Verse I.91

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.91

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Verse I.91 Variations

देशान्तरगते तस्मिन् प्रतिमा तद्वियोगतः
न सा सर्वाङ्गसंपूर्णा भवेदित्युपमा कृता

deśāntaragate tasmin pratimā tadviyogataḥ
na sā sarvāṅgasaṃpūrṇā bhavedityupamā kṛtā

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

།དེ་ནི་ཡུལ་གཞན་སོང་བས་ན།
།དེ་མ་ཚང་ཕྱིར་རི་མོ་དེ།
།ཡན་ལག་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་རྫོགས་པར།
།མི་འགྱུར་བཞིན་ཤེས་དཔེར་བྱས་སོ།

Dege, PHI, 116

With him gone to another country,
Due to his absence, the painting
Would not be completed in all its parts—
Such is the example that is given.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 391 ^[2]

Imaginez des peintres aux talents différents

Qui ne savent représenter de parties du corps que celles qu’ils connaissent. Le maître du royaume leur offre une toile « Travaillez ensemble, dit-il, et faites mon portrait ! » À cet ordre, ils se mettent à l’ouvrage mais l’un d’eux Doit soudain se rendre à l’étranger. Celui-là disparu, il sera impossible d’achever le tableau dans toutes ses parties. Fin de la parabole.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.91

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།དེ་ལ་ཟག་པ་མེད་པའི་དབྱིངས་ལ་རྣམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་མཆོག་དང་ལྡན་པའི་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་མངོན་པར་བསྒྲུབས་པས་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་ཐམས་ཅད་པ་ཉིད་ནི་རི་མོ་མཁན་གྱི་དཔེས་རིག་པར་བྱ་སྟེ། ཇི་ལྟར་རི་མོ་འདྲི་བྱེད་པ། །གཞན་དང་གཞན་ལ་མཁས་པ་དག །གང་ཞིག་ཡན་ལག་གང་ཤེས་པ། །དེ་གཞན་དེས་ཟིན་མེད་པར་འགྱུར། །དེས་ན་འདི་ལ་ཁྱེད་ཀུན་གྱིས། །ང་ཡི་གཟུགས་ནི་གྱིས་ཤིག་ཅེས། །མངའ་བདག་རྒྱལ་པོས་དེ་དག་ལ། །བཀའ་ཡིས་རས་ནི་བྱིན་པ་དང་། །དེ་ལས་དེ་ནི་ཐོས་གྱུར་ཏེ། །རི་མོའི་ལས་ལ་རབ་སྦྱོར་རོ། །དེ་ལ་མངོན་པར་སྦྱོར་རྣམས་ལས། །གཅིག་ཅིག་ཡུལ་གཞན་སོང་གྱུར་ན། །དེ་ནི་ཡུལ་གཞན་སོང་བས་ན། །དེ་མ་ཚང་ཕྱིར་རི་མོ་དེ། །ཡན་ལག་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡོངས་རྫོགས་པར། །མི་འབྱུང་བཞིན་ཤེས་དཔེར་བྱས་སོ། །དེ་རྣམས་འདྲི་བྱེད་གང་དག་ཡིན། །སྦྱིན་དང་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་བཟོད་ལ་སོགས། །རྣམ་པ་ཀུན་གྱི་མཆོག་ལྡན་པ། །དེ་ལ་མངོན་པར་སྦྱིན་རྣམས་ཀྱིས། །སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ནི་གཟུགས་སུ་བརྗོད། །དེ་ལ་སྦྱིན་པ་ལ་སོགས་པ་འདི་དག་ཉིད་ལས་རེ་རེ་ཡང་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་ལ་མཐའ་ཡས་པར་རྣམ་པའི་རབ་ཏུ་དབྱེ་བར་ཐ་དད་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཚད་མེད་པར་རིག་པར་བྱའོ། །གྲངས་དང་མཐུ་དག་གིས་ནི་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པ་ཉིད་དོ། །སེར་སྣ་ལ་སོགས་པ་མི་མཐུན་པའི་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་བག་ཆགས་བསལ་བའི་ཕྱིར་ནི་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་མཆོག་ཉིད་དོ། །དེ་

