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.^[1]

།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 ^[2]

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).^[3] [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],’"^[4] should be understood in detail according to the [Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā] sūtra:

Honorable friends,^[5] the afflictions are darkness,^[6] 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.^[7] 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^[8] than the element of earth, the element of water, and the element of wind. It is stable, immovable, neither increasing^[9] 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."^[10]
Here,^[11] 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^[12] 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^[13] and have the foundation of being without essence, the foundation of not abiding, the foundation of being pure,^[14] and the foundation of being without foundation.^[15]

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/

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) ^[16]

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) ^[17]

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) ^[18]

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.

Textual sources

Commentaries on this verse

Academic notes

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.
Kano (2006, 1) refers to Sasaki (1991) who traces the Uttaratantra ’s teaching about the progressive arising of afflictions, karma, and the skandhas from improper mental engagement back to the *Abhidharmaprakaraṇapādaśāstra (Taishō 1542, 702b), attributed to Vasumitra (second century). Sasaki also points out similar discussions found in certain mahāyāna sūtras, such as the Jñānālokālaṃkārasūtra, which is also important for the Uttaratantra and RGVV.
This is the name of a chapter in the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra.
DP "great seers" (drang srong chen po).
J kavi, which makes no sense here. Takasaki suggests chavi ("colored") as the better reading, translating it as "darkness."VT (fol. 12v7) has chadi instead, glossed by andhakāra (both meaning "darkness"), and DP also read the corresponding mun pa.
Skt. mūlaviśuddhā prakṛtiḥ; DP "natural purity is the root" (rang bzhin gyis rnam par dag pa ni rtsa ba’o).
I follow MA/MB baliyān (comparative of balin°) against J balī yo.
DP omit "neither increasing."
This is literally Aṅguttara Nikāya I.10.
I follow Schmithausen’s emendation yaś cāyoniśomanaskāro (confirmed by DP tshul bzhin ma yin pa’i yid la byed pa gang yin pa) of MA paścā yoniśo and MB paścād yoniśo against J paścād yo ‘yoniśomanaskāro. Thus, the text of the citation simply continues and Takasaki’s insertion "After this passage . . . follows" is obsolete.
I follow MA °visāmagryāṃ (DP dang bral na) against J °visāmagryā.
J omits "completely devoid of any root,"but MB has mūlaparicchinna (confirmed by DP rtsa ba yongs su chad pa).
VT (fol. 13r1) glosses this as "the foundation of the nature of phenomena’s being completely pure by virtue of its having the nature of emptiness (śūnyatārūpatvena dharmatāpariśuddhaṃ mūlaṃ)."
D148, fols. 320b.6–321a.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.

[1] Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input

[2] 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.

[3] Kano (2006, 1) refers to Sasaki (1991) who traces the Uttaratantra ’s teaching about the progressive arising of afflictions, karma, and the skandhas from improper mental engagement back to the *Abhidharmaprakaraṇapādaśāstra (Taishō 1542, 702b), attributed to Vasumitra (second century). Sasaki also points out similar discussions found in certain mahāyāna sūtras, such as the Jñānālokālaṃkārasūtra, which is also important for the Uttaratantra and RGVV.

[4] This is the name of a chapter in the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchāsūtra.

[5] DP "great seers" (drang srong chen po).

[6] J kavi, which makes no sense here. Takasaki suggests chavi ("colored") as the better reading, translating it as "darkness."VT (fol. 12v7) has chadi instead, glossed by andhakāra (both meaning "darkness"), and DP also read the corresponding mun pa.

[7] Skt. mūlaviśuddhā prakṛtiḥ; DP "natural purity is the root" (rang bzhin gyis rnam par dag pa ni rtsa ba’o).

[8] I follow MA/MB baliyān (comparative of balin°) against J balī yo.

[9] DP omit "neither increasing."

[10] This is literally Aṅguttara Nikāya I.10.

[11] I follow Schmithausen’s emendation yaś cāyoniśomanaskāro (confirmed by DP tshul bzhin ma yin pa’i yid la byed pa gang yin pa) of MA paścā yoniśo and MB paścād yoniśo against J paścād yo ‘yoniśomanaskāro. Thus, the text of the citation simply continues and Takasaki’s insertion "After this passage . . . follows" is obsolete.

[12] I follow MA °visāmagryāṃ (DP dang bral na) against J °visāmagryā.

[13] J omits "completely devoid of any root,"but MB has mūlaparicchinna (confirmed by DP rtsa ba yongs su chad pa).

[14] VT (fol. 13r1) glosses this as "the foundation of the nature of phenomena’s being completely pure by virtue of its having the nature of emptiness (śūnyatārūpatvena dharmatāpariśuddhaṃ mūlaṃ)."

[15] D148, fols. 320b.6–321a.7.

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

[17] 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.

[18] 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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