Verse IV.49

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse IV.49

Verse IV.49 Variations

स्थूलैर् बिन्दुनिपातनैर् अशनिभिर् वज्राग्निसंपातनैः सूक्ष्मप्राणकशैलदेशगमिकान् नापेक्षते तोयदः
सूक्ष्मौदारिकयुक्त्युपायविधिभिः प्रज्ञाकृपाम्भोधरस् तद्वत् क्लेशगतान् दृष्ट्यनुशयान् नापेक्षते सर्वथा

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

sthūlair bindunipātanair aśanibhir vajrāgnisaṃpātanaiḥ sūkṣmaprāṇakaśailadeśagamikān nāpekṣate toyadaḥ
sūkṣmaudārikayuktyupāyavidhibhiḥ prajñākṛpāmbhodharas tadvat kleśagatān dṛṣṭyanuśayān nāpekṣate sarvathā

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

ཐིགས་པ་རགས་འབེབས་རྡོ་ཚན་དང་ནི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་མེ་ནི་འབེབས་པ་ན།
།སྲོག་ཆགས་ཕྲ་དང་རི་སུལ་སོང་བ་དག་ལ་ཇི་ལྟར་སྤྲིན་ལྟོས་མེད།
།ཕྲ་དང་རྒྱ་ཆེན་རིགས་པའི་ཚུལ་གྱིས་མཁྱེན་པ་དང་ནི་བརྩེ་བའི་སྤྲིན།
ཉོན་མོངས་དག་འགྱུར་བདག་ལྟའི་བག་ཉལ་དག་ལ་རྣམ་ཀུན་ལྟོས་པ་མེད།

Dege, PHI, 138

By raining down thick drops and bringing down hail and lightning,
Clouds are indifferent toward subtle creatures and those who travel rocky terrains.
Likewise, the cloud of prajñā and compassion, through its subtle and vast means, methods, and applications,
Is indifferent in all respects toward those with afflictions and those with the latencies of views about a self.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 446 ^[3]

Quand s’abattent sur la terre de grosses gouttes de pluie,

des pierres brûlantes ou des flammes de diamant,

Les nuages ne se soucient pas plus des petites bêtes

que de celles qui se sont réfugiées dans la montagne.

Les gouttes, des plus petites aux plus grosses,

qui tombent des nuages de l’amour et de la connaissance

Ne se soucient absolument pas des affections qu’elles purifient

ni de la tendance à voir un soi.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse IV.49

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

Full Tibetan Commentary
Full English Commentary
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།ལྟོས་པ་མེད་པར་འཇུག་པ་ལས་ནི། ཐེག་པ་མཆོག་ལ་དང་བ་དང་། །བར་མ་དང་ནི་སྡང་བ་ཡི། །ཕུང་པོ་གསུམ་ནི་མི་དག་དང་། །རྨ་བྱ་དང་ནི་ཡི་དགས་འདྲ། །དཔྱིད་མཐར་{br}སྤྲིན་མེད་པ་ན་མི་དང་མཁའ་མི་རྒྱུ་བའི་བྱ་དག་དང་། །དབྱར་ཚེ་ས་ལ་ཆར་བབ་པས་ན་ཡི་དགས་དག་ནི་སྡུག་པ་ལྟར། །སྙིང་རྗེའི་སྤྲིན་ཚོགས་དག་གིས་ཆོས་ཆུ་བྱུང་དང་མ་བྱུང་བ་ལས་ཀྱང་། །ཆོས་འདོད་པ་དང་ཆོས་ལ་སྡང་བའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ན་ནི་དཔེ་དེ་ཉིད། །ཐིགས་པ་རགས་འབེབས་རྡོ་ཚན་དང་{br}ནི་རྡོ་རྗེའི་མེ་ནི་འབེབས་པས་ན། །སྲོག་ཆགས་ཕྲ་དང་རི་སུལ་སོང་བ་དག་ལ་ཇི་ལྟར་སྤྲིན་ལྟོས་མེད། །ཕྲ་དང་རྒྱ་ཆེན་རིགས་ཐབས་ཚུལ་གྱིས་མཁྱེན་པ་དང་ནི་བརྩེ་བའི་སྤྲིན། །ཉོན་མོངས་དག་འགྱུར་བདག་ལྟའི་བག་ཆགས་དག་ལས་རྣམ་པ་ཀུན་ལྟོས་མེད།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) ^[10]

Discharging thick drops of rain, hail and lightening,

The clouds have no special regard

For the small insects and the inhabitants of the caves,

Similar are the clouds of Wisdom and Mercy

With their subtle and their grand methods and means.

