Verse II.71

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse II.71

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Verse II.71 Variations

व्यनुमेयोऽनुत्तरत्वादानुत्तर्यमनुद्‍ग्रहात्
अनुद्‍ग्रहोऽप्रतिष्ठानादगुणदोषाविकल्पनात्

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

vyanumeyo'nuttaratvādānuttaryamanudgrahāt
anudgraho'pratiṣṭhānādaguṇadoṣāvikalpanāt

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.^[2]

དཔག་མིན་བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་ཕྱིར། །
བླ་ན་མེད་པ་མ་བསྡུས་ཕྱིར། །
མ་བསྡུས་གནས་པ་མེད་ཕྱིར་ཏེ། །
ཡོན་ཏན་སྐྱོན་རྟོག་མེད་ཕྱིར་རོ། །

Dege, PHI, 129

It is immeasurable because it is unsurpassable.
It is unsurpassable because it is not included [in saṃsāra or nirvāṇa].
It is not included [in them] because it does not abide [in either one]
Since it lacks conceptions about their flaws and qualities, respectively.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 428 ^[3]

On ne peut pas l’inférer parce que rien ne lui est supérieur ;

Rien ne lui est supérieur parce qu’on ne peut à rien le ramener ; On ne peut à rien le ramener parce qu’il ne se trouve nulle part ; Il ne se trouve nulle part parce qu’il n’a pas les idées de qualité et de défaut.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse II.71

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།འདིའི་བསྡུས་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་བཞིས་རིག་{br}པར་བྱ་སྟེ། བསམ་མེད་བརྗོད་དུ་མེད་ཕྱིར་ཏེ། །བརྗོད་མེད་དོན་དམ་ཡིན་ཕྱིར་རོ། །དོན་དམ་བརྟག་བྱ་མིན་ཕྱིར་ཏེ། །བརྟག་མིན་རྗེས་དཔག་བྱ་མིན་ཕྱིར། །དཔག་མིན་བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་ཕྱིར། །བླ་ན་མེད་པ་མ་བསྡུས་ཕྱིར། །མ་བསྡུས་གནས་པ་མེད་ཕྱིར་ཏེ། །ཡོན་ཏན་སྐྱོན་{br}རྟོགས་མེད་ཕྱིར་རོ། །རྒྱུ་ལྔ་དག་གིས་ཕྲ་བའི་ཕྱིར། །ཆོས་སྐུ་བསམ་མི་ཁྱབ་པ་སྟེ། །དྲུག་པས་དེ་ཡི་དངོས་མིན་ཕྱིར། །གཟུགས་སྐུ་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པའོ། །བླ་མེད་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་སོགས་ཡོན་ཏན་གྱིས། །ཡོན་ཏན་ཕ་རོལ་བྱོན་པའི་རྒྱལ་བ་བསམ་མི་ཁྱབ། །{br}དེས་ན་རང་བྱུང་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཐ་མའི་ཚུལ་འདི་ནི། །དྲང་སྲོང་ཆེན་པོ་དབང་ཐོབ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་རིག་མིན།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) ^[6]

He cannot be made the object of inference,

Being the Highest Point of Perfection standing above all,

And he is highest of all, since he is not included

(Neither in the elements of the world, nor in Hīnayānistic Nirvāṇa),

He is such, as he does not abide (in either of them),

Having no view for the defects (of the former) and the merits (of the latter).

Takasaki (1966) ^[7]

It is 'incomparable' since it is the supreme;

It is 'the supreme' since it is not included

[Either in the Phenomenal World or in Nirvāṇa];

'Not included' means the Buddha abides in neither of the two

And never regards [in a one-sided manner]

That Nirvāṇa is of merit and the other is of defect.

Fuchs (2000) ^[8]

It is not deducible since it is peerless, the highest of all.

It is the highest of all since it is not comprised by anything.

It is uncomprised since it does not dwell [on any extreme].

This is because there is no dualistic idea of quality and fault.

Textual sources

Commentaries on this verse

Academic notes

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input
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 remarks that vyanumeya (DP dpag bya min) here and in the next line should read vyupameya since the latter fits better with its referent upamanivṛttitaḥ in II.69. VT (fol. 14v7) confirms the reading (vi)anumeya while glossing it as (vy)upamā.
This refers to bodhisattvas on the tenth bhūmi who receive an empowerment through light rays from all buddhas.
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] 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] Takasaki remarks that vyanumeya (DP dpag bya min) here and in the next line should read vyupameya since the latter fits better with its referent upamanivṛttitaḥ in II.69. VT (fol. 14v7) confirms the reading (vi)anumeya while glossing it as (vy)upamā.

[5] This refers to bodhisattvas on the tenth bhūmi who receive an empowerment through light rays from all buddhas.

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

[7] 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.

[8] 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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