Verse I.29

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.29

Verse I.29 Variations

स्वभावहेत्वो फलकर्मयोग-
वृत्तिष्ववस्थास्वथ सर्वगत्वे
सदाविकारित्वगुणेष्वभेदे
ज्ञेयोऽर्थसंधिः परमार्थधातो

svabhāvahetvo phalakarmayoga-
vṛttiṣvavasthāsvatha sarvagatve
sadāvikāritvaguṇeṣvabhede
jñeyo'rthasaṃdhiḥ paramārthadhāto

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

ངོ་བོ་རྒྱུ་འབྲས་ལས་ལྡན་འཇུག་པ་དང་། །
གནས་སྐབས་དེ་བཞིན་ཀུན་ཏུ་འགྲོ་བའི་དོན། །
རྟག་ཏུ་མི་འགྱུར་ཡོན་ཏན་དབྱེར་མེད་ནི། །
དོན་དམ་དབྱིངས་ཀྱི་དགོངས་དོན་ཡིན་ཞེས་བྱ། །

Dege, PHI, 111

In terms of nature and cause, fruition, function, endowment, manifestation,
Phases, all-pervasiveness,
Ever-changeless qualities, and inseparability,
The topic in mind, the ultimate basic element, should be understood.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 357 ^[2]

體及因果業相應及以行

時差別遍處不變無差別
彼妙義次第第一真法性
我如是略說汝今應善知

http://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/en/T31n1611_p0828b12

L’essence, la cause, le fruit, la fonction,

La dotation, la manifestation, les états et l’omniprésence, L’immutabilité perpétuelle et les indissociables qualités Voilà les points qui permettent de comprendre la dimension absolue.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.29

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

།སྡོམ་ནི། ངོ་བོ་རྒྱུ་འབྲས་ལས་ལྡན་འཇུག་པ་དང་། །གནས་སྐབས་དེ་བཞིན་ཀུན་ཏུ་འགྲོ་བའི་དོན། །རྟག་ཏུ་མི་འགྱུར་ཡོན་ཏན་དབྱེར་མེད་ནི། །དོན་དམ་དབྱིངས་{br}ཀྱི་དགོངས་དོན་ཡིན་ཞེས་བྱ། །མདོར་བསྡུ་ན་དོན་རྣམ་པ་བཅུ་ལ་དགོངས་ནས། དེ་ཁོ་ནའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་དམ་པའི་ཡུལ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཁམས་རྣམ་པར་གཞག་པར་རིག་པར་བྱའོ། །དོན་རྣམ་པ་བཅུ་གང་ཞེ་ན། འདི་ལྟ་སྟེ། ངོ་བོའི་དོན་དང་། རྒྱུའི་དོན་དང་། འབྲས་{br}བུའི་དོན་དང་། ལས་ཀྱི་དོན་དང་། ལྡན་པའི་དོན་དང་། འཇུག་པའི་དོན་དང་། གནས་སྐབས་ཀྱིས་རབ་ཏུ་དབྱེ་བའི་དོན་དང་། ཀུན་ཏུ་འགྲོ་བའི་དོན་དང་། མི་འགྱུར་བའི་དོན་དང་། དབྱེར་མེད་པའི་དོན་ཏོ།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) ^[5]

The essence (of the Germ).

The causes and the result (of its purification),

Its functions, relations, and manifestations

Its different states, its all-pervading character,

Its eternal, unchangeable, and indivisible nature，一

Such are the (10) points with respect to the Absolute Essence.

Takasaki (1966) ^[6]

The own nature and the cause,

The result, function, union and manifestation,

Various states and all-pervadingness,

The qualities always unchangeable and non-differentiation;

In these [points of view], there should be known

The implication of the Absolute Essence.

Fuchs (2000) ^[7]

Essence, cause, fruit, function, endowment, manifestation,

phases, all-pervasiveness of suchness, unchangingness,

and inseparability of the qualities should be understood

as intended to describe the meaning of the absolute expanse.

