Verse I.40

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.40

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Verse I.40 Variations

बुद्धधातुः सचेन्न स्यान्निर्विद्‍दुःखेऽपि नो भवेत्
नेच्छा न प्रार्थना नापि प्राणिधिर्निवृतौ भवेत्

buddhadhātuḥ sacenna syānnirvidduḥkhe'pi no bhavet
necchā na prārthanā nāpi prāṇidhirnivṛtau bhavet

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

གལ་ཏེ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཁམས་མེད་ན།
།སྡུག་ལའང་སྐྱོ་བར་མི་འགྱུར་ཞིང་།
།མྱ་ངན་འདས་ལ་འདོད་པ་དང་།
།དོན་གཉེར་སྨོན་པའང་མེད་པར་འགྱུར།

Dege, PHI, 186-187

If the buddha element did not exist,
There would be no weariness of suffering,
Nor would there be the wish, striving,
And aspiration for nirvāṇa.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 367 ^[2]

Si nous n’avions pas d’élément de bouddha,

Nous ne nous lasserions pas de souffrir

Et ne voudrions pas d’un nirvāṇa

Qui ne nous inspirerait ni intérêt ni désir.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.40

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Other English translations[edit]

Listed by date of publication

Obermiller (1931) ^[3]

If the Germ of the Buddha did not exist，

The aversion to the suffering (of this world) would not arise;

There would be no desire of Nirvāṇa,

And there would be no effort for attaining it.^[4]

Takasaki (1966) ^[5]

If there is no Essence of the Buddha,

There will be no aversion to Suffering,

Nor will there be desire nor earnest wish,

Nor prayer for Nirvāṇa.

Holmes (1985) ^[6]

Were there no buddha-nature

there would be no discontent with suffering

nor desire, effort and aspiration for nirvāṇa.

Fuchs (2000) ^[7]

If the buddha element were not present,

there would be no remorse over suffering.

There would be no longing for nirvana,

nor striving and devotion towards this aim.

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.
This is verse 39 in Obermiller's translation
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.
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] This is verse 39 in Obermiller's translation

[5] 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.

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

[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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