Key Terms/saṃvṛtisatya

संवृतिसत्य saṃvṛtisatya

relative truth

ཀུན་རྫོབ་བདེན་པ་

kun rdzob bden pa

世俗諦,俗諦

shì sú dì,\ sú dì

Sanskrit - Noun

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Basic Meaning

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

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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.

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

In practice

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)

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

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.

In other languages

Tibetan

ཀུན་རྫོབ་བདེན་པ་

kun rdzob bden pa

kundzop denpa

Sanskrit

संवृतिसत्य

saṃvṛtisatya

Chinese

世俗諦, 俗諦

shì sú dì, sú dì

Japanese

sezokutai, zokutai

How translators render it

relative truthBuddha-nature Standard, Gyurme Dorje, Ives Waldo

seeming realityKarl Brunnhölzl

relative (level of) truthRichard Barron

conventional truthJeffrey Hopkins

obscured truthJeffrey Hopkins

In the dictionaries

Rangjung Yeshe Dictionary

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/

Term type

Noun

Source language

Sanskrit

Topic

saṃvṛtisatya

Related terms

paramārthasatya