Verse I.58 Variations
अब्धातुसदृशा ज्ञेयाः कर्मक्लेशाः शरीरिणाम्
abdhātusadṛśā jñeyāḥ karmakleśāḥ śarīriṇām
སྐྱེ་མཆེད་ཁམས་རྣམས་ཤེས་པར་བྱ། །
ཆུ་ཁམས་དང་འདྲ་ལུས་ཅན་གྱི། །
ལས་དང་ཉོན་མོངས་ཤེས་བྱ་སྟེ། །
Should be understood as being like the element of earth.
The karma and afflictions of living beings
Should be understood as resembling the element of water.
Sont semblables à l’élément terre. Sachez aussi que les actes et les affections des êtres Évoquent l’élément eau.
RGVV Commentary on Verse I.58
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Obermiller (1931) [6]
- We know that the elements of life (classified in) groups, component
- elements, and bases of cognition, are similar to the earth;
- We know that the Biotic Force and the defiling elements of
- the living beings are akin to water.
Takasaki (1966) [7]
- All the component elements of Phenomenal Life
- Are known as akin to the earth,
- And the Active Force and Defilements of living beings
- Are known as akin to water.
Fuchs (2000) [8]
- The skandhas, entrances, and elements
- are to be known as resembling earth.
- Karma and the mental poisons of beings
- should be envisaged as the water element.
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.
- This refers to the ancient Indian cosmological model of worlds arising in space due to the four elemental spheres of wind, fire, water, and earth being stacked up in that order and thus supporting the upper spheres. As VT (fol. 13r1) confirms, the element of fire is not mentioned among the four elements in this text because fire is used to illustrate sickness, aging, and death, which destroy one’s prior state of existence.
- Here, the text has indriya, which is always replaced by āyatana below.
- Given the example of space’s being completely unaffected by what arises and ceases in it, I follow DP’s negative before "afflicted" (the Sanskrit and C lack this negative).
- 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.