Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra/Root Verses/Verse I.64

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.64

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Verse I.64 Variations

नाभिनिर्वर्तयत्येनं कर्मक्लेशाम्बुसंचयः
न निर्दहत्युदीर्णोऽपि मृत्युव्याधिजरानलः

nābhinirvartayatyenaṃ karmakleśāmbusaṃcayaḥ
na nirdahatyudīrṇo'pi mṛtyuvyādhijarānalaḥ

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.

ལས་དང་ཉོན་མོངས་ཆུ་སོགས་ཀྱིས། །
འདི་ནི་མངོན་པར་འགྲུབ་མིན་ཏེ། །
འཆི་དང་ན་དང་རྒ་བའི་མེ། །
མི་བཟད་པས་ཀྱང་འཚིག་མི་འགྱུར། །

Dege, PHI, 114

The mass of water-like karma
And afflictions does not generate it,
Nor do the raging fires of death,
Sickness, and aging consume it.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 376

不正思惟風 諸業煩惱水

自性心虛空 不為彼二生
自性清淨心 其相如虛空
邪念思惟風 所不能散壞
諸業煩惱水 所不能濕爛
老病死熾火 所不能燒燃

http://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/en/T31n1611_p0832c28

L’eau des affections et des actes

Ne saurait la produire, guère plus Que ne sauraient la consumer les feux insupportables De la maladie, de la vieillesse et de la mort.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.64

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How is the tathāgata element’s true nature of being changeless in its phase of being impure explained through this example of space? It is described as follows:

The mass of water-like karma

And afflictions does not generate it,

Nor do the raging fires of death,

Sickness, and aging consume it. I.64

{J44} {D98a} {P101b} The arising of the skandhas, dhātus, and āyatanas (which resemble [the earth of] the world) is conditioned by karma and afflictions (which resemble masses of water), which [in turn] originate from improper mental engagement (which resembles the wind maṇḍala). [However, their arising] does not generate the nature of the mind (which resembles the element of space). Likewise, the mass of the fires of death, sickness, and aging arises in order to destroy the skandhas, dhātus, and āyatanas (resembling [the earth of] the world) that rest on the aggregation of wind-like improper mental engagement and water-like karma and afflictions. [However,] it should be understood that [these fires] do not dissolve the [nature of the mind] either. Thus, in its phase of being impure, though the entire afflictiveness of afflictions, karma, and birth arises and disappears (just as the world that is the container does), the unconditioned tathāgata element lacks arising and ceasing (just as space). Therefore, it is explained that its true nature is to be absolutely changeless.

This example of space, which refers to "The Introduction to the Light of dharma [called] ‘The Introduction to the Natural Purity [of the Mind],’" should be understood in detail according to the [Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā] sūtra:

Honorable friends, the afflictions are darkness, and the purity [of mind] is light. The afflictions are of weak power, and vipaśyanā is powerful. The afflictions are adventitious, and the nature [of the mind] is fundamentally pure. The afflictions are imagination, and the nature [of the mind] lacks imagination. Honorable friends, it is as follows. This great earth rests on water, water rests on wind, and wind rests on space. But space does not rest [on anything]. Thus, among these four elements, the element of space is more powerful than the element of earth, the element of water, and the element of wind. It is stable, immovable, neither increasing nor decreasing, neither arising nor ceasing, and remains within its own natural state.

Now, those three elements entail arising and ceasing, {P102a} are unstable, and do not remain for a long time. It can be seen that they are changeable, but the element of space lacks any change whatsoever. Likewise, {J45} {D98b} the skandhas, dhātus, and āyatanas rest on karma and the afflictions, karma and afflictions rest on improper mental engagement, and improper mental engagement rests on the natural purity [of the mind]. Therefore, it is said, "The mind is luminous by nature, [but] it is afflicted by adventitious afflictions."

Here, all these phenomena—improper mental engagement, karma and afflictions, as well as skandhas, dhātus, and āyatanas—arise by way of being created by causes and conditions and they cease once they are separated from these causes and conditions. On the other hand, the nature [of the mind] lacks causes and conditions, lacks aggregation, and lacks arising and ceasing.

Here, the nature [of the mind] is like the element of space, improper mental engagement is like the element of wind, karma and afflictions are like the element of water, and the skandhas, dhātus, and āyatanas are like the element of earth. Therefore, it is said that all phenomena are completely devoid of any foundation and have the foundation of being without essence, the foundation of not abiding, the foundation of being pure, and the foundation of being without foundation.

It has [already] been stated that, in its phase of being impure, the nature [of the mind] resembles the element of space in terms of its characteristic of being changeless. In terms of their characteristic of being causes, the improper mental engagement that is based upon this [nature] resembles the element of wind, and karma and afflictions resemble the element of water. In terms of their characteristic of being the maturations [of improper mental engagement, karma, and afflictions], the skandhas, dhātus, and āyatanas that arise from them {P102b} resemble the element of earth.

