paramārthasatya

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Sanskrit Noun

paramārthasatya

ultimate truth
परमार्थसत्य
དོན་དམ་བདེན་པ་
眞諦,第一義諦

Basic Meaning

"Ultimate truth" or "absolute truth"; the reality of things as they truly are.

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)

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
PhD Diss
Chen, Shu-hui: Affirmation in Negation: A Study of the Tathāgatagarbha Theory in the Light of the Bodhisattva Practices
The Tathāgatagarbha theory, also known as the Buddha-nature theory, is one of the most influential Mahāyāna doctrines in the East Asian Buddhism. In 1989, it was severely criticized by some Japanese scholars, namely, Shiro Matsumoto and Noriaki Hakamaya, for being contradictory to the Buddha's teaching of non-self (anātman) and accused of being a non-Buddhist theory in disguise. The purpose of this study is to refute such an accusation and to demonstrate the relationship between this theory and the Bodhisattva practices which are the very core of the Mahāyāna Buddhism.
      This dissertation begins with definitions of the term "tathāgatagarbha" and some of its synonyms which are followed by a brief review of the historical development of the Tathāgatagarbha theory from India to China. With these as the background knowledge, it is easier to point out the fallacies of the two Japanese scholars' criticism on this theory. A key issue in their criticism is that they viewed the Tathāgatagarbha theory as the ātman of the Upaniṣads in disguise. It is therefore necessary to discuss not only the distinction between the ātman mentioned in the Tathāgatagarbha theory and that in the Upaniṣads but also the controversy over the issue of ātman versus anātman among the Buddhist scholars.
      In the discussion to clarify the issue of ātman in the Tathāgatagarbha theory, it is demonstrated that the ātman in the Tathāgatagarbha theory is not only uncontradictory to the doctrine of anātman in Buddhism but very important to the Bodhisattva practices in the Mahāyāna Buddhism. It functions as a unity for the Bodhisattvas to voluntarily return to the world of saṃsāra again and again. Furthermore, the purport of the entire theory, that all sentient beings are endowed with the essence of the Buddha, supports various Bodhisattva practices such as the aspiration to save all beings in the world, the six perfections, etc. In a word, the Tathāgatagarbha theory is an excellent representative of the soteriology of the Mahāyāna Buddhism. Included in the end of this dissertation is an annotated translation of the Tathāgatagarbha-sūtra. (Source Accessed May 26, 2020)
Chen, Shu-hui Jennifer. "Affirmation in Negation: A Study of the Tathāgatagarbha Theory in the Light of the Bodhisattva Practices." PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1998.
Video
Khenpo Ngawang Jorden at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
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.
Term Variations
Key Term paramārthasatya
Topic Variation paramārthasatya
Tibetan དོན་དམ་བདེན་པ་  ( dön dam denpa)
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration don dam bden pa  ( dön dam denpa)
Devanagari Sanskrit परमार्थसत्य
Romanized Sanskrit paramārthasatya
Chinese 眞諦, 第一義諦
Chinese Pinyin zhendì, dì yī yì dì
Japanese Transliteration shintai, daiichigitai
Buddha-nature Site Standard English ultimate truth
Karl Brunnhölzl's English Term ultimate reality
Richard Barron's English Term ultimate truth
Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term ultimate truth
Dan Martin's English Term ultimate truth, ultimate sense
Gyurme Dorje's English Term ultimate truth
Ives Waldo's English Term ultimate 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 "Ultimate truth" or "absolute truth"; the reality of things as they truly are.
Related Terms saṃvṛtisatya
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 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/
Grammatical / Etymological Analysis The Sanskrit for "ultimate truth," paramārthasatya, is etymologized three ways within identifying parama as "highest" or "ultimate," artha as "object," and satya as "truth." In the first way, parama (highest, ultimate) refers to a consciousness of meditative equipoise directly realizing emptiness; artha (object) refers to the object of that consciousness, emptiness; and satya (truth) also refers to emptiness in that in direct perception emptiness appears the way it exists; that is, there is no discrepancy between the mode of appearance and the mode of being. In this interpretation, a paramārthasatya is a "truth-that-is-an-object-of-the-highest-consciousness."

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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