saṃvṛtisatya

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Glossarysaṃvṛtisatya

Sanskrit Noun

saṃvṛtisatya

relative truth
संवृतिसत्य
ཀུན་རྫོབ་བདེན་པ་
世俗諦,俗諦

Basic Meaning

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

Simplified English Usage

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)

Read It in the Scriptures

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.
 
~ The Way of the Bodhisattva, Padmakara Translation Group, 2008, page 229
On this topic
Term Variations
Key Term saṃvṛtisatya
Topic Variation saṃvṛtisatya
Tibetan ཀུན་རྫོབ་བདེན་པ་  ( kundzop denpa)
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration kun rdzob bden pa  ( kundzop denpa)
Devanagari Sanskrit संवृतिसत्य
Romanized Sanskrit saṃvṛtisatya
Chinese 世俗諦, 俗諦
Chinese Pinyin shì sú dì, sú dì
Japanese Transliteration sezokutai, zokutai
Buddha-nature Site Standard English 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 Information
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
Source Language Sanskrit
Basic Meaning "Relative truth" or "conventional truth"; the erroneously perceived reality common to the unenlightened.
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
Term Type Noun
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/