Verse I.63 Variations
न जातु सा द्यौरिव याति विक्रियाम्
आगन्तुकै रागमलादिभिस्त्वसा-
वुपैति संक्लेशमभूतकल्पजैः
na jātu sā dyauriva yāti vikriyām
āgantukai rāgamalādibhistvasā-
vupaiti saṃkleśamabhūtakalpajaiḥ
།དེ་ནི་ནམ་མཁའ་བཞིན་དུ་འགྱུར་མེད་དེ།
།ཡང་དག་མིན་རྟོགས་ལས་བྱུང་འདོད་ཆགས་སོགས།
།གློ་བུར་དྲི་མས་དེ་ཉོན་མོངས་མི་འགྱུར།
Is completely unchanging, just like space.
It is not afflicted by adventitious stains,
Such as desire, born from false imagination.
- La nature de l’esprit, qui est luminosité,
- Est immuable comme l’espace.
- Nées d’idées fausses, les souillures adventices
- Comme l’attachement ne l’affecteront jamais.
RGVV Commentary on Verse I.63
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Other English translations
Obermiller (1931) [6]
- The Spiritual Essence which is pare and radiant
- Is inalterable like space
- And cannot be polluted by the occasional stains
- Of Desire and the other (defiling forces)
- Which arise from the wrong conception (of existence).[7]
Takasaki (1966) [8]
- The innate nature of the mind is brilliant
- And, like space, has no transformation at all;
- It bears, however, the impurity by stains of desires, etc.
- Which are of accident and produced by wrong conception.
Holmes (1985) [9]
- This true nature of the mind - clarity,
- is, like space, unchanging; not becoming
- defiled by desire and so on, passing impurities
- which from improper thinking spring.
Holmes (1999) [10]
- The true nature of mind, clarity, is, like space, unchanging,
- never defiled by desire and so forth, the incidental ills
- which arise from an improper use of the mind.
Fuchs (2000) [11]
- This clear and luminous nature of mind
- is as changeless as space. It is not afflicted
- by desire and so on, the adventitious stains,
- which are sprung from incorrect thoughts.
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.
- This is verse 62 in Obermiller's translation
- 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.
- Holmes, Ken & Katia. The Changeless Nature. Eskdalemuir, Scotland: Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling, 1985.
- Holmes, Ken & Katia. Maitreya on Buddha Nature. Scotland: Altea Publishing, 1999.
- 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.