Svabhāva

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Key Term	svabhāva
In Tibetan Script	རང་བཞིན་
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	rang bzhin
Devanagari Sanskrit Script	स्वभाव
Romanized Sanskrit	svabhāva
Tibetan Phonetic Rendering	rangzhin
Chinese Script	自性
Chinese Pinyin	zìxìng
English Standard	intrinsic nature
Richard Barron's English Term	nature of being
Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term	inherent nature
Dan Martin's English Term	own-ness
Ives Waldo's English Term	intrinsic; ordinary; spontaneous
Term Type	Noun
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	The nature or essence of a thing, which originates only from itself and is not dependent on any external entities, causes or conditions.
Has the Sense of	An innate quality that establishes the independent existence of an entity, which is typically refuted in the Madhyamaka notion of emptiness.
Definitions
Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism	See page 879: In Sanskrit, “self-nature,” “intrinsic existence,” or “inherent existence,” the term has a general sense of “essence” or “nature,” but is used in philosophical literature.
Rangjung Yeshe's English Term	An inherently existent and independent entity of the individual self or of phenomena. Something that can serve as a valid basis for individual attributes.
Other Definitions	Richard Barron: the very nature of things

The nature or essence of a thing, which originates only from itself and is not dependent on any external entities, causes, or conditions.

Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

The state of being empty of an innate nature due to a lack of independently existing characteristics.

The nature or essence of a thing, which originates only from itself and is not dependent on any external entities, causes, or conditions.