Verse I.46

དེ་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་དོན་ལས་བརྩམས་ཏེ་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ། སོ་སོའི་སྐྱེས་འཕགས་རྫོགས་སངས་ཀྱི། །དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་དབྱེའི་འཇུག་པ་ལས། །དེ་ཉིད་གཟིགས་པས་སེམས་ཅན་ལ། །རྒྱལ་བའི་སྙིང་པོ་འདི་བསྟན་ནོ། །འདིས་ཅི་བསྟན་ཞེ་ན། སོ་སོའི་སྐྱེ་བོ་ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག །བདེན་པ་མཐོང་བ་བཟློག་པ་སྟེ། །དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ཇི་ལྟ་བཞིན། །ཕྱིན་ཅི་མ་ལོག་སྤྲོས་མེད་ཉིད། །དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་ཁམས་ལ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ལ་སོགས་པར་རྣམ་པར་མི་རྟོག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་སྒོ་ལ་གདམས་པ་ལས་བརྩམས་ཏེ། བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་རྣམས་ལ་ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་སྤྱིའི་མཚན་ཉིད་བསྟན་པ་གང་ཡིན་པ་དེ་ལ་གང་ཟག་རྣམ་པ་གསུམ་པོ་དེ་ཁོ་ན་མ་མཐོང་བ་སོ་སོའི་སྐྱེ་བོ་དང་། དེ་ཁོ་ན་མཐོང་བ་འཕགས་པ་དང་། དེ་ཁོ་ན་མཐོང་བ་རྣམ་པར་དག་པའི་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པ་དེ་བཞིན་

གཤེགས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་འཇུག་པ་རྣམ་པ་གསུམ་ཐ་དད་པར་རིག་པར་བྱ་སྟེ། འདི་ལྟ་སྟེ། ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་པ་དང་ཕྱིན་ཅི་མ་ལོག་པ་དང་། ཡང་དག་པར་ཕྱིན་ཅི་མ་ལོག་པ་སྤྲོས་པ་མེད་པ་སྟེ། གོ་རིམས་བཞིན་ནོ། །དེ་ལ་ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་ནི་བྱིས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྟེ། འདུ་ཤེས་དང་སེམས་དང་ལྟ་བ་ཕྱིན་ཅི་ལོག་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ། །བཟློག་པས་ཕྱིན་ཅི་མ་ལོག་པ་ནི་འཕགས་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྟེ། དེ་སྤངས་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ། །ཡང་དག་པར་ཕྱིན་ཅི་མ་ལོག་པའི་སྤྲོས་པ་མེད་པ་ནི། ཡང་དག་པར་རྫོགས་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྟེ། བག་ཆགས་དང་བཅས་པའི་ཉོན་མོངས་པ་དང་། ཤེས་བྱའི་སྒྲིབ་པ་བཅོམ་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ། །འདི་ཕན་ཆད་ནི་འཇུག་པའི་དོན་ཉིད་ལས་བརྩམས་ཏེ། དེ་ལས་གཞན་པའི་དོན་རྣམ་པ་བཞིའི་དབྱེ་བ་སྟོན་པར་རིག་པར་བྱའོ།

Other English translations

Listed by date of publication

Obermiller (1931) ^[8]

With the ordinary beings (the Absolute) is obscured by error,

And with those who perceive the Truth it is the reverse.

As to the Buddha who has the full and perfect intuition,一

With him it is completely free from error and differentiation.^[9]

Takasaki (1966) ^[10]

The Ordinary People are of erroneous conception,

Being opposite to them, [the Saints are] the perceivers of the truth,

And being of the perfectly right conception,

The Buddhas are apart from the dualistic view.

Holmes (1985) ^[11]

Ordinary beings go in a wrong direction.

Those who see the truth revert from this

and the tathāgatas face it just as it is,

unerringly and without conceptual complication.

Holmes (1999) ^[12]

Ordinary beings distort,

those who see the truth correct the distortion

and tathāgatas (approach it) just as it is,

undistortedly and without conceptual complication.

Fuchs (2000) ^[13]

[It manifests as] perverted [views in] ordinary beings,

[as] the reversal [of these in] those who see the truth,

and [it manifests] as it is, in an unperverted way,

and as freedom from elaboration [in] a tathagata.

