Svabhava

Svabhava (Sanskrit: स्वभाव; IAST: svabhāva)Pāli: sabhāva; Chinese: 自性 zìxìng; Tibetan: རང་བཞིན, Wylie: rang-bzhin ) literally means "own-being" or "own-becoming". It is the intrinsic nature, essential nature or essence of living beings.

The concept and term svabhāva are frequently encountered in Hindu and Buddhist traditions such as Advaita Vedānta (e.g. in the Avadhūta Gītā), Mahāyāna Buddhism (e.g. in the Ratnagotravibhāga), Vaishnavism (e.g., the writings of Rāmānuja) and Dzogchen (e.g. in the seventeen tantras).

In the nondual Advaita Vedānta yoga text, Avadhūta Gītā, Brahman (in the Upanishadic denotation) is the sabhāva.

In the Mahāyāna Buddhadharma tradition(s) it is one of a suite of terms employed to denote the Buddha-nature, such as "gotra".

Hinduism

Bhagavad Gītā

The Bhagavad Gītā (18.41) has nature (svabhava) as a distinguishing quality differentiating the varṇā.

Vaishnavism

Overzee (1992: p. 74) in her work on de Chardin (1881–1955) and Rāmānuja (1017–1137) highlights Rāmānuja's usage of svabhāva in relation to Brahman thus: