ལས་ཀྱ་རྣམ་པར་འགྱར་བ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་ཆས་ཀྱ་གཞང notes.49

notes.49

49. We have retained the agricultural metaphor here. An alternative translation of Tibetan las rnam par smin pa’i ’bras bu may be: “the result of one’s acts” or “karmic punishment and reward” (cf. The Hundred Deeds (Toh 340). A slightly different translation is offered by L. Feer (1883, 253): “It follows that, according to the good, the evil or the in-between (good and bad), the varieties of beings are associated with many different kinds of acts, with many different kinds of sufferings, with many different kinds of views; I will say, for example: the [respective] fruit results from [either] a black act or a white act. Thus, Manava, by the effect of black acts, a being is born (goes) in a bad direction, such as Narakas, Animals, Yaxas (sic), roamers (?), Asuras, etc. Those who have done white acts are reborn among gods or humans.” (Il s’ensuit que, selon le bien, le mal ou l’entre-deux (du bien et du mal), beaucoup d’espéces d’ètres sont liés à beaucoup d’espéces d’actes, à beaucoup d’espéces de douleurs, à beaucoup d’espéces de vues; je veux dire, par exemple: le fruit résultant d’un acte noir et d’un acte blanc. Ainsi, Manava, par l’effet des actes noirs, un être naît (pour aller) dans la mauvaise direction, telle que le Naraka, les animaux, les Yaxas, les rôdeurs, les Asuras, etc. Ceux qui ont fait des actes blancs renaissent parmi les dieux et les hommes.) It is noteworthy that this particular Tibetan translation deviates strongly from parallel passages in related texts in Sanskrit and Pāli, respectively: karma māṇava satvān vibhajati. yad idaṃ hīnotkṛṣṭamadhyamatāyām. tadyathā … . (Mh-karmav paragraph 30); Kammaṃ satte vibhajati yadidaṃ hīnappaṇītatāyāti (MN III, 203). Both of these may be translated as “Living beings are differentiated by their actions, namely, [with regard to their] inferiority or superiority.” (Sanskrit adds “mediocrity.”) The diction in the Shelkar (London) Kangyur (L 353b,2–3) version of the related Karma­vibhaṅga (Toh 338) is clearer: sems can rnams kyi las sna tshogs dang| nyon mongs pa sna tshogs dang| lta ba sna tshogs dang| spyod pa sna tshogs rig nas| las nag po dang| dkar po rnams kyi ’bras bu rnam par smin pa brjod par bya ste|, “having discerned the manifold actions, defilements, views, and modes of conduct of sentient beings, I will describe the resultant ripening (or the ripening of the result, Skt. phala-vipāka) of black and white acts.”