An Interpretation of niḥsvabhāva Common to Śrāvakayāna and Mahāyāna

Abstract

Niḥsvabhāva is generally regarded as a concept unique to the Mahāyāna. But an interpretation of niḥsvabhāva common to Śrāvakayāna and Mahāyāna appears in the Mahāyānasaṃgrahabhāṣya. This interpretation is replaced with an interpretation which is associated with the saṃskṛtalakṣaṇa of dharma in the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkārabhāṣya, and this interpretation in turn, which is expressed through a dharma-dharmin construction, is regarded as the original meaning of the “sarvadharmā niḥsvabhāvāḥ” quoted from the Prajñāpāramitāsūtras and so on in the Abhidharmasamuccaya.

In this paper, I point out that this interpretation means that the Yogācāra has a concept that the Śrāvakayāna, which approves of svabhāva, also can accept, namely the niḥsvabhāva in the Prajñāpāramitāsūtras. Yogācāra sources quote “sarvadharmā niḥsvabhāvāḥ” from these Prajñāpāramitāsūtras, and interpret this to mean “dharmānāṃ niḥsvabhāva-tā/-tva.” Although the former appositional expression, which means all phenomena are niḥsvabhāva, cannot approve of svabhāva, the latter dharma-dharmin expression, which implies the existence of dharmin and niḥsvabhāva-tā/-tva as a property of dharmin, can approve of svabhāva. Thus, the common niḥsvabhāva interpretation approves of svabhāva.