Grammatical / Etymological Analysis |
The Sanskrit for "ultimate truth," paramārthasatya, is etymologized three ways within identifying parama as "highest" or "ultimate," artha as "object," and satya as "truth." In the first way, parama (highest, ultimate) refers to a consciousness of meditative equipoise directly realizing emptiness; artha (object) refers to the object of that consciousness, emptiness; and satya (truth) also refers to emptiness in that in direct perception emptiness appears the way it exists; that is, there is no discrepancy between the mode of appearance and the mode of being. In this interpretation, a paramārthasatya is a "truth-that-is-an-object-of-the-highest-consciousness." In the second way, both parama (highest, ultimate) and artha (object) refer to a consciousness of meditative equipoise directly realizing emptiness in that, in the broadest meaning of "object," both objects and subjects are objects, and a consciousness of meditative equipoise directly realizing emptiness is the highest consciousness and thus highest object; satya (truth), as before, refers to emptiness. In this second interpretation, a paramārthasatya is an emptiness that exists the way it appears to a highest consciousness, a "truth-of-a-highest-object." In the third etymology, all three parts refer to emptiness in that an emptiness is the highest (the ultimate) and is also an object and a truth, a "truth-that-is-the-highest-object." ChandrakIrti, the chief Consequentialist, favors the third etymology in his Clear Words. - Jeffrey Hopkins |
Usage Example |
Śāntideva, ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' 9.2
'''Sanskrit:'''
saṃvṛtiḥ paramārthaś ca satyadvayam idaṃ matam /
buddher agocaras tattvaṃ buddhiḥ saṃvṛtir ucyate
'''Tibetan:'''
ཀུན་རྫོབ་དང་ནི་དོན་དམ་སྟེ་
འདི་ནི་བདེན་པ་གཉིས་སུ་འདོད་
དོན་དམ་བློ་ཡི་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་མིན་
བློ་ནི་ཀུན་རྫོབ་ཡིན་པར་བརྗོད་
'''English:'''
Relative and ultimate,
These the two truths are declared to be.
The ultimate is not within the reach of intellect,
For intellect is said to be the relative.
(Translation by Padmakara Translation Group)
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