Verse IV.45

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse IV.45

Verse IV.45 Variations

भवेषु संवित्करुणावभृत्कः क्षराक्षरासङ्गनभस्तलस्थः
समाधिधारण्यमलाम्बुगर्भो मुनीन्द्रमेघः शुभसस्यहेतुः

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

bhaveṣu saṃvitkaruṇāvabhṛtkaḥ kṣarākṣarāsaṅganabhastalasthaḥ
samādhidhāraṇyamalāmbugarbho munīndrameghaḥ śubhasasyahetuḥ

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.^[2]

།སྲིད་ལ་མཁྱེན་དང་བརྩེ་ཆེན་འགྱུར་བ་དང་།
།མི་འགྱུར་མི་གོས་ནམ་མཁའི་དཀྱིལ་གནས་པ།
།ཏིང་འཛིན་གཟུངས་ཆུ་དྲི་མེད་སྙིང་པོ་ཅན།
།ཐུབ་དབང་སྤྲིན་ནི་དགེ་བའི་ལོ་ཏོག་རྒྱུ།

Dege, PHI, 137-138

In [all saṃsāric] existences, [due to] bearing awareness and compassion,
Abiding in the sky’s sphere without being affected by what is perishable and not perishable,
And carrying the stainless waters of samādhi and dhāraṇī within it,
The cloud that is the lord of sages is the cause of the harvests of virtue.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 445 ^[3]

Plein de connaissance et d’amour pour le monde,

Il trône au centre de l’espace, inaltéré par le changeant et l’immuable. Les nuages du Seigneur des Sages, qui consistent en l’eau pure des recueillements et des formules de mémoire, Produiront des moissons de vertus.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse IV.45

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

།སྤྲིན་བཞིན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ནི། ཇི་ལྟར་དབྱར་གྱི་དུས་ན་སྤྲིན། །ལོ་ཏོག་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པའི་རྒྱུ། །ཆུ་ཡི་ཕུང་པོ་འབད་མེད་པར། །ས་ལ་མངོན་པར་འབེབས་པ་ལྟར། །དེ་བཞིན་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་{br}སྤྲིན་ལས་ནི། །རྒྱལ་བའི་དམ་ཆོས་ཆུ་ཡི་ཆར། །འགྲོ་བའི་དགེ་བའི་ལོ་ཏོག་རྒྱུ། །རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པ་མེད་པར་འབེབས། །ཇི་ལྟར་འཇིག་རྟེན་དགེ་བའི་ལམ་འཇུག་པ། །རླུང་བསྐྱོད་ཆུ་ཆར་སྤྲིན་གྱིས་འབེབས་པ་ལྟར། །དེ་བཞིན་བརྩེ་རླུང་འགྲོ་དགེ་མངོན་འཕེལ་ཕྱིར། །སངས་{br}རྒྱས་སྤྲིན་ལས་དམ་ཆོས་ཆར་པ་འབེབས། །སྲིད་ལ་མཁྱེན་དང་བརྩེ་ཆེན་འགྱུར་བ་དང་། །མི་འགྱུར་མ་གོས་ནམ་མཁའི་དཀྱིལ་གནས་པ། །ཏིང་འཛིན་གཟུངས་ཆུ་དྲི་མེད་སྙིང་པོ་ཅན། །ཐུབ་དབང་སྤྲིན་ནི་དགེ་བའི་ལོ་ཏོག་རྒྱུ།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) ^[9]

Representing Highest Wisdom and Mercy

Abiding in the inalterable pure celestial sphere,

And having for his essence the immaculate waters of concentration and memory,

The Lord of Sages is like a cloud

The cause of the harvest of virtue in this world.

Takasaki (1966) ^[10]

Bearing Wisdom and Compassion,

Abiding in the celestial sphere

Without affecting anything, neither perishable nor imperishable,

And being the womb of the pure water

Of meditation and mystical formulas,

The cloud-like chieftain of sages

Causes the pure crops in various worlds.

