Svabhāva

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Svabhāva. ‘Self-nature’ or ‘Own-being’: a property which, according to the Mādhyamaka, is falsely ascribed to dharmas, or the world of phenomenal reality. According to the Abhidharma, however, it constituted the unique and inalienable ‘mark’ or characteristic by means of which phenomena could be differentiated and classified. Thus the schools of the Hīnayāna, while denying a self of persons (pudgala-nairātmya), and explaining personal identity by recourse to the teaching of the Five Aggregates (skandhas), nevertheless accepted the substantial reality of those elements (dharmas) which composed the aggregates and the world at large.

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