Verse I.66

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.66

Verse I.66 Variations

निर्वृत्तिव्युपरमरुग्जराविमुक्ता
अस्यैव प्रकृतिमनन्यथावगम्य
जन्मादिव्यसनमृतेऽपि तन्निदानं
धीमन्तो जगति कृपोदयाद्‍भजन्ते

nirvṛttivyuparamarugjarāvimuktā
asyaiva prakṛtimananyathāvagamya
janmādivyasanamṛte'pi tannidānaṃ
dhīmanto jagati kṛpodayādbhajante

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

སྐྱེ་འཆི་ན་དང་རྒ་བ་ལས་གྲོལ་བ། །
འདི་ཡི་རང་བཞིན་ཇི་བཞིན་ཉིད་རྟོགས་ཏེ། །
སྐྱེ་སོགས་ཕོངས་དང་བྲལ་ཡང་དེ་ཡི་རྒྱུས། །
བློ་ལྡན་འགྲོ་ལ་སྙིང་རྗེ་བསྐྱེད་ཕྱིར་བསྟེན། །

Dege, PHI, 114

Having realized the nature of this [basic element] just as it is,
Free from birth, death, sickness, and aging,
The intelligent, due to giving rise to compassion for beings,
Assume the predicaments of birth and so on despite lacking their causes.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 378 ^[2]

菩薩摩訶薩如實知佛性

不生亦不滅復無老病等
菩薩如是知得離於生死
憐愍眾生故示現有生滅

http://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/en/T31n1611_p0833b26

Les sages [bodhisattvas] qui ont correctement réalisé

la nature [de l’Élément] Sont libres de la naissance, de la mort, de la maladie et de la vieillesse. Or, même libres de toute adversité, et en raison de cela même, Ils manifestent la naissance et le reste par compassion pour les êtres.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.66

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

།དེ་ལ་མ་དག་པ་དང་དག་པའི་གནས་སྐབས་ན། འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པ་ལས་བརྩམས་ཏེ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། སྐྱེ་འཆི་ན་དང་རྒ་བ་ལས་གྲོལ་བ། །འདི་ཡི་རང་བཞིན་ཇི་བཞིན་ཉིད་རྟོགས་ཏེ། །སྐྱེ་སོགས་ཕོངས་དང་བྲལ་ཡང་དེ་ཡི་རྒྱུས། །{br}བློ་ལྡན་འགྲོ་ལ་སྙིང་རྗེ་བསྐྱེད་ཕྱིར་བསྟེན།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) ^[4]

Being delivered from birth, death, illness, and old age,

The Sage is not subjected to the misery of either of them;

However, as he knows the true nature (of the Germ within him),

And is full of mercy toward the living beings,

He continues to reside (in this world in order to help them).

Takasaki (1966) ^[5]

Having truly realized the Innate Mind

As being released from birth and death

As well as from illness and decrepitude,

The Bodhisattvas have no calamity of birth and so forth;

Still, because of the rising of Compassions towards the world,

They assume the cause of calamities.

Fuchs (2000) ^[6]

Having realized thatness, the nature of the [dharmadhatu], just as it is,

those of understanding are released from birth, sickness, aging, and death.

Though free from the destitution of birth and so on, they demonstrate these,

since by their [insight] they have given rise to compassion for beings.

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.
The translation of I.66cd follows Schmithausen’s rendering, which is preferable in terms of the meaning in this context. With Takasaki, one could also read these lines as "The intelligent, despite lacking the predicaments of birth and so on, assume their causes due to having given rise to compassion for the world" (this reading seems to be supported by DP skye sogs phongs dang bral yang de yi rgyu [text: rgyus] / blo ldan ’gro la snying rje bskyed phyir bsten /). VT (fol. 13r2) glosses tannidānaṃ as jātiṃ, which seems to suggest that birth is the cause of death, sickness, and aging, but this gloss does not indicate which one of the above two readings is preferable. Though the reading of Takasaki and DP is less likely, it could refer to the explanation just below in the Sāgaramatiparipṛcchāsūtra that bodhisattvas on the bhūmis deliberately retain weak forms of the afflictions, in particular, desire, (the causes of birth and so on) in order to be able to be reborn in saṃsāra to help sentient beings. However, these retained latencies of desire do not have the power to afflict the mind streams of such bodhisattvas, nor can they cause involuntary rebirth in saṃsāra. Still, they retain a connection to the beings in saṃsāra. Another way to say this is that the most refined form of passion is the passion to free sentient beings, which is nothing other than the great compassion of bodhisattvas.
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] The translation of I.66cd follows Schmithausen’s rendering, which is preferable in terms of the meaning in this context. With Takasaki, one could also read these lines as "The intelligent, despite lacking the predicaments of birth and so on, assume their causes due to having given rise to compassion for the world" (this reading seems to be supported by DP skye sogs phongs dang bral yang de yi rgyu [text: rgyus] / blo ldan ’gro la snying rje bskyed phyir bsten /). VT (fol. 13r2) glosses tannidānaṃ as jātiṃ, which seems to suggest that birth is the cause of death, sickness, and aging, but this gloss does not indicate which one of the above two readings is preferable. Though the reading of Takasaki and DP is less likely, it could refer to the explanation just below in the Sāgaramatiparipṛcchāsūtra that bodhisattvas on the bhūmis deliberately retain weak forms of the afflictions, in particular, desire, (the causes of birth and so on) in order to be able to be reborn in saṃsāra to help sentient beings. However, these retained latencies of desire do not have the power to afflict the mind streams of such bodhisattvas, nor can they cause involuntary rebirth in saṃsāra. Still, they retain a connection to the beings in saṃsāra. Another way to say this is that the most refined form of passion is the passion to free sentient beings, which is nothing other than the great compassion of bodhisattvas.

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

[5] 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.

[6] 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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