Fuchs (2000) ^[11]

Through great knowledge and compassionate love with regard to existence

it abides in the midst of space unsullied by change and non-change.

Holding the essence of the unpolluted waters of dharani and samadhi,

the cloud of the Lord of Munis is the cause of the harvest of virtue.

Textual sources

Commentaries on this verse

Academic notes

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input
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.
Jñānālokālaṃkārasūtra, D100, fols. 282a.4–283a.5.
I follow MB sasyasaṃpadāṃ against J sasyasaṃpadaḥ.
VT (fol. 16r5) glosses "awareness" (saṃvid) as "the four discriminating awarenesses (pratisaṃvid) of dharmas, meanings, semantics, and self-confidence." The awareness of (1) dharmas means to fully know the individual characteristics of all phenomena or to teach the eighty-four thousand doors of dharma as various remedial means in accordance with sentient beings’ different ways of thinking. (2) The awareness of meanings is to fully know the divisions and classifications of all phenomena, that is, knowing the meanings that are expressed by the words and statements about the general characteristics of phenomena—impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and identitylessness—and their ultimate characteristic—the lack of arising and ceasing. (3) The awareness of semantics refers to knowing the languages, symbols, and terms of all the various kinds of sentient beings and being able to please them through this; being able to teach many meanings through a single word; and being free from words that are mistaken, rushed, or repetitive. (4) The awareness that is self-confidence means to be able to hear the dharma from others and eliminate one’s own doubts, explain the dharma to others and thus eliminate their doubts, and speak meaningfully, swiftly, without interruptions, and unimpededly.
VT (fol. 16r5) glosses "perishable" and "not perishable" as "[saṃsāric] existence" and "nirvāṇa,"respectively.
Compare the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya on XX.38cd, which says, "It is called ‘Cloud of dharma’ because the gate of samādhi and the gate of dhāraṇī pervade, like a cloud, the dharma that was heard—the sky-like foundation in which they are deeply immersed" (samādhimukhadhāraṇīmukhavyāpanān meghenevākāśasthālīyāśrayasaṃniviṣṭasya śrūtadharmasya dharmameghety ucyate).
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] Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input

[3] 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.

[4] Jñānālokālaṃkārasūtra, D100, fols. 282a.4–283a.5.

[5] I follow MB sasyasaṃpadāṃ against J sasyasaṃpadaḥ.

[6] VT (fol. 16r5) glosses "awareness" (saṃvid) as "the four discriminating awarenesses (pratisaṃvid) of dharmas, meanings, semantics, and self-confidence." The awareness of (1) dharmas means to fully know the individual characteristics of all phenomena or to teach the eighty-four thousand doors of dharma as various remedial means in accordance with sentient beings’ different ways of thinking. (2) The awareness of meanings is to fully know the divisions and classifications of all phenomena, that is, knowing the meanings that are expressed by the words and statements about the general characteristics of phenomena—impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and identitylessness—and their ultimate characteristic—the lack of arising and ceasing. (3) The awareness of semantics refers to knowing the languages, symbols, and terms of all the various kinds of sentient beings and being able to please them through this; being able to teach many meanings through a single word; and being free from words that are mistaken, rushed, or repetitive. (4) The awareness that is self-confidence means to be able to hear the dharma from others and eliminate one’s own doubts, explain the dharma to others and thus eliminate their doubts, and speak meaningfully, swiftly, without interruptions, and unimpededly.

[7] VT (fol. 16r5) glosses "perishable" and "not perishable" as "[saṃsāric] existence" and "nirvāṇa,"respectively.

[8] Compare the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya on XX.38cd, which says, "It is called ‘Cloud of dharma’ because the gate of samādhi and the gate of dhāraṇī pervade, like a cloud, the dharma that was heard—the sky-like foundation in which they are deeply immersed" (samādhimukhadhāraṇīmukhavyāpanān meghenevākāśasthālīyāśrayasaṃniviṣṭasya śrūtadharmasya dharmameghety ucyate).

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

[10] 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.

[11] 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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