Verse IV.44

Ratnagotravibhāga Root Verse IV.44

Verse IV.44 Variations

लोके यथा कुशलकर्मपथप्रवृत्ते वर्षन्ति वायुजनितं सलिलं पयोदाः
तद्वत् कृपानिलजगत्कुशलाभिवृद्धेः सद्धर्मवर्षम् अभिवर्षति बुद्धमेघः

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

loke yathā kuśalakarmapathapravṛtte varṣanti vāyujanitaṃ salilaṃ payodāḥ
tadvat kṛpānilajagatkuśalābhivṛddheḥ saddharmavarṣam abhivarṣati buddhameghaḥ

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

ཇི་ལྟར་འཇིག་རྟེན་དགེ་བའི་ལམ་འཇུག་ན། །
རླུང་སྐྱེས་ཆུ་ཆར་སྤྲིན་གྱིས་འབེབས་པ་ལྟར། །
དེ་བཞིན་བརྩེ་རླུང་འགྲོ་དགེ་མངོན་འཕེལ་ཕྱིར། །
སངས་རྒྱས་སྤྲིན་ལས་དམ་ཆོས་ཆར་པ་འབེབས། །

Dege, PHI, 137

Just as clouds, driven by the wind, pour down rain
On the world where people engage in the path of virtuous actions,
So, due to the growth of virtue in the world by the wind of compassion,
The cloud that is the Buddha showers down the rain of the genuine dharma.

When the Clouds Part, Brunnhölzl, 445 ^[3]

De même que, le monde prenant le chemin de la vertu,

Les nuages nés du vent se répandent en pluies,

De même, pour accroître les vertus d’un monde

où souffle le vent de l’amour,

Des nuages de la bouddhéité tombe la pluie du vrai Dharma.

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

RGVV Commentary on Verse IV.44

Tibetan
English
Sanskrit
Chinese

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

།སྤྲིན་བཞིན་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ནི། ཇི་ལྟར་དབྱར་གྱི་དུས་ན་སྤྲིན། །ལོ་ཏོག་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་པའི་རྒྱུ། །ཆུ་ཡི་ཕུང་པོ་འབད་མེད་པར། །ས་ལ་མངོན་པར་འབེབས་པ་ལྟར། །དེ་བཞིན་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་{br}སྤྲིན་ལས་ནི། །རྒྱལ་བའི་དམ་ཆོས་ཆུ་ཡི་ཆར། །འགྲོ་བའི་དགེ་བའི་ལོ་ཏོག་རྒྱུ། །རྣམ་པར་རྟོག་པ་མེད་པར་འབེབས། །ཇི་ལྟར་འཇིག་རྟེན་དགེ་བའི་ལམ་འཇུག་པ། །རླུང་བསྐྱོད་ཆུ་ཆར་སྤྲིན་གྱིས་འབེབས་པ་ལྟར། །དེ་བཞིན་བརྩེ་རླུང་འགྲོ་དགེ་མངོན་འཕེལ་ཕྱིར། །སངས་{br}རྒྱས་སྤྲིན་ལས་དམ་ཆོས་ཆར་པ་འབེབས། །སྲིད་ལ་མཁྱེན་དང་བརྩེ་ཆེན་འགྱུར་བ་དང་། །མི་འགྱུར་མ་གོས་ནམ་མཁའི་དཀྱིལ་གནས་པ། །ཏིང་འཛིན་གཟུངས་ཆུ་དྲི་མེད་སྙིང་པོ་ཅན། །ཐུབ་དབང་སྤྲིན་ནི་དགེ་བའི་ལོ་ཏོག་རྒྱུ།

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) ^[9]

As, amidst the living beings

Who venture on the path of virtue,

The clouds, agitated by the wind,

Discharge their torrents of rain;

Similarly, as the virtues of the living beings

Grow through the wind of Commiseration,

The rain of the Highest Doctrine

Descends from that cloud which is the Buddha.

