Verse I.59 Variations
तदमूलाप्रतिष्ठाना प्रकृतिर्व्योमधातुवत्
tadamūlāpratiṣṭhānā prakṛtirvyomadhātuvat
རླུང་གི་ཁམས་དང་འདྲ་བར་ལྟ། །
རང་བཞིན་ནམ་མཁའི་ཁམས་བཞིན་དུ། །
དེ་བཞིན་ཅན་མིན་གནས་པ་མེད། །
Is to be known as being like the element of wind.
Being without root and not resting [on anything],
[Mind’s] nature is similar to space.
- Considérez les activités erronées du mental
- Comme l’élément vent. Quant à la nature
- [De l’esprit], elle n’a pas de fondement
- Et ne repose sur rien, comme l’élément espace.
RGVV Commentary on Verse I.59
Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese
Full Tibetan Commentary
Full English Commentary
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Other English translations
Obermiller (1931) [6]
- And the naive appreciation (of existence)
- Bears a likeness with the element of air;
- The Spiritual Essence is like space, having no foundation and no substratum.
Takasaki (1966) [7]
- The Irrational Thought is known
- As having resemblance to air;
- Being of no root and of no support,
- The Innate Mind is like space.
Fuchs (2000) [8]
- Improper conceptual activity is viewed
- as being similar to the element of wind.
- [Mind's] nature, as the element of space,
- has no ground and no place of abiding.
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.