svabhāva

Sanskrit Noun

svabhāva

intrinsic nature

स्वभाव

རང་བཞིན་

自性

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 attribute that establishes the completely independent existence of an entity, which is typically refuted in the Madhyamaka notion of emptiness.

Term Variations
Key Term	svabhāva
Topic Variation	svabhāva
Tibetan	རང་བཞིན་  ( rangzhin)
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	rang bzhin  ( rangzhin)
Devanagari Sanskrit	स्वभाव
Romanized Sanskrit	svabhāva
Chinese	自性
Chinese Pinyin	zìxìng
Buddha-nature Site Standard English	intrinsic nature
Karl Brunnhölzl's English Term	nature
Richard Barron's English Term	nature of being, inherent nature, natural state, naturalness
Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term	inherent nature
Dan Martin's English Term	own-ness
Gyurme Dorje's English Term	essential nature, natural expression, nature
Ives Waldo's English Term	intrinsic nature
Term Information
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 attribute that establishes the completely independent existence of an entity, which is typically refuted in the Madhyamaka notion of emptiness.
Term Type	Noun
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 Dictionary	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