Texts/Ratnagotravibhāga Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra/Root Verses/Verse IV.50

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse IV.50

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Verse IV.50 Variations

संसारो ऽनवराग्रजातिमरणस् तत्संसृतौ पञ्चधा मार्गः पञ्चविधे च वर्त्मनि सुखं नोच्चारसौगन्ध्यवत्
तद् दुःखं ध्रुवम् अग्निशस्त्रशिशिरक्षारादिसंस्पर्शजं तच्छान्त्यै च सृजन् कृपाजलधरः सद्धर्मवर्षं महत्

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

saṃsāro ’navarāgrajātimaraṇas tatsaṃsṛtau pañcadhā mārgaḥ pañcavidhe ca vartmani sukhaṃ noccārasaugandhyavat
tad duḥkhaṃ dhruvam agniśastraśiśirakṣārādisaṃsparśajaṃ tacchāntyai ca sṛjan kṛpājaladharaḥ saddharmavarṣaṃ mahat

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

།འཁོར་བའི་སྐྱེ་འཆི་ཐོག་མ་མེད་དེར་འགྲོ་བའི་ལམ་ནི་རྣམ་པ་ལྔ།
།མི་གཙང་བ་ལ་དྲི་ཞིམ་མེད་བཞིན་འགྲོ་ལྔ་དག་ན་བདེ་བ་མེད།
།དེ་ཡི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྟག་ཏུ་མེས་མཚོན་རྒྱ་ཚ་ལ་སོགས་རེག་སྐྱེས་བཞིན།
།ཐུགས་རྗེའི་སྤྲིན་ལས་དམ་ཆོས་ཆར་ཆེན་དེ་རབ་ཞི་བྱེད་རབ་ཏུ་འབེབས།

Dege, PHI, 138

Saṃsāra means to be born and to die without beginning and end, and in this ongoing cycling, there are five kinds of paths.
In these five kinds of pathways, there is no happiness, just as there is no sweet scent in excrement.
The suffering in it is constant and as if produced from contact with fire, weapons, ice, salt, and so on.
In order to pacify this [suffering], the cloud of compassion showers down the great rain of the genuine dharma.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 446

Dans le cercle sans commencement des morts et des renaissances,

les êtres suivent cinq voies Mais, de même qu’il n’y a pas de bonnes odeurs dans les excréments, il n’y a jamais de bonheur dans les cinq destinées. Cette souffrance permanente née de la rencontre avec les armes, le feu, le sel et d’autres supplices encore S’apaise quand, des nuées de la compassion, tombe une abondante pluie de vrai Dharma.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse IV.50

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།སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་མེ་རབ་ཏུ་{br}འཇིལ་བ་ལས་ནི། འཁོར་བའི་སྐྱེ་འཆི་ཐོག་མཐའ་མེད་དེར་འགྲོ་བའི་ལམ་ནི་རྣམ་པ་ལྔ། །མི་གཙང་བ་ལ་དྲི་ཞིམ་མེད་བཞིན་འགྲོ་ལྔ་དག་ལ་བདེ་བ་མེད། །དེའི་སྡུག་རྟག་ཏུ་མི་མཚོན་ཁ་བ་རྒྱ་ཚ་ལ་སོགས་རེག་སྐྱེས་བཞིན། །ཐུགས་རྗེའི་སྤྲིན་ལས་དམ་ཆོས་ཆར་ཆེན་དེ་རབ་ཞི་བྱེད་རབ་ཏུ་{br}འབེབས། །ལྷ་ལ་འཆི་འཕོ་མི་ལ་ཡོངས་ཚོལ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཞེས་བྱ་རྟོགས་པའི་ཕྱིར། །ཤེས་རབ་ལྡན་པ་ལྷ་མིའི་དབང་ཕྱུག་མཆོག་ལའང་མངོན་པར་འདོད་མེད་དེ། །ཤེས་རབ་དང་ནི་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་གསུང་རབ་དད་པའི་རྗེས་འབྲངས་ནས། །འདི་ནི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་འདིས་{br}རྒྱུ་འདི་ནི་འགོག་ཅེས་ཤེས་པས་མཐོང་ཕྱིར་རོ། །ནད་ནི་ཤེས་བྱ་ནད་ཀྱི་རྒྱུ་ནི་སྤང་བྱ་ལ། །བདེར་གནས་ཐོབ་བྱ་སྨན་ནི་བསྟེན་པར་བྱ་བ་ལྟར། །སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྒྱུ་དང་དེ་འགོག་པ་དང་དེ་བཞིན་ལམ། །ཤེས་བྱ་སྤང་བྱ་རིག་པར་བྱ་ཞིང་བསྟེན་པར་བྱ།

