Verse I.53 Variations
तथैवासंस्कृते धाताविन्द्रियाणां व्ययोदयः
tathaivāsaṃskṛte dhātāvindriyāṇāṃ vyayodayaḥ
ནམ་མཁའ་ལ་ནི་སྐྱེ་ཞིང་འཇིག །
དེ་བཞིན་འདུས་མ་བྱས་དབྱིངས་ལ། །
དབང་པོ་རྣམས་ནི་སྐྱེ་ཞིང་འཇིག །
Are born and perish in space,
So the faculties arise and perish
In the unconditioned basic element.
- De même que tous les mondes
- Naissent et meurent dans l’espace,
- De même les facultés des sens naissent
- Et meurent dans l’immensité inconditionnée.
RGVV Commentary on Verse I.53
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Sanskrit
Chinese
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Other English translations
Obermiller (1931) [6]
- Just as, in space, the worlds and all their elements
- Become originated and are destroyed,
- In the same way, in the Eternal Substance,
- The forces of Phenomenal Life appear and disappear.
Takasaki (1966) [7]
- Just as the worlds have everywhere
- Their origination and destruction in space;
- Similarly, on the basis of the Innate Essence,
- The sense-organs appear and disappear.
Fuchs (2000) [8]
- Just as at all times worlds arise
- and disintegrate in space,
- the senses arise and disintegrate
- in the uncreated expanse.
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.
- This refers to the ancient Indian cosmological model of worlds arising in space due to the four elemental spheres of wind, fire, water, and earth being stacked up in that order and thus supporting the upper spheres. As VT (fol. 13r1) confirms, the element of fire is not mentioned among the four elements in this text because fire is used to illustrate sickness, aging, and death, which destroy one’s prior state of existence.
- Here, the text has indriya, which is always replaced by āyatana below.
- Given the example of space’s being completely unaffected by what arises and ceases in it, I follow DP’s negative before "afflicted" (the Sanskrit and C lack this negative).
- 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.