Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.156
Verse I.156 Variations
शून्यं सर्वं सर्वथा तत्र तत्र
ज्ञेयं मेघस्वप्नमायाकृताभम्
इत्युक्त्वैवं बुद्धधातुः पुनः किं
सत्त्वे सत्त्वेऽस्तीति बुद्धैरिहोक्तम्
ज्ञेयं मेघस्वप्नमायाकृताभम्
इत्युक्त्वैवं बुद्धधातुः पुनः किं
सत्त्वे सत्त्वेऽस्तीति बुद्धैरिहोक्तम्
śūnyaṃ sarvaṃ sarvathā tatra tatra
jñeyaṃ meghasvapnamāyākṛtābham
ityuktvaivaṃ buddhadhātuḥ punaḥ kiṃ
sattve sattve'stīti buddhairihoktam
jñeyaṃ meghasvapnamāyākṛtābham
ityuktvaivaṃ buddhadhātuḥ punaḥ kiṃ
sattve sattve'stīti buddhairihoktam
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
སྤྲིན་དང་རྨི་ལམ་སྒྱུ་བཞིན་དེ་དང་དེར། །
ཤེས་བྱ་ཐམས་ཅད་རྣམ་ཀུན་སྟོང་པ་ཞེས། །
གསུངས་ནས་ཡང་འདིར་རྒྱལ་རྣམས་སེམས་ཅན་ལ། །
སངས་རྒྱས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡོད་ཅེས་ཅི་སྟེ་གསུངས། །
ཤེས་བྱ་ཐམས་ཅད་རྣམ་ཀུན་སྟོང་པ་ཞེས། །
གསུངས་ནས་ཡང་འདིར་རྒྱལ་རྣམས་སེམས་ཅན་ལ། །
སངས་རྒྱས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡོད་ཅེས་ཅི་སྟེ་གསུངས། །
Having said here and there that, just like clouds, dreams, and illusions,
All knowable objects are empty in every respect,
Why then did the buddhas teach here
That the buddha element exists in each sentient being?
All knowable objects are empty in every respect,
Why then did the buddhas teach here
That the buddha element exists in each sentient being?
- Les Vainqueurs ont enseigné ici et là
- que tous les phénomènes sont vides
- Sous tous les aspects, comme des nuages, des rêves et des illusions.
- Or voici qu’ils déclarent que tous les êtres animés
- Ont une nature de bouddha : pourquoi ?
Charrier, Christian and Patrick Carré. Traité de la Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule. Plazac: Éditions Padmakara, 2019.
RGVV Commentary on Verse I.156
Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese
Full Tibetan Commentary
Full English Commentary
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Full Chinese Commentary
།སྨྲས་པ། གལ་ཏེ་དེ་ལྟར་ཆགས་པ་མེད་པའི་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པའི་ས་ལ་གནས་པའི་འཕགས་པའི་མཆོག་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཡང་ཐམས་ཅད་ཡུལ་མ་{br}ཡིན་ན། ཁམས་འདི་ལྟ་བར་དཀའ་བ་དེས་ན་བྱིས་པ་སོ་སོའི་སྐྱེ་བོ་ལས་བརྩམས་ཏེ། བསྟན་པ་འདིས་ནི་ཅི་ཞིག་བྱ་ཞེ་ན། བསྟན་པའི་དགོས་པ་སྡུད་པའི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་གཉིས་ཏེ། གཅིག་གིས་ནི་དྲིས་ལ། གཉིས་པས་ནི་ལན་བསྟན་པའོ། །སྤྲིན་དང་རྨི་ལམ་སྒྱུ་བཞིན་དེ་དང་དེར། །{br}ཤེས་བྱ་ཐམས་ཅད་རྣམ་ཀུན་སྟོང་པ་ཞེས། །གསུངས་ནས་ཡང་འདིར་རྒྱལ་རྣམས་སེམས་ཅན་ལ། །སངས་རྒྱས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡོད་ཅེས་ཅི་སྟེ་གསུངས། །སེམས་ཞུམ་སེམས་ཅན་དམན་ལ་བརྙས་པ་དང་། །ཡང་དག་མི་འཛིན་ཡང་དག་ཆོས་ལ་སྐུར། །བདག་ཅག་ལྷག་པའི་སྐྱོན་ལྔ་གང་
དག་ལ། །ཡོད་པ་དེ་དག་དེ་སྤོང་དོན་དུ་གསུངས།
Other English translations
Obermiller (1931) [6]
- It has been said in these and those (parts of Scripture)
- That all the things cognizable are essentially unreal,
- Being like clouds, like visions in a dream, and like an illusion.
- Wherefore then has the Lord declared here
- That the Essence of the Buddha exists in all living beings.[7]
Takasaki (1966) [8]
- It has been said here and there [in the Scriptures]
- That all things are to be known everywhere
- As being 'unreal', like clouds, [visions in] a dream, and illusions;
- Whereas, why has the Buddha declared here
- That the Essence of the Buddha 'exists' in every living being ?
Holmes (1985) [9]
- He had taught in various places
- that every knowable thing is ever void,
- like a cloud, a dream or an illusion.
- Then why did the Buddha declare
- the essence of buddhahood to be there
- in every sentient being?
Holmes (1999) [10]
- He had taught in various places that every knowable thing
- is ever void, like a cloud, dream or illusion.
- Why therefore did the Buddha declare the essence of buddhahood
- to be present in every sentient being?
Fuchs (2000) [11]
- [The sutras of the second turning of the wheel of Dharma] state in numerous places
- that all knowable [phenomena] are in all ways empty like a cloud, a dream, or an illusion.
- Why is it then, that in [the sutras of the third turning of the wheel of Dharma]
- the Buddha, having said this, declared that buddha nature is present within 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.
- I follow MA/MB bālajanam against J bālapṛthagjanam and DP byi pa so so’i skye bo.
- Schmithausen parallels "here and there" (tatra tatra) with "in each sentient being" (sattve sattve) in the last line. Thus, one would have to translate "Having said that, [in sentient beings] here and there, . . ." However, the more likely meaning is "here and there in the mahāyāna sūtras,"which is confirmed by VT (fol. 14r1) that glosses "here and there" as "in the sūtras." This also corresponds to C’s rendering sūtra [koṭi] ṣu ("sūtra"in transcription!) instead of bhūtakoṭiṣu in I.158b.
- With Takasaki, the Sanskrit of this line could also be read as "everything is to be understood as being empty in all respects,"but I read it following DP shes bya thams cad rnam kun stong pa zhes.
- Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.
- This is verse 154 in Obermiller's translation
- 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.
- Holmes, Ken & Katia. The Changeless Nature. Eskdalemuir, Scotland: Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling, 1985.
- Holmes, Ken & Katia. Maitreya on Buddha Nature. Scotland: Altea Publishing, 1999.
- 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.
