Verse I.65

From Buddha-Nature
Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.65

Verse I.65 Variations

त्रयोऽग्नयो युगान्तेऽग्निर्नारकः प्राकृतः क्रमात्
त्रयस्त्र उपमा तेया मृत्युव्याधिजराग्नयः
trayo'gnayo yugānte'gnirnārakaḥ prākṛtaḥ kramāt
trayastra upamā teyā mṛtyuvyādhijarāgnayaḥ
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
།དུས་མཐའ་དམྱལ་བ་ཐ་མལ་པའི།
།མེ་གསུམ་འཆི་དང་ན་བ་དང་།
།རྒ་བའི་མེ་གསུམ་རིམ་བཞིན་དུ།
།དེ་དག་འདྲ་བར་ཤེས་པར་བྱ།
The three fires—the fire at the end of an age,
The one in hell, and ordinary [fire]—
Should be understood, in due order, as the examples
For the three fires of death, sickness, and aging.
Les feux de la mort, de la maladie

Et de la vieillesse sont respectivement Comparables au feu de la fin des temps, Au feu des enfers et au feu ordinaire.

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.65

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) [3]
The 3 fires,—those of death, illness, and decrepitude,
Are known to have a resemblance with 3 (other) fires,—
That (which arises) at the end of the world, the fire of hell,
And the ordinary fire, respectively.
Takasaki (1966) [4]
The three fires, the fire at the end of the world,
The fire of hell and the ordinary fire,
These are to be known respectively as the analogy
For three fires, that of death, of sickness and old age.
Fuchs (2000) [5]
The three fires of death, sickness, and aging
are to be understood in their given sequence
as resembling the fire at the end of time,
the fire of hell, and an ordinary fire.

Textual sources

Commentaries on this verse

Academic notes

  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.