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.
These the two truths are declared to be.
The ultimate is not within the reach of intellect,
Simplified English usage
"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)
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
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/
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.)
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