Takasaki (1966) ^[10]

Just as the clouds discharge the rain,

Agitated by the wind, upon the earth where

The people behave in the path of virtuous actions;

Similarly, the cloud that is the Buddha

Pours the rain of the Highest Doctrine

As the virtues are increased in the world

Owing to the wind of Compassion.

Fuchs (2000) ^[11]

Just as the wind-born clouds cause rain to fall

when the worldly beings follow the path of virtue,

from the buddha cloud called by compassion's wind,

pure Dharma rains to nurture the virtue of beings.

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.
Jñānālokālaṃkārasūtra, D100, fols. 282a.4–283a.5.
I follow MB sasyasaṃpadāṃ against J sasyasaṃpadaḥ.
VT (fol. 16r5) glosses "awareness" (saṃvid) as "the four discriminating awarenesses (pratisaṃvid) of dharmas, meanings, semantics, and self-confidence." The awareness of (1) dharmas means to fully know the individual characteristics of all phenomena or to teach the eighty-four thousand doors of dharma as various remedial means in accordance with sentient beings’ different ways of thinking. (2) The awareness of meanings is to fully know the divisions and classifications of all phenomena, that is, knowing the meanings that are expressed by the words and statements about the general characteristics of phenomena—impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and identitylessness—and their ultimate characteristic—the lack of arising and ceasing. (3) The awareness of semantics refers to knowing the languages, symbols, and terms of all the various kinds of sentient beings and being able to please them through this; being able to teach many meanings through a single word; and being free from words that are mistaken, rushed, or repetitive. (4) The awareness that is self-confidence means to be able to hear the dharma from others and eliminate one’s own doubts, explain the dharma to others and thus eliminate their doubts, and speak meaningfully, swiftly, without interruptions, and unimpededly.
VT (fol. 16r5) glosses "perishable" and "not perishable" as "[saṃsāric] existence" and "nirvāṇa,"respectively.
Compare the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya on XX.38cd, which says, "It is called ‘Cloud of dharma’ because the gate of samādhi and the gate of dhāraṇī pervade, like a cloud, the dharma that was heard—the sky-like foundation in which they are deeply immersed" (samādhimukhadhāraṇīmukhavyāpanān meghenevākāśasthālīyāśrayasaṃniviṣṭasya śrūtadharmasya dharmameghety ucyate).
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] Jñānālokālaṃkārasūtra, D100, fols. 282a.4–283a.5.

[5] I follow MB sasyasaṃpadāṃ against J sasyasaṃpadaḥ.

[6] VT (fol. 16r5) glosses "awareness" (saṃvid) as "the four discriminating awarenesses (pratisaṃvid) of dharmas, meanings, semantics, and self-confidence." The awareness of (1) dharmas means to fully know the individual characteristics of all phenomena or to teach the eighty-four thousand doors of dharma as various remedial means in accordance with sentient beings’ different ways of thinking. (2) The awareness of meanings is to fully know the divisions and classifications of all phenomena, that is, knowing the meanings that are expressed by the words and statements about the general characteristics of phenomena—impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and identitylessness—and their ultimate characteristic—the lack of arising and ceasing. (3) The awareness of semantics refers to knowing the languages, symbols, and terms of all the various kinds of sentient beings and being able to please them through this; being able to teach many meanings through a single word; and being free from words that are mistaken, rushed, or repetitive. (4) The awareness that is self-confidence means to be able to hear the dharma from others and eliminate one’s own doubts, explain the dharma to others and thus eliminate their doubts, and speak meaningfully, swiftly, without interruptions, and unimpededly.

[7] VT (fol. 16r5) glosses "perishable" and "not perishable" as "[saṃsāric] existence" and "nirvāṇa,"respectively.

[8] Compare the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya on XX.38cd, which says, "It is called ‘Cloud of dharma’ because the gate of samādhi and the gate of dhāraṇī pervade, like a cloud, the dharma that was heard—the sky-like foundation in which they are deeply immersed" (samādhimukhadhāraṇīmukhavyāpanān meghenevākāśasthālīyāśrayasaṃniviṣṭasya śrūtadharmasya dharmameghety ucyate).

[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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