Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse I.50

Verse I.50 Variations

तद्दोषगुणनिष्ठासु व्यापि सामान्यलक्षणम्
हीनमध्यविशिष्टेषु व्योम रूपगतेष्विव
taddoṣaguṇaniṣṭhāsu vyāpi sāmānyalakṣaṇam
hīnamadhyaviśiṣṭeṣu vyoma rūpagateṣviva
E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.[1]
དེ་སྤྱིའི་མཚན་ཉིད་ཉེས་པ་དང་། །
ཡོན་ཏན་མཐར་ཐུག་ཁྱབ་པ་སྟེ། །
གཟུགས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་པ་དམན་པ་དང་། །
བར་མ་མཆོག་ལ་ནམ་མཁའ་བཞིན། །
[Its] general characteristic is that it pervades
Flaws, qualities, and perfection,
Just as space [pervades] inferior, middling,
And supreme kinds of forms.
過功德畢竟 遍至及同相

下中勝眾生 如虛空中色

Ce caractère général imprègne
Les défauts, les qualités et l’ultime,
À l’image de l’espace [qui pénètre] toute forme
Inférieure, moyenne ou supérieure.

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.50

Other English translations

Listed by date of publication
Obermiller (1931) [4]
It penetrates, in its general essence,
The defective, the virtuous, and the ultimate point (of perfection),
Just as space embraces all visible forms,
The base, the intermediate, and the sublime.[5]
Takasaki (1966) [6]
It pervades with common feature
The defective, the virtuous and the ultimate,
Just as space occupies all the visible forms,
Either inferior, middle, or superior.
Holmes (1985) [7]
This, the general characteristic of all,
permeates the good, the bad and the ultimate,
like space permeates all forms
whether lesser, mediocre or perfect.
Holmes (1999) [8]
This, the general characteristic of all,
permeates the faulty, the noble and the ultimate,
just as space permeates all forms
whether lesser, mediocre or perfect.
Fuchs (2000) [9]
As the general feature [of everything], it embraces [those with]
faults,
[those with] qualities, and [those in whom the qualities are]
ultimate
just as space [pervades everything] visible,
be it of inferior, average, or supreme appearance.

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. Ibid., 467b.
  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. This is verse 49 in Obermiller's translation
  6. 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.
  7. Holmes, Ken & Katia. The Changeless Nature. Eskdalemuir, Scotland: Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling, 1985.
  8. Holmes, Ken & Katia. Maitreya on Buddha Nature. Scotland: Altea Publishing, 1999.
  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.