They (eject the rain of the Doctrine) independently

From those that are purified from passion

And those who indulge in egoistic views.

Takasaki (1966) ^[11]

Discharging the gross drop of rain, hail and lightning,

The cloud does not care about the subtle living beings,

Nor about those who are on a trip in the mountains;

Similarly, the one who holds the waters of Wisdom and Compassion,

[Discharging them] with various means, methods and rules, subtle or gross,

Does not mind anywhere those who are of Defilements,

Whether [in the burst of] egoistic view or in a dormant state.

Fuchs (2000) ^[12]

When releasing a deluge of heavy drops or hurling down hailstones

and thunderbolts,

a cloud does not heed any tiny beings or those who have sought

shelter in the hills.

Likewise the cloud of knowledge and love does not heed whether

its vast and subtle drops

will purify the afflictions or [increase] dormant tendencies towards

holding the view of a self.

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.
VT (fol. 16r6) glosses "those who are intermediate" as "śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas."
VT (fol. 16r7) glosses "those who desire the dharma" as "bodhisattvas, śrāvakas, and so on."
I follow VT °meghaughād, which accords with Schmithausen’s reading °meghaughadharma° of MB and is also supported by DP sprain tshogs dagga, against J °meghābhra°.
I follow DP rod tshan dang ni rdo rje’i me; Skt. aśani and vajrāgni both meaning "lightning."
VT (fol. 16r7–16v1) takes the compound sūkṣmaprāṇakaśailadeśagamikān to consist of the three components "subtle creatures," "rocks/mountains," and "those who travel the terrain,"glossing them as "those who are hostile [toward the mahāyāna]," "bodhisattvas," and "śrāvakas and so on,"respectively. However, line IV.49d suggests only the two components "subtle creatures" and "those who travel rocky terrains,"which exemplify "the latencies of the afflictions" and "the latencies of the views about a self,"respectively. Also, all Tibetan commentaries speak about those two components, though they interpret them in different ways. Most say that hail and lightning harm many subtle creatures but not peacocks ("those who travel rocky terrain"), while rain benefits the latter. Likewise, the rain of the wisdom of knowing what is subtle (emptiness) and the compassion of what is vast (generosity and so on) pours down equally on the fortunate who have faith in the mahāyāna, purifying their afflictions, and the unfortunate who have strong habitual tendencies of views about a self.
I follow Takasaki’s emendation of MA/MB kleśagatān dṛṣṭyanuśayān to kleśagatātmadṛṣṭyanuśayān (supported by DP nyon mongs dag ’gyur bdag lta’i bag chags and C). VT (fol. 16v1) glosses °gata° as svarūpa.
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] VT (fol. 16r6) glosses "those who are intermediate" as "śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas."

[5] VT (fol. 16r7) glosses "those who desire the dharma" as "bodhisattvas, śrāvakas, and so on."

[6] I follow VT °meghaughād, which accords with Schmithausen’s reading °meghaughadharma° of MB and is also supported by DP sprain tshogs dagga, against J °meghābhra°.

[7] I follow DP rod tshan dang ni rdo rje’i me; Skt. aśani and vajrāgni both meaning "lightning."

[8] VT (fol. 16r7–16v1) takes the compound sūkṣmaprāṇakaśailadeśagamikān to consist of the three components "subtle creatures," "rocks/mountains," and "those who travel the terrain,"glossing them as "those who are hostile [toward the mahāyāna]," "bodhisattvas," and "śrāvakas and so on,"respectively. However, line IV.49d suggests only the two components "subtle creatures" and "those who travel rocky terrains,"which exemplify "the latencies of the afflictions" and "the latencies of the views about a self,"respectively. Also, all Tibetan commentaries speak about those two components, though they interpret them in different ways. Most say that hail and lightning harm many subtle creatures but not peacocks ("those who travel rocky terrain"), while rain benefits the latter. Likewise, the rain of the wisdom of knowing what is subtle (emptiness) and the compassion of what is vast (generosity and so on) pours down equally on the fortunate who have faith in the mahāyāna, purifying their afflictions, and the unfortunate who have strong habitual tendencies of views about a self.

[9] I follow Takasaki’s emendation of MA/MB kleśagatān dṛṣṭyanuśayān to kleśagatātmadṛṣṭyanuśayān (supported by DP nyon mongs dag ’gyur bdag lta’i bag chags and C). VT (fol. 16v1) glosses °gata° as svarūpa.

[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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