Verse I.55 Variations
अप्रतिष्ठितमाकाशं वाय्वम्बुक्षितिधातुषु
apratiṣṭhitamākāśaṃ vāyvambukṣitidhātuṣu
རླུང་ནི་མཁའ་ལ་རབ་ཏུ་གནས། །
མཁའ་ནི་རླུང་དང་ཆུ་དག་དང་། །
ས་ཡི་ཁམས་ལ་གནས་མ་ཡིན། །
And wind on space,
[But] space does not rest on the elements
Of wind, water, or earth.
- La terre s’étend sur l’eau et l’eau sur le vent ;
- Le vent [s’étend] dans l’espace, mais l’espace
- Ne repose pas sur les éléments vent
- Ou eau, ni sur l’élément terre.
RGVV Commentary on Verse I.55
Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese
Full Tibetan Commentary
Full English Commentary
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Other English translations
Obermiller (1931) [6]
- The earth is supported by water, the water is supported by air,
- And air is supported by space;
- But space (in its turn) has no support,
- Neither in air, nor in water, nor in the earth.
Takasaki (1966) [7]
- The earth is supported by water,
- Water by air, and air by space;
- Space has, however, no support
- Neither in air, nor in water, nor in the earth.
Fuchs (2000) [8]
- Earth rests upon water and water upon wind.
- Wind fully rests on space.
- Space does not rest upon any of the elements
- of wind, water, or earth.
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.