Verse II.37

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse II.37

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Verse II.37 Variations

अदृश्यं तदरूपित्वादग्राह्यमनिमित्ततः
शुभं प्रकृतिशुद्धत्वादमलं मलहानितः

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

adṛśyaṃ tadarūpitvādagrāhyamanimittataḥ
śubhaṃ prakṛtiśuddhatvādamalaṃ malahānitaḥ

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

དེ་གཟུགས་མེད་ཕྱིར་བལྟར་མེད་དེ། །
མཚན་མ་མེད་ཕྱིར་གཟུང་དུ་མེད། །
དགེ་བ་རང་བཞིན་དག་པའི་ཕྱིར། །
དྲི་མེད་དྲི་མ་སྤངས་ཕྱིར་རོ། །

Dege, PHI, 126

It is invisible because it has no form.
It is ungraspable since it has no characteristics.
It is splendid because it is pure by nature.
It is stainless because the stains are eliminated.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 422

[L’Éveil] est invisible parce qu’il n’a pas de forme ;

Insaisissable parce qu’il n’a pas de caractéristiques ; Vertueux parce qu’il est pur par nature ; Immaculé parce qu’il n’a plus de souillures.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse II.37

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

།ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་འདིའི་དོན་ནི་{br}མདོར་བསྡུ་ན་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་བརྒྱད་ཀྱིས་རིག་པར་བྱ་སྟེ། རྣམ་གྲོལ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་དག་གིས། །རང་དང་གཞན་གྱི་དོན་བསྟན་ཏེ། །རང་གཞན་དོན་རྟེན་དེ་ལ་ནི། །བསམ་མི་ཁྱབ་སོགས་ཡོན་ཏན་ལྡན། །ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཡུལ། །སངས་རྒྱས་ཤེས་གསུམ་ཡུལ་མིན་ཕྱིར། །{br}ཡེ་ཤེས་ལུས་ཅན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ནི། །བསམ་མི་ཁྱབ་པར་རྟོགས་པར་བྱ། །ཕྲ་ཕྱིར་ཐོས་པའི་ཡུལ་མིན་ཏེ། །དོན་དམ་ཡིན་ཕྱིར་བསམ་བྱའི་མིན། །ཆོས་ཉིད་ཟབ་ཕྱིར་འཇིག་རྟེན་པའི། །སྒོམ་པ་ལ་སོགས་ཡུལ་མ་ཡིན། །གང་ཕྱིར་གཟུགས་ལ་དམུས་ལོང་བཞིན། །བྱིས་པས་དེ་སྔོན་མཐོང་མ་མྱོང་། །{br}བཙས་པའི་ཁྱིམ་ནས་བུ་ཆུང་གིས། །ཉི་མའི་གཟུགས་བཞིན་འཕགས་པས་ཀྱང་། །སྐྱེ་དང་བྲལ་ཞིང་རྟག་པ་སྟེ། །འགག་པ་མེད་ཕྱིར་བརྟན་པ་ཡིན། །གཉིས་མེད་ཕྱིར་ན་ཞི་བ་སྟེ། །གཡུང་དྲུང་ཆོས་ཉིད་གནས་ཕྱིར་རོ། །རབ་ཞི་འགོག་པའི་བདེན་པའི་ཕྱིར། །ཐམས་ཅད་རྟོགས་ཕྱིར་ཁྱབ་པ་{br}ཉིད། །གནས་པ་མེད་ཕྱིར་རྟོག་མེད་དེ། །ཉོན་མོངས་སྤངས་ཕྱིར་ཆགས་པ་མེད། །ཤེས་བྱའི་སྒྲིབ་ཀུན་དག་བྱའི་ཕྱིར། །ཐམས་ཅད་དུ་ནི་ཐོགས་པ་མེད། །གཉིས་མེད་ལས་སུ་རུང་བའི་ཕྱིར། །རྩུབ་པའི་རེག་དང་བྲལ་བའི་ཕྱིར། །དེ་གཟུགས་མེད་ཅིང་བལྟར་མེད་དེ། །མཚན་མ་

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མེད་ཕྱིར་གཟུང་དུ་མེད། །དགེ་བའི་རང་བཞིན་དག་པའི་ཕྱིར། །དྲི་མེད་དྲི་མ་སྤངས་ཕྱིར་རོ།

Here, the meaning of this verse is to be understood in brief through the [following] eight verses.

One’s own welfare and that of others is taught

Through the vimukti[kāya] and the dharmakāya.

This foundation of one’s own welfare and that of others

Is endowed with the qualities such as being inconceivable. II.30

Buddhahood is the object of omniscient wisdom [alone].

