Verse I.9

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.9

Verse I.9 Variations

यो नासन्न च सन्न चापि सदसन्नान्यः सतो नासतो
ऽसक्यस्तर्कयितुं निरुक्‍त्यपगतः प्रत्यात्मवेद्यः शिवः
तस्मै धर्मदिवाकराय विमलज्ञानावभासत्विषे
सर्वारम्वण रागदोषतिमिरव्याघातकर्त्रे नमः

yo nāsanna ca sanna cāpi sadasannānyaḥ sato nāsato
'sakyastarkayituṃ niruktyapagataḥ pratyātmavedyaḥ śivaḥ
tasmai dharmadivākarāya vimalajñānāvabhāsatviṣe
sarvāramvaṇa rāgadoṣatimiravyāghātakartre namaḥ

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

།གང་ཞིག་མེད་མིན་ཡོད་མིན་ཡོད་མེད་མ་ཡིན་ཡོད་མེད་ལས་གཞན་དུའང་།
།བརྟག་པར་མི་ནུས་ངེས་ཚིག་དང་བྲལ་སོ་སོ་རང་གིས་རིག་ཞི་བ།
།དྲི་མེད་ཡེ་ཤེས་འོད་ཟེར་སྣང་ལྡན་དམིགས་པ་ཀུན་ལ་ཆགས་པ་དང་།
།སྡང་དང་རབ་རིབ་རྣམ་པར་འཇོམས་མཛད་དམ་ཆོས་ཉི་མ་དེ་ལ་འདུད།

Dege, PHI, 109

Inscrutable as neither nonexistent nor existent nor [both] existent and nonexistent nor other than existent and nonexistent,
Free from etymological interpretation, to be personally experienced, and peaceful—
I pay homage to this sun of the dharma, which shines the light of stainless wisdom
And defeats passion, aggression, and [mental] darkness with regard to all focal objects.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 341. ^[2]

À ce qui n’est ni inexistant, ni existant, ni existant et inexistant,

ni autre qu’existant et inexistant, Qui est impossible à analyser, indéfinissable, connu par l’expérience personnelle, en paix, Immaculé, rayonnant de la lumière de la sagesse primordiale, Et qui, pour tout objet perçu, détruit l’attachement, l’aversion et la taie [de l’ignorance] Au soleil du vrai Dharma, je rends hommage.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.9

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

Full Tibetan Commentary
Full English Commentary
Full Sanskrit Commentary
Full Chinese Commentary

།སངས་རྒྱས་དཀོན་མཆོག་དེ་ལས་ཆོས་དཀོན་མཆོག་འབྱུང་བའི་ཕྱིར་དེའི་རྗེས་ཐོགས་སུ་དེའི་དབང་དུ་བྱས་ནས་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། གང་ཞིག་མེད་{br}མིན་ཡོད་མིན་ཡོད་མེད་མ་ཡིན་ཡོད་མེད་ལས་གཞན་དུའང་། །བརྟག་པར་མི་ནུས་ངེས་ཚིག་དང་བྲལ་སོ་སོ་རང་གིས་རིག་ཞི་བ། །དྲི་མེད་ཡེ་ཤེས་འོད་ཟེར་སྣང་ལྡན་དམིགས་པ་ཀུན་ལ་ཆགས་པ་དང་། །སྡང་དང་རབ་རིབ་རྣམ་པར་འཇོམས་མཛད་དམ་ཆོས་ཉི་མ་དེ་ལ་{br}འདུད།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) ^[3]

I bow before that which cannot be investigated

Neither as a non-ens; nor an ens,

Nor both ens and non-ens together, nor neither of both,

Which has no name, is revealed by introspection, and perfectly quiescent;

And before the sun of the Highest Doctrine, immaculate,

Shining with the lustre of Divine Wisdom,

And vanquishing the darkness of Ignorance, Hatred,

And the Attachment toward all (worldly) objects.—

Takasaki (1966) ^[4]

I bow before the sun of the Doctrine,

Which is neither non-being nor being,

Nor both being and non-being together,

And neither different from being nor from non-being;

Which cannot be speculated upon and is beyond explanation,

But revealed [only] by introspection and is quiescent;

And which, with rays of light of the immaculate Wisdom,

Destroys passion, hatred and darkness

with respect to all the basis of cognition.

Fuchs (2000) ^[5]

The Dharma is neither non-existent nor existent. It is not both existent and non-existent, nor is it ::other than existent and non-existent.

It is inaccessible to such investigation and cannot be defined. It is self-aware and peace.

The Dharma is without defilement. Holding the brilliant light rays of primordial wisdom,

it fully defeats attachment, aversion, and dull indifference with regard to all objects of perception. I ::bow down to this sun of the sacred Dharma.

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

[4] 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.

[5] 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]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]