saṃvṛtisatya

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

Video

Khenpo Ngawang Jorden at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium

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Khenpo Ngawang Jorden discusses Gorampa’s interpretation of the concept of buddha-nature presented in his Supplement to the Three Vows. In particular his presentation is focused on Gorampa's refutation of the Jonang view of buddha-nature, as represented by the writings of Dolpopa and his zhentong philosophy.

Jorden, Khenpo Ngawang. "Revisiting Gorampa on Buddha Nature." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 45:05. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmhgtw5HwCE.

Jorden, Khenpo Ngawang. "Revisiting Gorampa on Buddha Nature." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 45:05. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmhgtw5HwCE.;Khenpo Ngawang Jorden at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium;Go rams pa bsod nams seng ge;Sakya;Sdom gsum rab dbye;Jonang;Dol po pa;Rong ston shes bya kun rig;History of buddha-nature in Tibet;Debates / Debate;trisvabhāva;Red mda' ba gzhon nu blo gros;śūnyatā;Nāgārjuna;Two Truths;Dharmadhātustava;rangtong;zhentong;Madhyamaka;paratantrasvabhāva;parikalpitasvabhāva;pariniṣpannasvabhāva;paramārthasatya;saṃvṛtisatya;Khenpo Ngawang Jorden;མཁན་པོ་ངག་དབང་འབྱོར་ལྡན།;Revisiting Gorampa on Buddha Nature

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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/