Since it is not the object of the three wisdoms,

It is to be understood as being inconceivable

[Even] by people with wisdom. II.31

Since it is subtle, it is not an object of study.

Since it is the ultimate, it is not [an object] of reflection.

Since it is the depth of the nature of phenomena,

It is not [an object] of worldly meditation and so forth. II.32

For naive beings have never seen it before,

Just as those born blind [have never seen] form.

Even noble ones [see it only] as an infant [would glimpse]

The orb of the sun while lying in the house of a new mother. II.33

It is permanent because it is free from arising.

It is everlasting since it is free from ceasing.

It is quiescent because it is without duality.

It is eternal since the nature of phenomena [always] remains. II.34 (J85)

It is peaceful because it is the reality of cessation.

It is all-pervasive since it realizes everything.

It is nonconceptual because it is nonabiding.

It is without attachment since the afflictions are relinquished. II.35

It is everywhere without obstruction

Because it is pure of all cognitive obscurations.

It is free from harsh sensations

Since it is a state of gentleness and workability. II.36

It is invisible because it has no form. (D118a)

It is ungraspable since it has no characteristics.

It is splendid because it is pure by nature.

It is stainless because the stains are eliminated. II.37

atha khalvasya ślokasyārthaḥ samāsato'ṣṭābhiḥ ślokairveditavyaḥ/

vimuktidharmakāyābhyāṃ svaparārtho nidarśitaḥ/

svaparārthāśraye tasmin yogo'cintyādibhirguṇaiḥ//30//

acintyamanugantavyaṃ trijñānāviṣayatvataḥ/

sarvajñajñānaviṣayaṃ buddhatvaṃ jñānadehibhiḥ//31//

śrutasyāviṣayaḥ saukṣmyāccintāyāḥ paramārthataḥ/

laukyādibhāvanāyāśca dharmatāgavharatvataḥ//32//

dṛṣṭapūrvaṃ na tadyasmādvālairjātyandhakāyavat/

āryaiśca sūtikāmadhyasthita bālārkabimbavat//33//

utpādavigamānnityaṃ nirodhavigamāddhruvam/

śivametaddvayābhāvācchāśvataṃ dharmatāsthiteḥ//34//

śāntaṃ nirodhasatyatvādvyāpi sarvāvabodhataḥ/

akalpamapratiṣṭhānādasaktaṃ kleśahānitaḥ//35//

sarvatrāpratighaṃ sarvajñeyāvaraṇaśuddhitaḥ/

paruṣasparśanirmuktaṃ mṛdukarmaṇyabhāvataḥ//36//

adṛśyaṃ tadarūpitvādagrāhyamanimittataḥ/

śubhaṃ prakṛtiśuddhatvādamalaṃ malahānitaḥ//37//

No Chinese commentary defined.

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931)

Being immaterial, it is not perceptible,

And, as it has no real characteristic marks,

It cannot be cognized by inference.

It is sublime, being perfectly pure by nature,

And free from every stain through the complete removal of defilement.

Takasaki (1966)

Being immaterial, it cannot be perceived,

And being of no [visible] mark, it is 'incognizable';

It is 'pure' since it is pure by nature,

And is ' immaculate ' because of its removal of pollutions.

Fuchs (2000)

Since it is not something visible, it cannot be seen.

Since it is free from features, it cannot be grasped.

It is virtuous, [the dharmadhatu] being by nature pure,

and it is free from stains, since pollution is abandoned.

Textual sources

Commentaries on this verse

Academic notes

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'dharmakāya'

kleśa - Often referred to as poisons, these are a class of disturbing or disruptive emotional states that when aroused negatively affect or taint the mind. Skt. क्लेश Tib. ཉོན་མོངས་ Ch. 煩惱

Go to the page with the definition of 'afflictions'

āvaraṇa - Literally, that which obscures or conceals. Often listed as a set of two obscurations (sgrib gnyis): the afflictive emotional obscurations (Skt. kleśāvaraṇa, Tib. nyon mongs pa'i sgrib pa) and the cognitive obscurations (Skt. jñeyāvaraṇa, Tib. shes bya'i sgrib pa). By removing the first, one becomes free of suffering, and by removing the second, one becomes omniscient. Skt. आवरण Tib. སྒྲིབ་པ་

Go to the page with the definition of 'obscurations'

dharmadhātu - The fundamental expanse from which all phenomena emerge. Skt. धर्मधातु Tib. ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ Ch. 法界

Go to the page with the definition of 'dharmadhatu'

advaya - Literally, "without duality," it refers to that which is indivisible, in that it is not divided into two. Skt. अद्वय Tib. གཉིས་མེད་ Ch. 不二

Go to the page with the definition of 'nondual'

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

Go to the page with the definition of 'Uttaratantra'

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

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