Verse I.163

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.163

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Verse I.163 Variations

तस्यैवंमतिनः सम्यग्ज्ञानं नोत्पद्यते ततः
अभूतं परिगृह्णाति भूतमर्थं न विन्दते

tasyaivaṃmatinaḥ samyagjñānaṃ notpadyate tataḥ
abhūtaṃ parigṛhṇāti bhūtamarthaṃ na vindate

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

།དེ་ལྟར་སེམས་པ་དེ་ལ་ནི།
།ཡང་དག་ཤེས་པ་མི་སྐྱེ་བ།
།དེས་ན་ཡང་དག་མིན་འཛིན་ཅིང་།
།ཡང་དག་དོན་ནི་རིག་མི་འགྱུར།

Dege, PHI, 123

In those who think like that,
Perfect wisdom does not arise.
Therefore, they cling to what is unreal
And do not realize true reality.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 413-414 ^[2]

La juste sagesse ne peut naître

Chez ceux qui pensent de la sorte. Ceux-là croient ce qui n’est pas vrai Et le vrai n’a pas de sens pour eux.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.163

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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]

With him who thinks like that

Correct knowledge does not arise;

He perceives that which is unreal,

And does not know the true state of things.

Takasaki (1966) ^[8]

With him who thinks like that,

The true knowledge will never arise, and hence,

He clings to unreal things [as if they were real]

And does not cognize the true meaning.

Fuchs (2000) ^[9]

In those who entertain such thoughts,

true understanding will not arise.

They hold the untrue [to be true]

and thus will not realize the truth.

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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