Verse II.70

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse II.70

Verse II.70 Variations

अचिन्त्योऽनभिलाप्यत्वादलाप्यः परमार्थतः
परमार्थोऽप्रतवर्यत्वादतर्क्यो व्यनुमेयतः

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

acintyo'nabhilāpyatvādalāpyaḥ paramārthataḥ
paramārtho'pratavaryatvādatarkyo vyanumeyataḥ

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

།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།

Dege, PHI, 129

It is inconceivable because it is inexpressible.
It is inexpressible because it is the ultimate.
It is the ultimate because it is incomprehensible by reason.
It is incomprehensible by reason because it is immeasurable.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 427 ^[3]

[L’Éveil] est inconcevable parce qu’il est indicible ;

Il est indicible parce qu’il est absolu ; Il est absolu parce que ce n’est pas un objet d’analyse ; Ce n’est pas un objet d’analyse parce qu’on ne peut pas l’inférer ;

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse II.70

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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]

(The Buddha) is inconceivable, since he is unutterable,

He is unutterable, being the Absolute Truth,

He is the Absolute Truth, being inaccessible to thought-construction,

And is inaccessible to thought-construction, since

He cannot be cognized through inference.

Takasaki (1966) ^[7]

It is 'inconceivable' since it is unutterable;

It is 'unutterable' since it is the Highest Truth;

It is 'the Highest Truth', since it cannot be constructed by thought,

It is 'beyond investigation' as it is incomparable;

Fuchs (2000) ^[8]

It is inconceivable since it cannot be verbally expressed.

It is inexpressible since it consists of the absolute [truth].

It is absolute since it cannot be [intellectually] scrutinized.

It is inscrutable since it cannot be inferentially deduced.

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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