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.
I follow MB °tathatābhinnavṛttitaḥ and DP de bzhin nyid dbye’i ’jug pa las against J °tathatāvyatirekataḥ. The translation follows Schmithausen’s suggestion to understand this compound as a predicative ablative (as in I.42) qualifying "the disposition of the victors" (thus, closely corresponding in meaning to °bhinnavṛttikaḥ in Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra IX.59b). However, as Schmithausen remarks, RGVV interprets vṛtti as pravṛtti in the sense of the more or less unmistaken ways in which ordinary beings, bodhisattvas, and buddhas engage the tathāgata heart. Besides "manifestation" and "engagement,"both terms can also mean "behavior," "activity," and "function." Further meanings of vṛtti include "mode of being," "nature," "state," and "condition,"while pravṛtti can also mean "advancing" and "cognition."
This verse closely parallels the words and the meaning of Madhyāntavibhāga IV.12.
I follow MB tattvadarśinaḥ pṛthagjanasya (confirmed by DP de kho na ma mthong ba’i so so skye bo), while J omits tattvadarśinaḥ.
I follow Schmithausen’s emendation of MB tattvadarśinaviśuddhi° to tattvadarśanaviśuddhi° (confirmed by DP de kho na mthong ba rnam par dag pa), while J omits tattvadarśana°.
I follow Schmithausen’s suggestion prabhedanirdeśatvena (which is supported by DP dbye ba ston par) against MA/MB prabhedanirdeśādvena and J prabhedanirdeśādeva. On RGVV’s saying here that the remaining four topics (phases, all-pervasiveness, changelessness, and inseparability) are simply extensions of the sixth topic "manifestation,"see RGVV’s statement at the beginning of explaining the ten topics (J26) that the threefold nature of the tathāgata heart (the dharmakāya, suchness, and the disposition) is "invariably taught in all the words [of the Buddha]"through these topics.
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 45 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.

[1] Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Unicode Input

[2] 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.

[3] I follow MB °tathatābhinnavṛttitaḥ and DP de bzhin nyid dbye’i ’jug pa las against J °tathatāvyatirekataḥ. The translation follows Schmithausen’s suggestion to understand this compound as a predicative ablative (as in I.42) qualifying "the disposition of the victors" (thus, closely corresponding in meaning to °bhinnavṛttikaḥ in Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra IX.59b). However, as Schmithausen remarks, RGVV interprets vṛtti as pravṛtti in the sense of the more or less unmistaken ways in which ordinary beings, bodhisattvas, and buddhas engage the tathāgata heart. Besides "manifestation" and "engagement,"both terms can also mean "behavior," "activity," and "function." Further meanings of vṛtti include "mode of being," "nature," "state," and "condition,"while pravṛtti can also mean "advancing" and "cognition."

[4] This verse closely parallels the words and the meaning of Madhyāntavibhāga IV.12.

[5] I follow MB tattvadarśinaḥ pṛthagjanasya (confirmed by DP de kho na ma mthong ba’i so so skye bo), while J omits tattvadarśinaḥ.

[6] I follow Schmithausen’s emendation of MB tattvadarśinaviśuddhi° to tattvadarśanaviśuddhi° (confirmed by DP de kho na mthong ba rnam par dag pa), while J omits tattvadarśana°.

[7] I follow Schmithausen’s suggestion prabhedanirdeśatvena (which is supported by DP dbye ba ston par) against MA/MB prabhedanirdeśādvena and J prabhedanirdeśādeva. On RGVV’s saying here that the remaining four topics (phases, all-pervasiveness, changelessness, and inseparability) are simply extensions of the sixth topic "manifestation,"see RGVV’s statement at the beginning of explaining the ten topics (J26) that the threefold nature of the tathāgata heart (the dharmakāya, suchness, and the disposition) is "invariably taught in all the words [of the Buddha]"through these topics.

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

[9] This is verse 45 in Obermiller's translation

[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] Holmes, Ken & Katia. The Changeless Nature. Eskdalemuir, Scotland: Karma Drubgyud Darjay Ling, 1985.

[12] Holmes, Ken & Katia. Maitreya on Buddha Nature. Scotland: Altea Publishing, 1999.

[13] 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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Verse I.46

Verse I.46 Variations

RGVV Commentary on Verse I.46

Other English translations

Obermiller (1931) [8]

Takasaki (1966) [10]

Holmes (1985) [11]

Holmes (1999) [12]

Fuchs (2000) [13]