Abstract
In the Abhidharmakosabhasya a dharma in the highest reality (paramarthatas) exists as substance (dravyatas), but not as a virtual thing (prajñaptitas). This dharma as substance must exist in the following two complemental conditions: 1) to be a separate single thing, and 2) to be an indivisible thing. When it is recognized that a dharma exists as substance, the expression “the svabhava of a dharma” is equivalent to the expression “the dharma itself”. At least for the Sarvastivadins, the svabhava does not exist separately from its dharma. In other words the svabhava is not any separate object that belongs to the dharma, or one of the constituents of the dharma. The svabhava is just a concept that represents, in the system of Sarvastivada dogmatic ontology, the identity of its dharma and dharma's basis for real existence.
