Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa establishes that own-nature (svabhāva), not causal activity, is the primary criterion of dharma identity, making activity derivative rather than individuating.
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The process of identifying what makes one thing different from another thing—what allows us to pick out one specific object instead of lumping it together with everything else.
Own-nature (svabhāva)(as the Sanskrit term for a thing's fundamental identity)
The essential, unchanging characteristic or 'essence' that makes something what it is—like how water's own-nature is to be wet, independent of what it does or how it's used.
Vasubandhu(the subject of the argument being discussed)
An ancient Indian Buddhist philosopher (around 4th-5th century) who developed sophisticated theories about the mind and reality, particularly the idea that everything we experience might be mental constructs rather than external objects.
dharma(Abhidharma philosophical analysis)
A categorial type defined by its intrinsic nature within an Abhidharma taxonomic system; treated as a distinct, immutable category rather than necessarily as an independently existing ontological entity