Textual sources

Commentaries on this verse

Academic notes

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.
Despite the plural "qualities" (sadāvikāritvaguṇesv) here, the comments in the text below make it clear that this point does not so much refer to the qualities of the tathāgata heart’s being changeless (which is also true), but to its very quality of being changeless. Almost all Tibetan commentaries take "qualities"in DP rtag tu mi ’gyur yon tan dbyer med ni as relating to the next point, thus speaking of "ever-changelessness, and the inseparability of the qualities."
The compound paramatattvajñānaviṣayasya ("the object of the ultimate wisdom of true reality") is a gloss of paramārtha ("the ultimate") in I.29d. Bhāviveka’s Tarkajvālā (D3856, fol. 59a.7–59b.2) lists three different ways in which the compound paramārtha can be read in Sanskrit. Artha ("object," "purpose," or "actuality") refers to what is to be understood, realized, or examined, while parama means "supreme." Thus, (1) since paramārtha is an object and ultimate (or supreme), it is the ultimate object (technically, a karmadhāraya compound). (2) Or it may be read as "the object of the ultimate." Since it is the object of ultimate nonconceptual wisdom, it is the object of the ultimate (a tat- puruṣa compound). (3) Or it can be understood as "that which is in accordance with the ultimate object" (a bahuvrīhi compound). Since the ultimate object exists in the prajñā that is in approximate accordance with the realization of this ultimate object, it is what is in accordance with the ultimate object. In other words, in (1), both parama and artha refer only to the object as opposed to the subject that realizes it. (2) means that parama refers to the subject (wisdom) and artha to the object (emptiness). (3) indicates a reasoning consciousness that cognizes ultimate reality not directly but inferentially. Following Bhāviveka, the majority of Indian *Svātantrikas seem to favor the second way of reading paramārtha, while not denying the first. Candrakīrti’s Prasannapadā (D3860, fol. 163b.5–6) explicitly sides with (1). Yogācāras typically explain the ultimate along the lines of (1) and (2) as being twofold in terms of subject and object. For example, Sthiramati’s commentary on Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra VI.1 (D4034, fols. 74a.3–75b.1) says that the ultimate consists of suchness (the pure dharmadhātu) and nondual non-conceptual wisdom. Suchness is called the ultimate since it is the fruition of having cultivated the path of the noble ones and represents all phenomena. Or, in terms of its being an object, it is the ultimate because it is the object of ultimate nonconceptual wisdom. Obviously, RGVV here explains the term according to (2).
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] 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] Despite the plural "qualities" (sadāvikāritvaguṇesv) here, the comments in the text below make it clear that this point does not so much refer to the qualities of the tathāgata heart’s being changeless (which is also true), but to its very quality of being changeless. Almost all Tibetan commentaries take "qualities"in DP rtag tu mi ’gyur yon tan dbyer med ni as relating to the next point, thus speaking of "ever-changelessness, and the inseparability of the qualities."

[4] The compound paramatattvajñānaviṣayasya ("the object of the ultimate wisdom of true reality") is a gloss of paramārtha ("the ultimate") in I.29d. Bhāviveka’s Tarkajvālā (D3856, fol. 59a.7–59b.2) lists three different ways in which the compound paramārtha can be read in Sanskrit. Artha ("object," "purpose," or "actuality") refers to what is to be understood, realized, or examined, while parama means "supreme." Thus, (1) since paramārtha is an object and ultimate (or supreme), it is the ultimate object (technically, a karmadhāraya compound). (2) Or it may be read as "the object of the ultimate." Since it is the object of ultimate nonconceptual wisdom, it is the object of the ultimate (a tat- puruṣa compound). (3) Or it can be understood as "that which is in accordance with the ultimate object" (a bahuvrīhi compound). Since the ultimate object exists in the prajñā that is in approximate accordance with the realization of this ultimate object, it is what is in accordance with the ultimate object. In other words, in (1), both parama and artha refer only to the object as opposed to the subject that realizes it. (2) means that parama refers to the subject (wisdom) and artha to the object (emptiness). (3) indicates a reasoning consciousness that cognizes ultimate reality not directly but inferentially. Following Bhāviveka, the majority of Indian *Svātantrikas seem to favor the second way of reading paramārtha, while not denying the first. Candrakīrti’s Prasannapadā (D3860, fol. 163b.5–6) explicitly sides with (1). Yogācāras typically explain the ultimate along the lines of (1) and (2) as being twofold in terms of subject and object. For example, Sthiramati’s commentary on Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra VI.1 (D4034, fols. 74a.3–75b.1) says that the ultimate consists of suchness (the pure dharmadhātu) and nondual non-conceptual wisdom. Suchness is called the ultimate since it is the fruition of having cultivated the path of the noble ones and represents all phenomena. Or, in terms of its being an object, it is the ultimate because it is the object of ultimate nonconceptual wisdom. Obviously, RGVV here explains the term according to (2).

[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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