Verse II.54 Variations
गर्भा[व]क्रमणं जन्म शिल्पस्थानानि कौशलम्
garbhā[va]kramaṇaṃ janma śilpasthānāni kauśalam
།དགའ་ལྡན་གནས་ནས་འཕོ་བ་དང་།
།ལྷུམས་སུ་འཇུག་དང་བལྟམས་པ་དང་།
།བཟོ་ཡི་གནས་ལ་མཁས་པ་དང་།
In Tuṣita, descends from there,
Enters the womb [of his mother], is born,
Becomes skilled in the field of arts and crafts,
La descente du ciel des Tuṣitas, L’entrée dans une matrice, la naissance, La maîtrise des arts et des sciences,
RGVV Commentary on Verse II.54
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Obermiller (1931) [16]
- He became born (in the form of Śvetaketu),
- Descended from the abode of Tuṣita,
- Entered (his mother’s) womb, and was born (again);
- He showed his skill in dexterous acts,
Takasaki (1966) [17]
- The [various] previous births,
- The birth in the Tuṣita-heaven, and descent from it,
- The entrance into the womb, and the birth [in this world],
- The skilfulness in various arts and works,
Fuchs (2000) [18]
- Having [first] been born spontaneously in a [divine] existence
- he then leaves the realm of Tushita and passes [into this world].
- He enters [his mother's] womb, takes birth, and gains perfect skill,
- mastering all the various fields of handicraft, science, and art.
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.
- VT (fol. 14v1) glosses nirvṛtiḥ/nirvāṇa (lit. "extinction") as "the extinction of the afflictive and cognitive obscurations."
- I follow MB paramācintyaprāptiḥ pratyātmam arhatām (confirmed by VT, fol. 14v1–2) against J paramācintyaprāptiḥ pratyātmaveditā (DP mchog tu mya ngan ’das bsam med / dgra bcom so so’i bdag gyur pa /). Schmithausen’s suggested reading paramācintyā prāptiḥ (or praptā) due to DP’s connecting acintya with nirvṛtiḥ not only contradicts both MB and VT but it is also inconclusive as far as DP goes. For it is not definite that "inconceivable"in DP has to go with "nirvāṇa,"which is clearly shown by JKC and GC taking "inconceivable" as a characteristic of its own (as does C). VT relates both "highest" and "inconceivable"to attainment, speaking of "the arhats’ attainment of the highest inconceivable dharma,"which is then glossed as "buddhahood."
- Schmithausen suggests dharmadhātusvabhāvataḥ instead of MB dharmadhātoḥ svabhāvataḥ. DP "it is luminous because it is pure by virtue of having the nature of the dharmadhātu" (chos dbyings ngo bo nyid kyis / dag pa’i phyir ni ’od gsal ba /). Verses II.45–46 comment on II.38 and II.44ac, so the five characteristics of the svābhāvikakāya are its being (1) unconditioned, (2) undifferentiable from its qualities, (3) free from the two extremes, (4) liberated from the three obscurations, and (5) pure and luminous. Verses II.47–48 explain the five qualities of the svābhāvikakāya, verses II.49–51 the five characteristics of the sambhogakāya, and verses II.52–59 the features of the nirmāṇakāya.
- VT (fol. 14v2–3) divides the compound vicitradharmasaṃbhogarūpadharmāvabhasataḥ into vicitrasaṃbhogadharmāvabhasaḥ (glossing it as "teaching the dharma") and rūpadharmāvabhasaḥ (glossing it as "the display of form"). However, DP read rang bzhin for °rūpa°, and the Tibetan commentaries usually take this compound to mean "By way of enjoying all kinds of dharma and by way of appearing through its natural attributes."Both interpretations come down to the same meaning, referring to the first two characteristics of the sambhogakāya—dharma instructions and the display of a sambhogakāya form with its major and minor marks (as briefly repeated in II.51a). The remaining three characteristics of the sambhogakāya are listed in II.49cd–50c, and all five are briefly repeated in II.51.
- VT (fol. 14v3) glosses "not having their nature" (atatsvabhāva°) as "the dharmadhātu’s lack of nature" (dharmadhātvasvabhāvatā).
- With DP ma g.yos par, aviralaṃ is to be read as avicalan.
- Schmithausen suggests śilpasthānātikauśalam for śilpasthānāni kauśalam.
- DP ngar ’dzin ("ego-clinging"), which is an obvious misreading of sngar ’dzin since arhats of course lack ego-clinging.
- Ut (D) phun tshogs DP sna tshogs ("various").
- Skt. sārtha can also mean " (travel) company" (see Takasaki) or "assembly," but DP don mthun pa confirms the more likely meaning here.
- VT (fol. 14v3–4) glosses "for them" (eṣu) as "for sentient beings."
- As mentioned before, the first six topics that explain the fourth and the fifth vajra points have the same names (nature, cause, fruition, function, endowment, and manifestation). In terms of their contents, the fourth vajra point refers to the tathāgata heart with stains (the cause) and the fifth one to the very same tathāgata heart without stains (the fruition). Therefore, the six topics in each of these two vajra points are naturally related in terms of cause and fruition or in terms of what buddha nature is like while it is still obscured by adventitious stains versus what it is like when it is completely unobscured. For a detailed comparison of the contents of the first six topics of the fourth and fifth vajra points, see appendix 7.
- 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.