Paramārthasatya

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Key Term	paramārthasatya
Hover Popup Choices	ultimate truth; ultimate reality; absolute truth
In Tibetan Script	དོན་དམ་བདེན་པ་
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	don dam bden pa
Devanagari Sanskrit Script	परमार्थसत्य
Romanized Sanskrit	paramārthasatya
Tibetan Phonetic Rendering	dön dam denpa
Chinese Script	眞諦‎; 第一義諦
Chinese Pinyin	zhendì; dì yī yì dì
Japanese Transliteration	shintai; daiichigitai
English Standard	ultimate truth
Karl Brunnhölzl's English Term	ultimate reality
Richard Barron's English Term	ultimate truth
Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term	ultimate truth
Dan Martin's English Term	ultimate truth; ultimate sense
Gyurme Dorje's English Term	ultimate truth
Ives Waldo's English Term	ultimate truth
Alternate Spellings	paramārtha-satya
Term Type	Noun
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	"Ultimate truth" or "absolute truth"; the reality of things as they truly are.
Has the Sense of	Reality as it appears to an enlightened being, in which all phenomena are perceived to be empty of an individual, permanent essence. This is contrasted to the "relative truth" as experienced by unenlightened beings.
Related Terms	saṃvṛtisatya
Definitions
Tshig mdzod Chen mo	bden pa gnyis kyi ya gyal zhig ste/ bye brag smra bas gang zhig bcom pa'am blos cha shas so sor bsal ba na rang 'dzin gyi blo 'dor du mi rung ba'i chos cha med gnyis dang/ mdo sde pas sgra rtog gis btags par ma ltos par rang gi sdod lugs kyi ngos nas rigs pas dpyad bzod du grub pa'i chos rang mtshan dang/ sems tsam pas don dam dpyod byed kyi rig shes tshad mas rnyed don yongs grub kyi chos/ dbu ma pas rang mngon sum du rtogs pa'i mngon sum tshad mas rang nyid gnyis snang nub pa'i tshul gyis rtogs par bya ba gnas lugs stong pa nyid la 'dod pa bcas 'dod lugs mi 'dra ba bzhi yod/
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." See Donald S. Lopez Jr., A Study of Svātantrika, (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1986), 314–315. Chandrakīrti, the chief Consequentialist, favors the third etymology in his Clear Words; See Jang-ḡya's Presentation of Tenets, 467.18. (Jeffrey Hopkins, Reflections on Reality: The Three Natures and Non-Natures in the Mind-Only School [Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2006], 267, note c.)
Simplified English Usage Example:	"There is no higher truth to be seen. The mind that sees that reality experiences truth as it is. Thus it is called "ultimate truth," the essential mode of existence. For all other truths, their mode of appearance and their essential mode of existence are incongruent. Thus, they are called deceptive and superficial." - The 14th Dalai Lama, Transcendent Wisdom (1988)
sutra/śastra quote:	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.
sutra/śastra quote source:	The Way of the Bodhisattva, Padmakara Translation Group, 2008, page 229
Usage Example	Sanskrit: saṃvṛtiḥ paramārthaś ca satyadvayam idaṃ matam buddher agocaras tattvaṃ buddhiḥ saṃvṛtir ucyate Śāntideva, Bodhicaryāvatāra 9.2 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་ བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་པའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ་ 9.2

"Ultimate truth" or "absolute truth"; the reality of things as they truly are.

"Ultimate truth" or "absolute truth"; the reality of things as they truly are.

"Ultimate truth" or "absolute truth"; the reality of things as they truly are.

"Relative truth" or "conventional truth"; the erroneously perceived reality common to the unenlightened.

Disposition, lineage, or class; an individual's gotra determines the type of enlightenment one is destined to attain.

Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna.

The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics.

Though it is sometimes used synonymously with Yogācāra, it is in fact one of the more prominent philosophical theories associated with this school. It asserts that the objects in the external world with which we interact are actually mentally created representations appearing as those objects. The character of these perceptions is predetermined by our own karmic conditioning that is stored in the ālayavijñāna.

A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses.