Verse I.164

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.164

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Verse I.164 Variations

अभूतं सत्त्वदोषास्ते कृत्रिमागन्तुकत्वतः
भूतं तद्दोषनैरात्म्यं शुद्धिप्रकृतयो गुणाः

abhūtaṃ sattvadoṣāste kṛtrimāgantukatvataḥ
bhūtaṃ taddoṣanairātmyaṃ śuddhiprakṛtayo guṇāḥ

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

།བཅོས་མ་གློ་བུར་བ་ཉིད་ཕྱིར།
།སེམས་ཅན་སྐྱོན་དེ་ཡང་དག་མིན།
།ཡང་དག་ཉེས་དེ་བདག་མེད་པ།
།ཡོན་ཏན་རང་བཞིན་དག་པ་ཡིན།

Dege, PHI, 123

The flaws of sentient beings are unreal
Because they are fabricated and adventitious.
What is real are the qualities, whose nature is pure
[Due to] the identitylessness of these flaws.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 414 ^[2]

Artificiels et passagers, les défauts

Des êtres ne sont pas réels. En vérité, les fautes n’ont pas de soi Et les qualités sont pures par nature.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.164

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།ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་གཉིས་པོ་འདིའི་དོན་ནི་མདོར་བསྡུས་ཏེ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་བཅུས་རིག་པར་བྱ་སྟེ། ཡང་དག་མཐའ་ནི་འདུས་བྱས་ཀྱིས། །རྣམ་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་དབེན་པ་སྟེ། །ཉོན་མོངས་ལས་དང་རྣམ་སྨིན་དོན། །སྤྲིན་{br}ལ་སོགས་པ་བཞིན་དུ་བརྗོད། །ཉོན་མོངས་སྤྲིན་འདྲ་བྱ་བ་ཡི། །ལས་ནི་རྨི་ལམ་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་བཞིན། །ཉོན་མོངས་ལས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པར་སྨིན། །ཕུང་པོ་སྒྱུ་མ་སྤྲུལ་པ་བཞིན། །སྔར་ནི་དེ་ལྟར་རྣམ་གཞག་ནས། །སླར་ཡང་བླ་མའི་རྒྱུད་འདིར་ནི། །ཉེས་པ་ལྔ་དག་སྤང་བའི་ཕྱིར། །ཁམས་ཡོད་ཉིད་{br}ཅེས་བསྟན་པ་ཡིན། །འདི་ལྟར་དེ་ནི་མ་ཐོས་པས། །བདག་ལ་བརྙས་པའི་ཉེས་པ་ཡིས། །སེམས་ནི་ཞུམ་པ་འགའ་ཞིག་ལ། །བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ནི་སྐྱེ་མི་འགྱུར། །གང་ལ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་བསྐྱེད་པས། །བདག་ནི་མཆོག་ཅེས་རློམ་པ་ན། །བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་མ་སྐྱེས་པ་ལ། །དམན་{br}པའི་འདུ་ཤེས་རབ་ཏུ་འཇུག །དེ་ལྟར་སེམས་པ་དེ་ལ་ནི། །ཡང་དག་ཤེས་པ་མི་སྐྱེ་བ། །དེས་ན་ཡང་དག་མི་འཛིན་ཞིང་། །ཡང་དག་དོན་ནི་རིག་མི་འགྱུར། །བཅོས་མ་གློ་བུར་པ་ཉིད་ཕྱིར། །སེམས་ཅན་སྐྱོན་དེ་ཡང་དག་མིན། །ཡང་དག་ཉེས་དེ་བདག་མེད་པ། །ཡོན་ཏན་རང་བཞིན་དག་པ་{br}ཡིན། །ཡང་དག་མིན་པའི་ཉེས་འཛིན་ཞིང་། །ཡང་དག་ཡོན་ཏན་སྐུར་འདེབས་པ། །བློ་ལྡན་བདག་དང་སེམས་ཅན་ནི། །མཚུངས་མཐོང་བྱམས་པ་ཐོབ་མི་འགྱུར། །འདི་ལྟར་དེ་ནི་ཐོས་པ་ལས། །སྤྲོ་དང་སྟོན་པ་བཞིན་གུས་དང་། །ཤེས་རབ་ཡེ་ཤེས་བྱམས་ཆེན་སྐྱེ། །ཆོས་ལྔ་སྐྱེ་ཕྱིར་དེ་{br}ལ་ནི། །ཁ་ན་མ་ཐོ་མེད་མཚུངས་ལྟར། །སྐྱོན་མེད་ཡོན་ཏན་ལྡན་པ་དང་། །བདག་དང་སེམས་ཅན་མཚུངས་བྱས་ཏེ། །སངས་རྒྱས་ཉིད་ནི་མྱུར་དུ་འཐོབ།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) ^[7]

(Indeed), the defects of the real beings are unreal,

Since they are not-genuine and accidental.

As the defects a re thus imputed,

Only the virtuous properties are pure by nature.

Takasaki (1966) ^[8]

[Indeed], the defects of living beings are unreal

Because they are non-genuine and accidental

But the non-substantiality of such defects is real,

That is, the virtues [of living beings], pure by nature.