kathamanenākāśadṛṣṭāntena tathāgatadhātoraśuddhāvasthāyāmavikāradharmatā paridīpitā/ taducyate/

nābhinirvartayatyenaṃ karmakleśāmbusaṃcayaḥ

na nirdahatyudīrṇo'pi mṛtyuvyādhijarānalaḥ//64//

yadvadayoniśomanaskāravātamaṇḍalasaṃbhūta karmakleśodakarāśiṃ pratītya skandhadhātvāyatanalokanirvṛttyā cittaprakṛtivyomadhātorvivarto na bhavati/ tadvadayoniśomanaskārakarmakleśavāyvapskandhapratiṣṭhitasya skandhadhātvāyatanalokasyāstaṃgamāya mṛtyuvyādhijarāgniskandhasamudayādapi tadasaṃvarto veditavyaḥ/ ityevamaśuddhāvasthāyāṃ bhājanalokavadaśeṣakleśakarmajanmasaṃkleśasamudayāstagamaṃ'pyākāśavadasaṃskṛtasya tathāgatadhātoranutpādānirodhādatyantamavikāradharmatā paridīpitā/ eṣa ca prakṛtiviśuddhimukhaṃ dharmālokamukhamārabhyākāśadṛṣṭānto vistareṇa yathāsūtramanugantavyaḥ/ kavirmārṣā kleśāḥ/ āloko viśuddhiḥ/ durbalāḥ kleśāḥ/ balavatī vipaśyanā/ āgantukāḥ kleśāḥ/ mūlaviśuddhā prakṛtiḥ/ parikalpāḥ kleśāḥ/ aparikalpā prakṛtiḥ/ tadyathā mārṣā iyaṃ mahāpṛthivyapsu pratiṣṭhitā/ āpo vāyau pratiṣṭhitāḥ/ vāyurākāśe pratiṣṭhitaḥ/ apratiṣṭhitaṃ cākāśama/ evameṣāṃ caturṇā dhātūnāṃ pṛthivīdhātorabdhātorvāyudhātorākāśadhātureva balī yo dṛḍho'calo'nupacayo 'napacayo'nutpanno'niruddhaḥ sthitaḥ svarasayogena/ tatra ya ete trayo dhātavasta utpādabhaṅgayuktā anavasthitā acirasthāyinaḥ/ dṛśyata eṣāṃ vikāro na punarākāśadhātoḥ kaścidvikāraḥ/ evameva skandhadhātvāyatanāni karmakleśapratiṣṭhitāni/ karmakleśā ayoniśomanaskārapratiṣṭhitāḥ/ ayoniśomanaskāraḥ prakṛtipariśuddhipratiṣṭhitaḥ/ tata ucyate prakṛtiprabhāsvaraṃ cittamāgantukairupakleśairupakliśyata iti/ tatra paścādyo'yoniśomanaskāro ye ca karmakleśā yāni ca skandhadhātvāyatanāni sarva ete dharmā hetupratyayasaṃgṛhītā utpadyante hetupratyayavisāmagrayā nirudhyante/ yā punaḥ sā prakṛtistasyā na heturna pratyayo na sāmagrī notpādo na nirodhaḥ/ tatra yathākāśadhātustathā prakṛtiḥ/ yathā vāyudhātustathāyoniśomanasikāraḥ/ yathābdhātustathā karmakleśāḥ/ yathā pṛthivīdhātustathā skandhadhātvāyatanāni/ tata ucyante sarvadharmā asāramūlā apratiṣṭhānamūlāḥ śuddhamūlā amūlamūlā iti/

uktamaśuddhāvasthāyāmavikāralakṣaṇamārabhya prakṛterākāśadhātusādharmya tadāśritasyāyoniśomanasikārasya karmakleśānāṃ ca hetulakṣaṇamārabhya vāyudhātusādharmyamabdhātusādharmya ca tatprabhavasya skandhadhātvāyatanasya vipākalakṣaṇamārabhya pṛthivīdhātusādharmyam/

此虛空譬喻偈示現何義明如來性依不淨時法體不變偈言

不正思惟風 諸業煩惱水 自性心虛空 不為彼二生

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自性清淨心 其相如虛空

邪念思惟風 所不能散壞 諸業煩惱水 所不能濕爛 老病死熾火 所不能燒燃

此偈明何義如依邪念風輪起業煩惱水聚依業煩惱水聚生陰界入世間而自性心虛空不生不起偈言不正思惟風諸業煩惱水自性心虛空不為彼二生故如是依邪念風災業行煩惱水災老病死等火災吹浸燒壞陰入界世間而自性清淨心虛空常住不壞如是於不淨時中器世間相似相對法諸煩惱染業染生染有集有滅諸佛如來無為之性猶如虛空不生不滅常不變易示現法體此自性清淨法門虛空譬喻如陀羅尼自在王菩薩修多羅中廣說應知彼經中言諸善男子煩惱本無體真性本明淨一切煩惱羸薄毘婆舍那有大勢力一切煩惱客塵自性清淨心根本一切諸煩惱虛妄分別自性清淨心如實不分別諸佛子譬如大地依水而住水依風住風依空住而彼虛空無依住處諸善男子如是四大地大水大風大空大此四大中唯虛空大以為最勝以為大力以為堅固以為不動以為不作以為不散不生不滅自然而住諸善男子彼三種大生滅相應無實體性剎那不住諸佛子此三種大變異無常諸佛子而虛空界常不變異諸佛子如是陰界入依業煩惱住諸煩惱業依不正思惟住不正思惟依於佛性自性清淨心住以是義故經中說言自性清淨心客塵煩惱

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染諸善男子所有邪念所有煩惱業所有陰界入如是諸法從於因緣和合而生以諸因緣壞散而滅諸善男子彼自性清淨心無因無緣故無和合不生不滅諸善男子如虛空界自性清淨心亦復如是如風大界不正思惟亦復如是如水大海諸業煩惱亦復如是如地大界陰界入等亦復如是是故說言一切諸法皆無根本皆無堅實無住無住本根本清淨無根本故

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931)

It does not become produced

By the waters of the Biotic Force, of Desire and the rest,

And it cannot be consumed by the violent fires

Of death, of illness, and infirmity.

Takasaki (1966)

The accumulation of water-like Active Force and Defilements

Cannot produce this space-like [Innate Mind],

And even the growing fires of death, of illness and old age

Cannot consume [this Innate Mind].

Fuchs (2000)

The nature of mind as the element of space

does not [depend upon] causes or conditions,

nor does it [depend on] a gathering of these.

It has neither arising, cessation, nor abiding.

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