ལ་རྣམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་མཆོག་དང་ལྡན་པའི་སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་གྱི་སྒོ་བསྒོམས་པས་མི་སྐྱེ་བའི་ཆོས་ཉིད་ཐོབ་པའི་ཕྱིར། བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ས་མི་གཡོ་བ་རྣམ་པར་མི་རྟོག་པ་སྐྱོན་མེད་པ་རྒྱུན་མི་འཆད་པར་རང་གི་ངང་གིས་འཇུག་པའི་ལམ་ཤེས་པ་ལ་བརྟེན་པས་ན་ཟག་པ་མེད་པའི་དབྱིངས་ལ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་ཐམས་ཅད་པ་ཉིད་ཡང་དག་པར་འགྲུབ་པོ། །བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ས་ལེགས་པའི་བློ་གྲོས་ལ་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་དང་གཟུངས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་བརྒྱ་སྟོང་གྲངས་མེད་པ་དག་གིས་ཚད་མེད་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ཡོངས་སུ་འཛིན་པའི་ཤེས་པ་ལ་བརྟེན་པས་ནི། ཡོན་ཏན་ཚད་མེད་པ་ཉིད་ཡང་དག་པར་འགྲུབ་པོ། །བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྤྲིན་ལ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་གསང་བའི་གནས་ལྐོག་ཏུ་མ་གྱུར་པའི་ཤེས་པ་ལ་བརྟེན་པས་ན། ཡོན་ཏན་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པ་ཉིད་མངོན་པར་འགྲུབ་པོ། །དེའི་རྗེས་ཐོགས་སུ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ས་ཐོབ་པའི་ཕྱིར་བག་ཆགས་དང་བཅས་པའི་ཉོན་མོངས་པ་དང་ཤེས་བྱའི་སྒྲིབ་པ་མཐའ་དག་ལས་གྲོལ་བའི་ཤེས་པ་ལ་བརྟེན་པས་ན། རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་མཆོག་གི་ཡོན་ཏན་ཉིད་ཡང་དག་པར་འགྲུབ་པོ། །གང་གི་ཕྱིར་སའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་རྟེན་བཞི་པོ་འདི་དག་ལ་དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་དང་རང་སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམས་མཐོང་བ་མེད་པ་དེའི་ཕྱིར་དེ་དག་ནི་ཡོན་ཏན་རྣམ་པ་བཞི་གྲུབ་པ་དང་། དབྱེར་མེད་པའི་མཚན་ཉིད་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པའི་དབྱིངས་ལས་རིང་དུ་གྱུར་པ་ཡིན་ནོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའོ།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) ^[10]

One should go abroad and, owing to his absence,

Their number being incomplete, the portrait

Could not be accomplished in all its parts.

Takasaki (1966) ^[11]

Because of his absence during his being abroad

This picture would remain

Without the completion of all parts;

Thus the parable is made.

Fuchs (2000) ^[12]

Since they are incomplete

due to his travel abroad,

their painting in all its parts

does not get fully perfected.

Thus the example is given.

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.
v
Skt. pratiśrutya can also mean "to hear" or "to promise."
VT (fol. 13v1) glosses tadākārā as śunyatākārā, which relates to the other pāramitās, thus reading "the painters are said to be generosity . . . and so on, which have the aspect of that [emptiness]."DP de rnams is obviously a misprint of de rnam as the equivalent of tadākārā.
DP add a fifth line de la mngon par sbyin rnams kris between I.92c and I.92d, but Tibetan commentaries usually omit it too.
I follow MA/MB anutpattikadharmatā° (confirmed by DP mi skye ba’i chos nyid) against J anutpattikadharma° ("the dharma of nonarising"), though the latter is more common as a synonym for emptiness.
DP "hundreds of thousands" (bray sting).
Beyond RGVV’s own brief comments on "the emptiness endowed with all supreme aspects," see appendix 4 for more details. GC (386.22–388.26) explains that, in the example of the painters, the canvas symbolizes the tathāgata heart, which has the characteristic of emptiness; the king, all buddhas; the king’s order, the twelve branches of the words of the buddhas; the painters, generosity and so on; the image of the king, the emptiness that is endowed with all supreme phenomena that are the fruitions of the means in their fully complete forms; and the painters receiving the canvas, the realization of the tathāgata heart due to the words of the buddhas. Since all phenomena that are the means are included in the six pāramitās, the coarse elements of this form of emptiness are complete in them. Prajñā is like the head because all knowable objects are viewed through the eye of superior insight. Vigor is like the hands because it collects all virtuous phenomena. Dhyāna and discipline are like the feet because one proceeds on the path with these two. Generosity is like the rich flesh of the body because it creates wealth. Patience is like the hue of the body because it beautifies. Here, the actual image of the king stands for the dharmakāya because it is inseparable from the canvas of the tathāgata heart. The reflection of this image on the canvas in a mirror represents the two rūpakāyas, which thus are only the nominal forms of a buddha. The factors of the means during the phase of the path (which resemble the painters) are the causes for making the image of the dharmakāya clearly manifest. Therefore, they are the cooperative conditions, while the substantial cause is nothing but the suchness with stains. What is to be made clearly manifest through these means are the qualities that abide in the basic element with stains and surpass the sand grains in the Gaṅgā in number. Thus, RGVV says that the four features of these qualities—being of all kinds, being innumerable, being inconceivable, and being stainless—are, in due order, attained on the eight bhūmi up through the buddhabhūmi. However, this is only said in terms of what is primary, but all these four features of the qualities exist already on the eighth bhūmi. This is similar to matching the ten pāramitās with the ten bhūmis by saying that generosity is the primary pāramitā on the first bhūmi and so on, while in fact all ten pāramitās exist on each bhūmi. According to GC, RGVV’s phrase "the samādhi of the emptiness endowed with all supreme aspects"refers to the wisdom of the pure bhūmis that is endowed with all aspects of qualities. "The door of that" consists of having terminated flaws through prajñā and having collected all factors of means through compassion. Through having cultivated these, on the eighth bhūmi, bodhisattvas attain the dharma of nonarising. Therefore, the effortless operation of nonconceptual wisdom from the eighth bhūmi onward is attained through the preceding cultivation of the path that entails effort up through the seventh bhūmi.
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] v