As for [buddha activity’s] pacifying the fire of suffering:

Saṃsāra means to be born and to die without beginning and end, and in this ongoing cycling, there are five kinds of paths.

In these five kinds of pathways, there is no happiness, just as there is no sweet scent in excrement.

The suffering in it is constant and as if produced from contact with fire, weapons, ice, salt, and so on.

In order to pacify this [suffering], the cloud of compassion showers down the great rain of the genuine dharma. IV.50

Since they realize that the suffering of gods is dying and the suffering of humans is searching [for objects of desire],

Those with prajñā do not even crave for the supreme powerful states among gods and humans.

For through their prajñā and by virtue of following their confidence in the Tathāgata’s words,

They discriminate with wisdom, "This is suffering, this is [its] cause, and this is [its] cessation." IV.51

Just as a disease is to be known, the cause of the disease is to be relinquished,

The state of well-being is to be attained, and medicine is to be relied upon,

Suffering, its cause, its cessation, and likewise the path, respectively,

Are to be known, to be relinquished, to be reached, and to be relied upon. IV.52

duḥkhāgnipraśamane /

saṃsāro ’navarāgrajātimaraṇas tatsaṃsṛtau pañcadhā mārgaḥ pañcavidhe ca vartmani sukhaṃ

noccārasaugandhyavat /

tad duḥkhaṃ dhruvam agniśastraśiśirakṣārādisaṃsparśajaṃ tacchāntyai ca sṛjan

kṛpājaladharaḥ saddharmavarṣaṃ mahat // 50 //

deveṣu cyutiduḥkham ity avagamāt paryeṣṭiduḥkhaṃ nṛṣu prājñā nābhilaṣanti devamanujeṣv

aiśvaryam apy uttamam /

prajñāyāś ca tathāgatapravacanaśraddhānumānyād idaṃ duḥkhaṃ hetur ayaṃ nirodha iti ca

jñānena saṃprekṣaṇāt // 51 //

vyādhir jñeyo vyādhihetuḥ praheyaḥ svāsthyaṃ prāpyaṃ bheṣajaṃ sevyam evam /

duḥkhaṃ hetus tannirodho ’tha mārgo jñeyaṃ heyaḥ sparśitavyo niṣevyaḥ // 52 //

No Chinese commentary defined.

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931)

Five are the paths by which one travels

Through beginningless and endless birth and death in the Saṃsāra,

And there is no happiness in these 5 states of existence,

As there cannot be a sweet odour with impurities.

The suffering is constant, it is like the feeling

Which is produced through the contact with fire,

With weapons, ice, salt, and the like;

But the rain of the Doctrine which descends

From the clouds of mercy can pacify it.

Takasaki (1966)

The [succession] of birth and death in beginningless time

Is the Saṃsāra, in whose course there are five Paths,

And in these five Paths, there is no happiness,

Just as excretion has no good smell at all;—

Its suffering is constant and as if produced from

The contact with fire, swords, ice, salt and so forth;

But, to pacify it, the cloud of Compassion

Lets fall the great rain of the Highest Doctrine.

Fuchs (2000)

In this cycle of beginningless birth and death five paths are open for

sentient beings to tread.

Just as no sweet scent is found in excrement, no happiness will be

found among the five types of beings.

Their suffering resembles the continuous pain arising from fire and

weapons, or [from a wound] being touched by salt, and so on.

The great rain of sacred Dharma pours down in cascades from the

cloud of compassion, fully soothing and appeasing this [pain].

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