Verse V.23

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse V.23

Verse V.23 Variations

नाग्नेर्नोग्रविषादहेर्न वधकान्नैवाशनिभ्यस्तथा
भेतव्यं विदुषामतीव तु यथा गम्भीरधर्मक्षतेः
कुर्युर्जीवितविप्रयोगमनलव्यालारिवज्राग्नय-
स्तद्धेतोर्न पुनर्व्रजेदतिभयामावीचिकानां गतिम्

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

nāgnernograviṣādaherna vadhakānnaivāśanibhyastathā
bhetavyaṃ viduṣāmatīva tu yathā gambhīradharmakṣateḥ
kuryurjīvitaviprayogamanalavyālārivajrāgnaya-
staddhetorna punarvrajedatibhayāmāvīcikānāṃ gatim

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

ཇི་ལྟར་ཟབ་མོའི་ཆོས་རྣམས་དེ་བཞིན་མཁས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་མེ་དང་ནི། །
མི་བཟད་སྦྲུལ་གདུག་གཤེད་མ་དང་ནི་ཐོག་ལའང་ཤིན་ཏུ་འཇིགས་མི་བྱ། །
མེ་སྦྲུལ་དགྲ་དང་རྡོ་རྗེའི་མེ་ནི་སྲོག་དང་བྲལ་བ་ཙམ་བྱེད་དེ། །
དེ་ལས་མནར་མེད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་འགྲོ་བ་ཤིན་ཏུ་འཇིགས་པར་འགྲོ་མི་འགྱུར། །

Dege, PHI, 145

The wise should not be as deeply afraid of fire, terrible snake poison, murderers, or lightning
As they should be of the loss of the profound dharma.
Fire, snakes, enemies, and lightning may [at most] end one’s life,
But one would not wander to the most fearsome realm of those in Avīci through such causes.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 459 ^[3]

Plus que le feu, le poison d’un terrible serpent, l’assassin ou la foudre,

Les sages craindront le déclin des enseignements profonds. Le feu, le serpent, l’ennemi et la foudre ne font que prendre la vie ; Ils ne conduisent pas dans l’effroyable destinée des Tourments Insurpassables.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse V.23

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

།ཉམས་པའི་འབྲས་བུ་ལས་བརྩམས་ཏེ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། ཇི་ལྟར་ཟབ་མོའི་ཆོས་རྣམས་དེ་བཞིན་མཁས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མེ་དང་ནི། །མི་བཟད་སྦྲུལ་གདུག་གཤེད་

མ་དང་ནི་ཐོག་ལའང་ཤིན་ཏུ་འཇིགས་མི་བྱ། །མེ་སྦྲུལ་དགྲ་དང་རྡོ་རྗེའི་མེས་ནི་སྲོག་དང་བྲལ་བ་ཙམ་བྱེད་དེ། །དེ་ལས་མནར་མེད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་འགྲོ་བ་ཤིན་ཏུ་འཇིགས་པར་འགྲོ་མི་འགྱུར། །གང་ཞིག་ཡང་ཡང་སྡིག་གྲོགས་བསྟེན་པས་སངས་རྒྱས་ངན་སེམས་ལྡན་གྱུར་དང་། །ཕ་མ་དགྲ་བཅོམ་གསོད་པ་བྱ་བ་མིན་བྱེད་མཆོག་ཚོགས་འབྱེད་པའི་མི། །དེ་ཡང་ཆོས་ཉིད་ངེས་པར་བསམས་པས་མྱུར་དུ་དེ་ལས་ཐར་འགྱུར་གྱི། །གང་ཞིག་ཡིད་ནི་ཆོས་ལ་སྡང་བ་དེ་ལ་ཐར་པ་ག་ལ་ཡོད།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) ^[8]

The wise, they need not be afraid

Of fire, of the violent poison of serpents,

Of murderers, and of thunder and lightning,

As are those who have rejected this profound Doctrine.

Indeed, fire, serpents, foes, and lightning,

They only deprive one of (this) life,

But they cannot inspire the fear

Of being reborn in the lowest of hells.

Takasaki (1966) ^[9]

The wise one need not be so much afraid of fire,

Of violent poison of snake, of murder, or of lightning,

As he should be afraid of the loss of the profound Doctrine,

Because a fire, a snake, an enemy, and lightning,

At most, may deprive one of [this] life

But one will not go, by these causes,

To the most terrible world of Avīci.

Fuchs (2000) ^[10]

Skillful beings must not be as deeply afraid of fire and cruel

poisonous snakes,

of murderers or lightning, as they should be of the loss of the

profound Dharma.

Fire, snakes, enemies, and thunderbolts [can] only separate us

from this life,

but cannot take us to the utterly fearful states of [the hells] of

direst pain.

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.
Skt. vadhaka can also mean "executioner," thus DP gushed ma.
DP "nature of phenomena" (chos nyid), C "genuine dharma."
I follow MA tasyāsti muktiḥ against J tasmai vimuktiḥ.
VT (fol. 17r3) regards V.22–23 as describing the causes for deviating from the dharma, while taking only V.24 as explaining the result of that.
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] Skt. vadhaka can also mean "executioner," thus DP gushed ma.

[5] DP "nature of phenomena" (chos nyid), C "genuine dharma."

[6] I follow MA tasyāsti muktiḥ against J tasmai vimuktiḥ.

[7] VT (fol. 17r3) regards V.22–23 as describing the causes for deviating from the dharma, while taking only V.24 as explaining the result of that.

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

[9] 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.

[10] 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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