Verse I.33 Variations
अधिमुक्त्यातयो धर्माश्चत्वारः शुद्धिहेतवः
adhimuktyātayo dharmāścatvāraḥ śuddhihetavaḥ
རང་བྱུང་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྒྲིབ་རྣམ་བཞི། །
དག་རྒྱུ་ལྷག་པར་མོས་པ་ལ། །
སོགས་པའི་ཆོས་ནི་རྣམ་བཞི་ཉིད། །
Of those with great desire, tīrthikas,
Śrāvakas, and self-arisen [buddhas],
The causes of purity are the four dharmas
Of having faith and so forth.
La peur des souffrances du saṃsāra Et l’indifférence au bien des êtres Sont respectivement les voiles des hédonistes, Des hétérodoxes, des auditeurs et des [bouddhas] nés d’eux-mêmes. L’aspiration supérieure et les trois autres qualités Sont alors les causes de leur purification.
RGVV Commentary on Verse I.33
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Obermiller (1931) [17]
- Such are the 4 impediments, respectively,
- With (the worldlings) endowed with great desires, with the heretics,
- The Śrāvakas and those of self-sprung (Wisdom).
- As to the cause of purity, such is great faith,
- And the other virtues, all of them being four.[18]
Takasaki (1966) [19]
- [These are respectively] of the Icchantikas,
- Of the Heretics, the Śrāvakas and the Pratyekabuddhas; -
- The virtues, the faith [in the Doctrine] etc., are
- The four Causes of purification.
Fuchs (2000) [20]
- are the four veils of those with great desire,
- of tirthikas, shravakas, and pratyekabuddhas.
- The cause that purifies [all these veils]
- consists of the four qualities [of the path],
- which are outstanding devotion and so on.
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.
- J icchantika, DP ’dod chen. VT (fol. 12r4) glosses this term as "those who desire saṃsāra." This term is also used to describe those beings who, according to some, have absolutely no disposition or potential for ever achieving nirvāṇa or buddhahood. However, texts such as RGVV take this term to mean that though these beings possess buddha nature just like all other beings, it is so densely obscured that it will take them a very long time to enter the dharma and attain nirvāṇa.
- VT (fol. 12r4) glosses these people as the Vātsiputrīyas. Being a subsect of the Saṃṃitīyas, the followers of Vatsīputra (a disciple of Śāriputra) asserted an ultimately real person that is inexpressible as being either the same as or different from the five skandhas. However, it seems quite clear that RGVV refers to the Vātsiputrīyas more specifically under (2ab) in the text below, while the persons referred to here seem to be any non-mahāyāna Buddhists who are averse toward the mahāyāna (usually denying it to be an authentic teaching of the Buddha). This is confirmed by CMW (456) that identifies the persons in question here as "the Sendhapas [Theravādins] who have fallen into the hīnayāna" (referring to sectarian non-mahāyāna Buddhists who oppose the mahāyāna, with the Theravādins traditionally being the most outspoken such opponents), while explicitly referring to the persons under (2ab) as the Vātsiputrīyas. In addition, the hīnayāna persons in question here are clearly contrasted with śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas by RGVV under (2b), which says that śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas are those "who have entered the means [for liberation] . . . [and] proceed on the set way of what is rightful." Thus, contrary to the hīnayāna followers mentioned here, śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas are obviously seen as those who properly follow the path of the hīnayāna without denigrating the mahāyāna.
- aishō 668, 467c. The second sentence in DP reads: "Śāriputra, they proceed to the great darkness that is even greater than darkness and possesses great darkness." YDC (280) comments on the Tibetan version of this quote as follows. "Nor are they my śrāvakas"corresponds to the statement "How could there be liberation for those whose mind is hostile toward the dharma?"Accordingly, since such people temporarily are not persons to be guided, it is just their being inferior in that way that is expressed through a negative. The darkness that is even greater than ordinary darkness is ignorance. "Proceeding into great darkness "refers to wandering from suffering into suffering." Possessing great darkness" means possessing both ignorance (the cause) and suffering (its result).
- Lit. "wanderers." This term refers to an inhomogeneous group of roaming Yajurveda adepts and performers of Vedic rituals. They may also have had contacts with the early āyurveda school founded on the Carakasaṃhita by the famous Indian physician Caraka (born c. 300 bCe). VT (fol. 12r4) glosses them as Vaidyas, which here can mean only "those who are experts in medical science."
- This is the general name for wandering mendicants of Brahmanic origin, following orthodox Vedic teachings or heterodox paths (the name for mendicants from other castes on heterodox paths, such as the Buddha, was śramaṇa). Some of these mendicants were mere sophists, some Ājīvikas (the followers of Maskarī Gośalīputra), but most of them experimented with a wide range of gurus and spiritual methods. VT (fol. 12r4) glosses them as "a branch of those who smear their bodies with ashes."
- I follow Schmithausen’s emendation of J nirgranthiputra to nirgrantha (putra is missing in MA/MB and has no correspondence in DP either, but is found in C). The followers of this school are better known as the Jainas.
- J durgṛhītagrāhinaḥ, DP nges par gzung dka’ ba’i lta ba ’dzin pa.
- As confirmed by CMW (456), this refers to the Vātsīputrīyas.
- I follow Schmithausen’s suggestion ādeśyamānāyāṃ against mādyamānānāṃ (MB unclear), which is based on C (DP ’di la stong pa nyid du lta ba gang dag, which seems to be corrupt, since the sentence already contains two other instances of stong pa nyid du lta ba).
- VT (fol. 12r4–5) explains that this refers to those who think that there is some phenomenon called "emptiness"that makes entities empty.
- D45.43 (dkon brtsegs, vol. cha), fol. 132b.1–2.
- In general, "superior intention" (Skt. adhyāśaya, Tib. lhag pa’i bsam pa) is a term for the superior altruistic attitude of bodhisattvas that has solely the welfare of others in mind. They care about others with the same spontaneous intensity with which ordinary beings usually strive for their own well-being. This attitude is said to be the immediate prerequisite or cause for the arising of uncontrived genuine bodhicitta even in ordinary beings.
- This group of sentient beings as well as the two following ones were already mentioned above (J10).
- J anāvaraṇagāminaḥ. This can also mean "those who have unobscured attainment,"thus DP "those who have unobscured realization" (sgrib pa med pa rtogs pa).
- Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
- Obermiller combines these and the previous lines into a single verse, whereas others have divided them into two. Here, I have divided them to correspond to the Tibetan and Sanskrit, as well as the works of other translators.
- 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.