[4] Skt. pratiśrutya can also mean "to hear" or "to promise."

[5] VT (fol. 13v1) glosses tadākārā as śunyatākārā, which relates to the other pāramitās, thus reading "the painters are said to be generosity . . . and so on, which have the aspect of that [emptiness]."DP de rnams is obviously a misprint of de rnam as the equivalent of tadākārā.

[6] DP add a fifth line de la mngon par sbyin rnams kris between I.92c and I.92d, but Tibetan commentaries usually omit it too.

[7] I follow MA/MB anutpattikadharmatā° (confirmed by DP mi skye ba’i chos nyid) against J anutpattikadharma° ("the dharma of nonarising"), though the latter is more common as a synonym for emptiness.

[8] DP "hundreds of thousands" (bray sting).

[9] Beyond RGVV’s own brief comments on "the emptiness endowed with all supreme aspects," see appendix 4 for more details. GC (386.22–388.26) explains that, in the example of the painters, the canvas symbolizes the tathāgata heart, which has the characteristic of emptiness; the king, all buddhas; the king’s order, the twelve branches of the words of the buddhas; the painters, generosity and so on; the image of the king, the emptiness that is endowed with all supreme phenomena that are the fruitions of the means in their fully complete forms; and the painters receiving the canvas, the realization of the tathāgata heart due to the words of the buddhas. Since all phenomena that are the means are included in the six pāramitās, the coarse elements of this form of emptiness are complete in them. Prajñā is like the head because all knowable objects are viewed through the eye of superior insight. Vigor is like the hands because it collects all virtuous phenomena. Dhyāna and discipline are like the feet because one proceeds on the path with these two. Generosity is like the rich flesh of the body because it creates wealth. Patience is like the hue of the body because it beautifies. Here, the actual image of the king stands for the dharmakāya because it is inseparable from the canvas of the tathāgata heart. The reflection of this image on the canvas in a mirror represents the two rūpakāyas, which thus are only the nominal forms of a buddha. The factors of the means during the phase of the path (which resemble the painters) are the causes for making the image of the dharmakāya clearly manifest. Therefore, they are the cooperative conditions, while the substantial cause is nothing but the suchness with stains. What is to be made clearly manifest through these means are the qualities that abide in the basic element with stains and surpass the sand grains in the Gaṅgā in number. Thus, RGVV says that the four features of these qualities—being of all kinds, being innumerable, being inconceivable, and being stainless—are, in due order, attained on the eight bhūmi up through the buddhabhūmi. However, this is only said in terms of what is primary, but all these four features of the qualities exist already on the eighth bhūmi. This is similar to matching the ten pāramitās with the ten bhūmis by saying that generosity is the primary pāramitā on the first bhūmi and so on, while in fact all ten pāramitās exist on each bhūmi. According to GC, RGVV’s phrase "the samādhi of the emptiness endowed with all supreme aspects"refers to the wisdom of the pure bhūmis that is endowed with all aspects of qualities. "The door of that" consists of having terminated flaws through prajñā and having collected all factors of means through compassion. Through having cultivated these, on the eighth bhūmi, bodhisattvas attain the dharma of nonarising. Therefore, the effortless operation of nonconceptual wisdom from the eighth bhūmi onward is attained through the preceding cultivation of the path that entails effort up through the seventh bhūmi.

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

[11] 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.

[12] 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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