Verse III.26

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse III.26

Verse III.26 Variations

व्यभ्रे यथा नभसि चन्द्रमसो विभूतिं
पश्यन्ति नीलशरदम्बुमहाह्रदे च
संबुद्धमण्डलतलेषु विभोर्विभूतिं
तद्विज्जिनात्मजगणा व्यवलोकयन्ति

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

vyabhre yathā nabhasi candramaso vibhūtiṃ
paśyanti nīlaśaradambumahāhrade ca
saṃbuddhamaṇḍalataleṣu vibhorvibhūtiṃ
tadvijjinātmajagaṇā vyavalokayanti

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

ཇི་ལྟར་སྤྲིན་མེད་མཁའ་ཡི་ཟླ་བའི་གཟུགས། །
སྟོན་ཀའི་ཆུ་སྔོན་མཚོར་ནི་མཐོང་བ་ལྟར། །
དེ་བཞིན་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་ཁྱབ་བདག་གཟུགས། །
རྫོགས་སངས་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ནང་དུ་མཐོང་བར་འགྱུར། །

Dege, PHI, 132

Just as the splendor of the moon in a cloudless sky
Is seen in the blue autumn waters of great ponds,
So the hosts of the children of the victors see the splendor
Of the lord on the surfaces of the circles [around] the perfect Buddha.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 433 ^[3]

De même qu’en automne on voit la forme de la lune

Dans un ciel sans nuages comme dans les eaux bleues d’un lac,

De même, les enfants des Vainqueurs verront la forme

De l’Omniprésent dans le maṇḍala de la parfaite bouddhéité.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse III.26

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

།ཆུ་ཟླ་བཞིན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ནི། ཇི་ལྟར་སྤྲིན་མེད་ནམ་མཁའི་ཟླ་བའི་གཟུགས། །སྟོན་ཀའི་ཆུ་སྔོན་མཚོར་ནི་མཐོང་བ་ལྟར། །དེ་བཞིན་རྒྱལ་སྲས་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་ཁྱབ་བདག་གཟུགས། །རྫོགས་སངས་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ནང་དུ་མཐོང་{br}བར་འགྱུར།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) ^[5]

As the form of the moon in a cloudless sky

Is seen in the blue waters of a lake in autumn,

In a similar way the Body that is surrounded by the multitudes of Bodhisattvas

Can be perceived (in its reflected form on earth)

Within the circle of adherents of the Supreme Buddha.

Takasaki (1966) ^[6]

Just as, in autumn, the form of the moon is perceived

In the cloudless sky, as well as in a big pond,

Reflecting this blue sky on its water-surface;

Similarly, the disciples of the Buddha

Can perceive the manifestations of the Omnipresent

On the surface of the pond-like sphere of the Buddha.

Fuchs (2000) ^[7]

Just as in autumn the form of the moon is seen

in a cloudless sky and in the deep blue water of a lake,

the form of the All-Embracing is seen by the Victor's heirs

in the perfect buddha mandala [and in the world].

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.
In III.26b, MB reads "ponds"in plural (hradeṣu ca; though ca is hypermetrical), which corresponds to "surfaces" (taleṣu) in III.26d (MB is illegible here, but VT confirms °tala). DP have no plural for "pond,"nor any equivalents of "great" and said ca. For "splendor" (vibhūta, which can also mean "power," "glory," "abundance," and "greatness"), DP have "form" (gzugs). "Circles" (maṇḍala) is here to be understood as the retinues of the Buddha, which is confirmed by VT’s (fol. 15v3) gloss of sambuddhamaṇḍalatala as "the nature of the retinue of the perfect Buddha" (saṃbuddhaparṣatsvarūpaṃ).
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] In III.26b, MB reads "ponds"in plural (hradeṣu ca; though ca is hypermetrical), which corresponds to "surfaces" (taleṣu) in III.26d (MB is illegible here, but VT confirms °tala). DP have no plural for "pond,"nor any equivalents of "great" and said ca. For "splendor" (vibhūta, which can also mean "power," "glory," "abundance," and "greatness"), DP have "form" (gzugs). "Circles" (maṇḍala) is here to be understood as the retinues of the Buddha, which is confirmed by VT’s (fol. 15v3) gloss of sambuddhamaṇḍalatala as "the nature of the retinue of the perfect Buddha" (saṃbuddhaparṣatsvarūpaṃ).

[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] 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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