Fuchs (2000) ^[9]

Being artificially produced and adventitious,

these faults of beings are not truly [existent].

In truth these evils do not exist as self,

but exist as the qualities by nature pure.

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.
I follow Schmithausen in taking bhūtakoṭiṣu to mean "in myriads of beings" (though bhūta for "sentient beings" is not so common in mahāyāna texts) rather than DP’s rendering yang dag mtha’ ni, which ignores the plural and locative ending of the Sanskrit (thus reading "the true end is devoid of conditioned phenomena in all aspects"). Interestingly, the translations by Takasaki, de Jong, and Ui (as referenced in de Jong 1968, 48) all agree with DP’s reading of bhūtakoṭi in the singular. Since I.158 is an explanation of I.156ab, with "void" corresponding to "empty," "conditioned phenomena"to "all (knowable objects)," and "in all aspects"to "in every respect," bhūtakoṭiṣu most likely corresponds to "here and there." However, this is where the problem lies, since Schmithausen takes "here and there"to be related to "in each sentient being"in I.156d. Though not impossible, this is not only somewhat strange in this context but, more importantly, contradicted by VT’s above gloss and virtually all Tibetan commentaries, which take "here and there"to mean "in the (prajñāpāramitā) sūtras." If one still accepts that bhūtakoṭiṣu takes up "here and there" (which is likely, given the other correspondences between I.156ab and I.158), C’s rendering "in [myriads of] sūtras" (sūtra [koṭi] ṣu, with "sūtra"in transcription!) instead of bhūtakoṭiṣu seems to make much more sense. Also, if bhūtakoṭiṣu referred back to "in each sentient being,"it would pick up a phrase in I.156d, whereas all other correspondences with I.158 are only to I.156ab. Thus, I would prefer to read I.158ab as "It has been stated in myriads of sūtras that conditioned phenomena are void in all aspects." However, since the Sanskrit and DP as well as all Tibetan commentaries agree on bhūta°, while C is the only exception, I reluctantly follow the former in reading bhūta°.
Skt. tantre punar ihottare. As mentioned before, this phrase uses the title of the present text (Uttaratantra) in the sense of the teachings on buddha nature being the latest and also highest teachings of the Buddha. VT (fol. 14r1–2) glosses this phrase as "latest text" or "latest section" (uttaragrantha).
VT (fol. 14r2) glosses "what is unreal" (abhūtaṃ) as "all flaws" and "what is real" (bhūtaṃ) as "all qualities."
With Schmithausen, I follow MA taddoṣanairātmyaśuddhiprakṛtayo against J and VT (fol. 14r2) taddoṣanairātmyaṃ śuddhiprakṛtayo.
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] I follow Schmithausen in taking bhūtakoṭiṣu to mean "in myriads of beings" (though bhūta for "sentient beings" is not so common in mahāyāna texts) rather than DP’s rendering yang dag mtha’ ni, which ignores the plural and locative ending of the Sanskrit (thus reading "the true end is devoid of conditioned phenomena in all aspects"). Interestingly, the translations by Takasaki, de Jong, and Ui (as referenced in de Jong 1968, 48) all agree with DP’s reading of bhūtakoṭi in the singular. Since I.158 is an explanation of I.156ab, with "void" corresponding to "empty," "conditioned phenomena"to "all (knowable objects)," and "in all aspects"to "in every respect," bhūtakoṭiṣu most likely corresponds to "here and there." However, this is where the problem lies, since Schmithausen takes "here and there"to be related to "in each sentient being"in I.156d. Though not impossible, this is not only somewhat strange in this context but, more importantly, contradicted by VT’s above gloss and virtually all Tibetan commentaries, which take "here and there"to mean "in the (prajñāpāramitā) sūtras." If one still accepts that bhūtakoṭiṣu takes up "here and there" (which is likely, given the other correspondences between I.156ab and I.158), C’s rendering "in [myriads of] sūtras" (sūtra [koṭi] ṣu, with "sūtra"in transcription!) instead of bhūtakoṭiṣu seems to make much more sense. Also, if bhūtakoṭiṣu referred back to "in each sentient being,"it would pick up a phrase in I.156d, whereas all other correspondences with I.158 are only to I.156ab. Thus, I would prefer to read I.158ab as "It has been stated in myriads of sūtras that conditioned phenomena are void in all aspects." However, since the Sanskrit and DP as well as all Tibetan commentaries agree on bhūta°, while C is the only exception, I reluctantly follow the former in reading bhūta°.

[4] Skt. tantre punar ihottare. As mentioned before, this phrase uses the title of the present text (Uttaratantra) in the sense of the teachings on buddha nature being the latest and also highest teachings of the Buddha. VT (fol. 14r1–2) glosses this phrase as "latest text" or "latest section" (uttaragrantha).

[5] VT (fol. 14r2) glosses "what is unreal" (abhūtaṃ) as "all flaws" and "what is real" (bhūtaṃ) as "all qualities."

[6] With Schmithausen, I follow MA taddoṣanairātmyaśuddhiprakṛtayo against J and VT (fol. 14r2) taddoṣanairātmyaṃ śuddhiprakṛtayo.

[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.

[8] 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.

[9] 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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