Verse III.8

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse III.8

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Verse III.8 Variations

सर्वधर्माभिसंबोधे विवन्धप्रतिषेधने
मार्गाख्याने निरोधाप्तौ वैशारद्यं चतुर्विधम्

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

sarvadharmābhisaṃbodhe vivandhapratiṣedhane
mārgākhyāne nirodhāptau vaiśāradyaṃ caturvidham

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

ཆོས་སྐུ་རྫོགས་པར་བྱང་ཆུབ་དང་། །
གེགས་ནི་འགོག་པར་བྱེད་པ་དང་། །
ལམ་སྟོན་པ་དང་འགོག་སྟོན་ལ། །
མི་འཇིགས་པ་ནི་རྣམ་པ་བཞི། །

Dege, PHI, 130

The four kinds of fearlessness are with regard to
The complete realization of all phenomena,
The termination of [all] obstacles,
Teaching the path, and attaining cessation.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 430 ^[3]

À toute chose il s’éveille pleinement ;

Il met fin aux obstacles ;

Il enseigne la voie et montre la cessation

Telles sont les quatre intrépidités.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse III.8

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

Full Tibetan Commentary
Full English Commentary
Full Sanskrit Commentary
Full Chinese Commentary

།མི་འཇིགས་པ་བཞི་བརྙེས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ནི། ཆོས་ཀུན་རྫོགས་པར་བྱང་ཆུབ་དང་། །གེགས་ནི་འགོག་པར་བྱེད་པ་དང་། །ལམ་{br}སྟོན་པ་དང་འགོག་སྟོན་ལ། །མི་འཇིགས་པ་ནི་རྣམ་པ་བཞི། །བདག་གཞན་ཤེས་བྱའི་དངོས་པོ་རྣམ་ཀུན་ཤེས་དང་ཤེས་མཛད་ཕྱིར། །སྤངས་དངོས་སྤངས་དང་སྤོང་མཛད་ཕྱིར་དང་བསྟེན་བྱ་བསྟེན་པའི་ཕྱིར། །ཐོབ་བྱ་བླ་མེད་ཤིན་ཏུ་དྲི་མེད་ཐོབ་དང་ཐོབ་མཛད་ཕྱིར། །རང་གཞན་{br}དོན་བདེན་གསུངས་ཕྱིར་དྲང་སྲོང་གང་དུའང་ཐོགས་པ་མེད།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) ^[9]

The intrepidity (of the Buddha) is of 4 kinds:

That of cognizing all elements of existence,

Of removing all the impediments,

Of showing the Path, and the annihilation of defilement.

Takasaki (1966) ^[10]

[The Buddha's] Intrepidity is of four kinds, namely:

In his perfect Enlightenment of all the elements,

In rejecting all obstacles,

In preaching the Path, and in acquiring the Extinction.

Fuchs (2000) ^[11]

Perfectly enlightened [in] all phenomena,

setting an end to [all] hindrances,

teaching the path, and showing cessation

are the four aspects of fearlessness.

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.
VT (fol. 15v3–4) comments that line III.8b means to realize the reality of suffering, while line III.8c represents the reality of the origin of suffering, with "obstacles"referring to desire and so on.
MB is rather illegible here, and Schmithausen suggests that, parallel to prāpteḥ paraprāpanād in III.9c, J jñānāt svayaṃjñāpanād (svayam has no correspondence in DP) could well be jñānāt parajñāpanād (there is no correspondence for para° in DP in either line), which is doubtlessly what is meant here.
Given the parallels in the first and third lines, I follow Schmithausen’s emendation hānihāpanakṛteḥ of J hānihāraṇakṛteḥ (MA/MB hānikaraṇakṛteḥ, which is metrically impossible). This is also supported by DP spangs dang spong mdzad (spong mdzad corresponding to hāpana°, while the metric filler °kṛti is omitted).
DP "seer" (drang srong).
In Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, astambhin means "not paralyzed with fear" or "not frightened." In classical Sanskrit, it can mean "to paralyze," "to stop," and "to restrain." DP has "unobstructed" (thogs pa med).
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] VT (fol. 15v3–4) comments that line III.8b means to realize the reality of suffering, while line III.8c represents the reality of the origin of suffering, with "obstacles"referring to desire and so on.

[5] MB is rather illegible here, and Schmithausen suggests that, parallel to prāpteḥ paraprāpanād in III.9c, J jñānāt svayaṃjñāpanād (svayam has no correspondence in DP) could well be jñānāt parajñāpanād (there is no correspondence for para° in DP in either line), which is doubtlessly what is meant here.

[6] Given the parallels in the first and third lines, I follow Schmithausen’s emendation hānihāpanakṛteḥ of J hānihāraṇakṛteḥ (MA/MB hānikaraṇakṛteḥ, which is metrically impossible). This is also supported by DP spangs dang spong mdzad (spong mdzad corresponding to hāpana°, while the metric filler °kṛti is omitted).

[7] DP "seer" (drang srong).

[8] In Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, astambhin means "not paralyzed with fear" or "not frightened." In classical Sanskrit, it can mean "to paralyze," "to stop," and "to restrain." DP has "unobstructed" (thogs pa med).

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

[10] 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.

[11] 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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