Verse II.72

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse II.72

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Verse II.72 Variations

पञ्चभिः कारणैः सौक्ष्म्यादिचिन्त्यो धर्मकायतः
षष्ठेनातत्त्वभावित्वादचिन्त्यो रूपकायतः

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.^[1]

pañcabhiḥ kāraṇaiḥ saukṣmyādicintyo dharmakāyataḥ
ṣaṣṭhenātattvabhāvitvādacintyo rūpakāyataḥ

E. H. Johnston as input by the University of the West.^[2]

རྒྱུ་ལྔ་དག་གིས་ཕྲ་བའི་ཕྱིར། །
ཆོས་སྐུ་བསམ་མི་ཁྱབ་པ་སྟེ། །
དྲུག་པས་དེ་ཡི་དངོས་མིན་ཕྱིར། །
གཟུགས་སྐུ་བསམ་མི་ཁྱབ་པའོ། །

Dege, PHI, 129

Due to the [first] five reasons, [buddhahood] is subtle
And therefore is inconceivable in terms of the dharmakāya.
Due to the sixth one, it is not [manifest in] its truly real state
And therefore is inconceivable in terms of the rūpakāya.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 428 ^[3]

Subtil pour les cinq premières raisons,

Le corps absolu est inconcevable ;

Irréels, pour la sixième [raison],

Les corps formels sont inconcevables.

Charrier, Christian and Patrick Carré. Traité de la Continuité suprême du Grand Véhicule. Plazac: Éditions Padmakara, 2019.

RGVV Commentary on Verse II.72

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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Full English Commentary
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Full Chinese Commentary

།འདིའི་བསྡུས་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་བཞིས་རིག་{br}པར་བྱ་སྟེ། བསམ་མེད་བརྗོད་དུ་མེད་ཕྱིར་ཏེ། །བརྗོད་མེད་དོན་དམ་ཡིན་ཕྱིར་རོ། །དོན་དམ་བརྟག་བྱ་མིན་ཕྱིར་ཏེ། །བརྟག་མིན་རྗེས་དཔག་བྱ་མིན་ཕྱིར། །དཔག་མིན་བླ་ན་མེད་པའི་ཕྱིར། །བླ་ན་མེད་པ་མ་བསྡུས་ཕྱིར། །མ་བསྡུས་གནས་པ་མེད་ཕྱིར་ཏེ། །ཡོན་ཏན་སྐྱོན་{br}རྟོགས་མེད་ཕྱིར་རོ། །རྒྱུ་ལྔ་དག་གིས་ཕྲ་བའི་ཕྱིར། །ཆོས་སྐུ་བསམ་མི་ཁྱབ་པ་སྟེ། །དྲུག་པས་དེ་ཡི་དངོས་མིན་ཕྱིར། །གཟུགས་སྐུ་བསམ་གྱིས་མི་ཁྱབ་པའོ། །བླ་མེད་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཆེ་སོགས་ཡོན་ཏན་གྱིས། །ཡོན་ཏན་ཕ་རོལ་བྱོན་པའི་རྒྱལ་བ་བསམ་མི་ཁྱབ། །{br}དེས་ན་རང་བྱུང་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཐ་མའི་ཚུལ་འདི་ནི། །དྲང་སྲོང་ཆེན་པོ་དབང་ཐོབ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་རིག་མིན།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) ^[6]

The Cosmical Body is inconceivable,

Being subtle and transcendental out of 4 motives,

And the corporeal forms are likewise beyond the reach of human intellect,

This owing to a sixth motive, (as they' represent

Mere reflections of the Cosmical Body),

Which have no real essence of their own.

Takasaki (1966) ^[7]

Being subtle by the [first] 5 motives

He is inconceivable in his Absolute Body,

And by the 6th, on account of his Apparitional Body,

He is inconceivable because of no identification

With either Nirvāṇa or Phenomenal World.

Fuchs (2000) ^[8]

For the [first] five reasons the dharmakaya is subtle

and thus beyond the reach of thought. For the sixth

the form kayas are inconceivable. [They show appearance]

but are not something that fulfils the function of this.

Textual sources

Commentaries on this verse

Academic notes

Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input
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.
Takasaki remarks that vyanumeya (DP dpag bya min) here and in the next line should read vyupameya since the latter fits better with its referent upamanivṛttitaḥ in II.69. VT (fol. 14v7) confirms the reading (vi)anumeya while glossing it as (vy)upamā.
This refers to bodhisattvas on the tenth bhūmi who receive an empowerment through light rays from all buddhas.
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.

[1] Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input

[2] Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input

[3] 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.

[4] Takasaki remarks that vyanumeya (DP dpag bya min) here and in the next line should read vyupameya since the latter fits better with its referent upamanivṛttitaḥ in II.69. VT (fol. 14v7) confirms the reading (vi)anumeya while glossing it as (vy)upamā.

[5] This refers to bodhisattvas on the tenth bhūmi who receive an empowerment through light rays from all buddhas.

[6] Obermiller, E. "The Sublime Science of the Great Vehicle to Salvation Being a Manual of Buddhist Monism." Acta Orientalia IX (1931), pp. 81-306.

[7] 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.

[8] 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.

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