Verse V.24

From Buddha-Nature
Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse V.24

Verse V.24 Variations

योऽभीक्ष्णं प्रतिसेव्य पापसुहृदः स्याद्वुद्धदुष्टाशयो
मातापित्ररिहद्वधाचरणकृत् संघाग्रभेत्ता नरः
स्यात्तस्यापि ततो विमुक्तिरचिरं धर्मार्थनिध्यानतो
धर्मे यस्य तु मानसं प्रतिहतं तस्मै विमुक्तिः कुतः
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
yo'bhīkṣṇaṃ pratisevya pāpasuhṛdaḥ syādvuddhaduṣṭāśayo
mātāpitrarihadvadhācaraṇakṛt saṃghāgrabhettā naraḥ
syāttasyāpi tato vimuktiraciraṃ dharmārthanidhyānato
dharme yasya tu mānasaṃ pratihataṃ tasmai vimuktiḥ kutaḥ
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[2]
།གང་ཞིག་ཡང་ཡང་སྡིག་གྲོགས་བསྟེན་པས་སངས་རྒྱས་ངན་སེམས་ལྡན་གྱུར་དང་།
ཕ་མ་དགྲ་བཅོམ་གསོད་པར་བྱ་བ་མིན་བྱེད་མཆོག་ཚོགས་འབྱེད་པའི་མི། །
དེ་ཡང་ཆོས་ཉིད་ངེས་པར་བསམས་ན་མྱུར་དུ་དེ་ལས་ཐར་འགྱུར་གྱི། །
གང་ཞིག་ཡིད་ནི་ཆོས་ལ་སྡང་བ་དེ་ལ་ཐར་པ་ག་ལ་ཡོད། །
Even persons who, repeatedly relying on bad friends, [injured] a buddha with bad intention,
Committed the acts of killing their mother, father, or an arhat, or split the highest community
Will be swiftly liberated from these [actions] through being absorbed in the meaning of the dharma,
But how could there be liberation in those whose minds are hostile toward the dharma?
L’individu qui, influencé par ses fréquentations malsaines,
a eu de mauvaises pensées à l’endroit du Bouddha,
A commis l’inadmissible en tuant son père, sa mère ou un arhat,
et qui crée un schisme dans l’assemblée suprême,
Celui-là aussi s’affranchira vite de ces [crimes]
dès lors qu’il réfléchira vraiment à l’essence du réel.
Mais comment se libérera celui qui hait le Dharma ?

RGVV Commentary on Verse V.24

།ཉམས་པའི་འབྲས་བུ་ལས་བརྩམས་ཏེ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། ཇི་ལྟར་ཟབ་མོའི་ཆོས་རྣམས་དེ་བཞིན་མཁས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མེ་དང་ནི། །མི་བཟད་སྦྲུལ་གདུག་གཤེད་

མ་དང་ནི་ཐོག་ལའང་ཤིན་ཏུ་འཇིགས་མི་བྱ། །མེ་སྦྲུལ་དགྲ་དང་རྡོ་རྗེའི་མེས་ནི་སྲོག་དང་བྲལ་བ་ཙམ་བྱེད་དེ། །དེ་ལས་མནར་མེད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་འགྲོ་བ་ཤིན་ཏུ་འཇིགས་པར་འགྲོ་མི་འགྱུར། །གང་ཞིག་ཡང་ཡང་སྡིག་གྲོགས་བསྟེན་པས་སངས་རྒྱས་ངན་སེམས་ལྡན་གྱུར་དང་། །ཕ་མ་དགྲ་བཅོམ་གསོད་{br}པ་བྱ་བ་མིན་བྱེད་མཆོག་ཚོགས་འབྱེད་པའི་མི། །དེ་ཡང་ཆོས་ཉིད་ངེས་པར་བསམས་པས་མྱུར་དུ་དེ་ལས་ཐར་འགྱུར་གྱི། །གང་ཞིག་ཡིད་ནི་ཆོས་ལ་སྡང་བ་དེ་ལ་ཐར་པ་ག་ལ་ཡོད།

Other English translations[edit]

Obermiller (1931) [8]
Even one who, repeatedly relying on bad friends,
Is hostile to the Buddha and commits the vilest of sins
In killing father, mother and the Saints,
And sowing dissention among the Highest congregation,—
Even that man can speedily become delivered (from sin),
If he reflects over tho Absolute Essence.
But where is Salvation for one
Who in his mind is hostile to the Doctrine?—
Takasaki (1966) [9]
Even one who, repeatedly serving bad friends,
Is hostile to the Buddha, and commits the acts
Of killing mother, father, and the Saints,
And breaks the unity of the Highest Community,
Even that one can quickly become delivered from that sin
If he meditates upon the meaning of the Doctrine;
But, how would it be possible for the Liberation to arise
In one whose mind is hostile to the Doctrine!
Fuchs (2000) [10]
Even someone who has relied on evil friends again and again and
thus heeded harmful intentions towards a buddha,
who has committed one of the most heinous acts—killing his father,
mother, or an arhat, or splitting the sublime Assembly—
will be quickly released from these, once genuinely reflecting the
dharmata.
But where would liberation be for someone whose mind is hostile to
Dharma?

Textual sources[edit]

Commentaries on this verse[edit]

Academic notes[edit]

  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. Skt. vadhaka can also mean "executioner," thus DP gushed ma.
  5. DP "nature of phenomena" (chos nyid), C "genuine dharma."
  6. I follow MA tasyāsti muktiḥ against J tasmai vimuktiḥ.
  7. VT (fol. 17r3) regards V.22–23 as describing the causes for deviating from the dharma, while taking only V.24 as explaining the result of that.
  8. Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.