Saṃvṛtisatya

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Key Term	saṃvṛtisatya
Hover Popup Choices	relative truth; conventional truth; relatively true; conventionaly true
In Tibetan Script	ཀུན་རྫོབ་བདེན་པ་
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	kun rdzob bden pa
Devanagari Sanskrit Script	संवृतिसत्य
Romanized Sanskrit	saṃvṛtisatya
Tibetan Phonetic Rendering	kundzop 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; obscured truth
Gyurme Dorje's English Term	relative truth
Ives Waldo's English Term	relative truth
Term Type	Noun
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	"Relative truth" or "conventional truth"; the erroneously perceived reality common to the unenlightened.
Has the Sense of	Reality as it is experienced by ordinary people whose perception is clouded by ignorance, in contrast to "ultimate truth" or "absolute truth," which is reality as perceived by an enlightened being. Relative truth has practical value in daily life, but upon examination all phenomena are found to be empty of individual, permanent existence.
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, page 762.
Related Terms	paramārthasatya
Definitions
Rangjung Yeshe's English Term	relative/ conventional/ superficial truth; conventional truth, apparent reality, deceptive truth; relative truth. one of the {bden pa gnyis} two truths, superficial truth, truth for a concealer; Relative Truth, [samvrittika satya]
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/
Simplified English Usage Example:	Without a proper understanding of the vast aspects of the relative truth, meditation on Emptiness can be misleading and even dangerous. (Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness, 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

"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.

"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.

Literally "unknowing," it refers to a lack of knowledge or misunderstanding of the nature of reality. As such, it is considered to be the root cause of suffering and the basis for the arising of all other negative mental factors.

"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.

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.