niḥsvabhāva

Sanskrit Adjective

niḥsvabhāva

lacking intrinsic nature

निःस्वभाव

ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་མེད་པ་

Basic Meaning

Lacking inherent existence.

Has the Sense of

The selflessness of phenomena.

On this topic

Article

Does a Table Have Buddha-Nature? A Moment of Yes and No. Answer! But Not in Words or Signs! A Response to Mark Siderits

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Siderits argues that Nāgārjuna is not committed to the paradoxical claim that emptiness is the lack of intrinsic nature and that it is the intrinsic nature of all things, on the ground that the apparently paradoxical claims Nāgārjuna makes are simply admonitions to recuse oneself from the project of ontology. We argue that to recuse oneself from that project is to do ontology and so is no route out of paradox. We dispute Siderits' reading of several crucial passages, demonstrating that his readings are unattested in the commentarial literature and that they are implausible. Siderits argues on the basis of these readings that Candrakīrti and Nāgārjuna are not committed to paradoxes. We show that more plausible readings that are better attested in the commentarial literature do so commit them. Siderits and we agree that the ultimate nature of reality is to lack any ultimate nature. He thinks that this is consistent; we think that it is paradoxical.

Deguchi, Yasuo, Jay L. Garfield, and Graham Priest. "Does a Table Have Buddha-Nature? A Moment of Yes and No. Answer! But Not in Words or Signs! A Response to Mark Siderits." Philosophy East and West 63, no. 3 (2013): 387–98.

Deguchi, Yasuo, Jay L. Garfield, and Graham Priest. "Does a Table Have Buddha-Nature? A Moment of Yes and No. Answer! But Not in Words or Signs! A Response to Mark Siderits." Philosophy East and West 63, no. 3 (2013): 387–98.; Does a Table Have Buddha-Nature? A Moment of Yes and No. Answer! But Not in Words or Signs! A Response to Mark Siderits; Does a Table Have Buddha-Nature? A Moment of Yes and No. Answer! But Not in Words or Signs! A Response to Mark Siderits; Buddha-nature of insentient things; Nāgārjuna; śūnyatā; niḥsvabhāva; Yasuo Deguchi; Jay L. Garfield;Graham Priest;

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Term Variations
Key Term	niḥsvabhāva
Topic Variation	niḥsvabhāva
Tibetan	ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་མེད་པ་
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	ngo bo nyid med pa
Devanagari Sanskrit	निःस्वभाव
Romanized Sanskrit	niḥsvabhāva
Buddha-nature Site Standard English	lacking intrinsic nature
Karl Brunnhölzl's English Term	lack of nature
Richard Barron's English Term	absence of independent nature
Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term	non-nature
Ives Waldo's English Term	entitynessless
Term Information
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	Lacking inherent existence.
Has the Sense of	The selflessness of phenomena.
Term Type	Adjective
Definitions
Rangjung Yeshe Dictionary	no entityness, unreality; lack of inherent existence, realitylessness, non-entityness, essenceless. Syn {rang bzhin med pa}; entitynessless
Synonyms	rang bzhin med pa