Thus, more common renderings of āśrayaparivṛtti, such as "transformation of the basis" or "revolution of the basis"may be appropriate in certain of the above cases, but when the term applies to the mere revelation of suchness or the tathāgata heart (which is the way in which the term is used in this text), there is no transformation of anything into anything. The only way in which one can speak of a change here is that the state of the tathāgata heart (the foundation) changes from its being obscured to its being unobscured, while there is no change whatsoever in that tathāgata heart itself (similar to space being with and without clouds). Likewise, one cannot really say that, for example, "the ālaya-consciousness has transformed,"because the texts usually explain either that the ālaya-consciousness is purified or that it ceases to exist altogether, but not that it is actually transformed into something else. For more details, see the section on "fundamental change"in the introduction in Brunnhölzl 2012b.

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

[6] 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.

[7] Holmes, Ken & Katia. The Changeless Nature. Eskdalemuir, Scotland: Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling, 1985.

[8] Holmes, Ken & Katia. Maitreya on Buddha Nature. Scotland: Altea Publishing, 1999.

[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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