Verse I.79

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.79

Verse I.79 Variations

अनन्यथात्माक्षयधर्मयोगतो
जगच्छरण्योऽनपरान्तकोटितः
सदाद्वयोऽसावविकल्पकत्वतो
ऽविनाशधर्माप्यकृतस्वभावतः

ananyathātmākṣayadharmayogato
jagaccharaṇyo'naparāntakoṭitaḥ
sadādvayo'sāvavikalpakatvato
'vināśadharmāpyakṛtasvabhāvataḥ

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

གཞན་འགྱུར་མིན་བདག་མི་ཟད་ཆོས་ལྡན་ཕྱིར། །
འགྲོ་སྐྱབས་ཕྱི་མའི་མཐའ་མེད་མུར་ཐུག་ཕྱིར། །
དེ་ནི་རྟག་ཏུ་གཉིས་མེད་མི་རྟོག་ཕྱིར། །
འཇིག་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱང་མ་བྱས་རང་བཞིན་ཕྱིར། །

Dege, PHI, 115

[The tathāgata element] is of unchanging character because it is has the nature of being inexhaustible.
It is the refuge of the world because it has no end in time.
It is always nondual because it is nonconceptual.
It also has the nature of indestructibility because its nature is to be uncreated.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 386 ^[2]

佛身不變異以得無盡法

眾生所歸依以無邊際故
常住不二法以離妄分別
恒不熱不作清淨心力故

http://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/en/T31n1611_p0835a14

[Le corps absolu] est immuable puisqu’il possède

d’inépuisables qualités ; C’est un refuge pour les êtres puisqu’il persiste sans limite future ; Il est toujours non duel puisqu’il ne pense pas ; Et c’est aussi une réalité indestructible puisque sa nature est incréée.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.79

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

།དེ་ལ་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྣམ་པར་དག་{br}པའི་གནས་སྐབས་ན་རྣམ་པར་འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པ་ལས་བརྩམས་ཏེ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། གཞན་འགྱུར་མིན་བདག་མི་ཟད་ཆོས་ལྡན་ཕྱིར། །འགྲོ་སྐྱབས་ཕྱི་མའི་མཐའ་མེད་མུར་ཐུག་ཕྱིར། །དེ་ནི་རྟག་ཏུ་གཉིས་མེད་མི་རྟོག་ཕྱིར། །འཇིག་མེད་ཆོས་ཀྱང་མ་བྱས་རང་བཞིན་ཕྱིར།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) ^[4]

(The Cosmical Body of the Buddha is eternal),

Being the unalterable Ultimate Essence of Existence possessed of imperishable properties,

The refuge of living beings, infinite and extending beyond all limits,

Always unique and free from (dialectical) thought-construction,

Of indestructible nature, and not produced (by causes).

Takasaki (1966) ^[5]

This [Essence of the Buddha] is of unalterable nature

Because it is endowed with inexhaustible properties,

It is the refuge of the world

Because it has no limit in the future;

It is always non-dual

Because it is indiscriminative,

Also it is of undestructible nature

Because its own nature is not created [by conditions].

Fuchs (2000) ^[6]

[The dharmakaya] does not change into something else, since it has inexhaustible properties.

It is the refuge of beings, since [it protects them] without any limit of time, until the final end.

It is always free from duality, since it is foreign to all ideation.

It is also an indestructible state, since its nature is uncreated.

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.
Takasaki translates "because it is endowed with inexhaustible properties" (Skt. akṣyadharmayogataḥ, DP mi zad chos ldan phyir), which is also how Tibetan commentaries usually interpret this phrase. However, the parallel construction of lines a, c, and d in the quote from the [Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa]sūtra in the text below that teaches the same meaning as I.79 (as well as line d in the additional verse in DP) shows that dharma is to be understood as "nature" here too. Moreover, it makes more sense to say that the tathāgata element is permanent and unchanging because it has the nature of being inexhaustible rather than because its qualities are inexhaustible (which is also true but seems not to be the point here).
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] Takasaki translates "because it is endowed with inexhaustible properties" (Skt. akṣyadharmayogataḥ, DP mi zad chos ldan phyir), which is also how Tibetan commentaries usually interpret this phrase. However, the parallel construction of lines a, c, and d in the quote from the [Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa]sūtra in the text below that teaches the same meaning as I.79 (as well as line d in the additional verse in DP) shows that dharma is to be understood as "nature" here too. Moreover, it makes more sense to say that the tathāgata element is permanent and unchanging because it has the nature of being inexhaustible rather than because its qualities are inexhaustible (which is also true but seems not to be the point here).

[4] Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.

[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] 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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