Saṃvṛtisatya

View on BuNay + Add to BuNay + Add to BCA

Key Term	saṃvṛtisatya
In Tibetan Script	ཀུན་རྫོབ་བདེན་པ་
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	kun rdzob bden pa
Devanagari Sanskrit Script	संवृतिसत्य
Romanized Sanskrit	saṃvṛtisatya
Tibetan Phonetic Rendering	kun dzop denpa
Chinese Script	世俗諦; 俗諦‎
Chinese Pinyin	shì sú dì; sú dì
Japanese Transliteration	sezokutai; zokutai
English Standard	relative truth
Karl Brunnhölzl's English Term	seeming reality
Richard Barron's English Term	relative (level of) truth
Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term	conventional truth
Ives Waldo's English Term	relative truth
Term Type	Noun
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	It can refer to both commonly accepted realities and to a superficial level of truth that conceals the ultimate truth.
Has the Sense of	Reality as it is experienced by ordinary people.
Did you know?	Saṃvṛtisatya is also understood to mean the unavoidable domain through which sentient beings must navigate and communicate with one another in the mundane world. Thus buddhas and bodhisattvas use their knowledge of conventional truths to teach unenlightened beings and lead them away from suffering. - Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism
Related Terms	paramārthasatya
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 rung ba'i chos su dmigs pa gzung 'dzin rags pa rnams dang/ mdo sde pas rtog pas btags pa tsam du grub pa'i chos spyi mtshan rnams dang/ sems tsam pas tha snyad dpyod pa'i rig shes kyis rnyed don kun btags dang gzhan dbang gi chos/ dbu ma pas rang mngon sum du rtogs pa'i mngon sum tshad mas rang nyid gnyis snang dang bcas pa'i tshul gyi rtogs par bya ba rten 'brel snang ba'i chos su 'dod pa bcas 'dod lugs mi 'dra ba bzhi yod/
Usage Example	saṃvṛtiḥ paramārthaś ca satyadvayam idaṃ matam buddher agocaras tattvaṃ buddhiḥ saṃvṛtir ucyate 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་ 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. Śāntideva, Bodhicaryāvatāra, Chapter 9, Verse 2. (Translation by Padmakara Translation Group)

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

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

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

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.