paratantrasvabhava

Paratantrasvabhava is a term from Yogacara, a school of Mahayana Buddhism. It translates roughly to "other-dependent nature" or "dependent origination." This concept is one of the three natures (trisvabhava) that Yogacara uses to explain the nature of reality and how we perceive it.

The paratantrasvabhava refers to the causal nexus of phenomena. It is the dependent arising of all things, where one event or state of affairs arises in dependence on another. This is fundamentally similar to the general Buddhist concept of pratityasamutpada, or dependent origination. In this view, no phenomenon exists independently; everything arises in relation to causes and conditions.

The paratantrasvabhava is the realm of experience as it is conventionally understood. It is the world of duality, where we perceive subjects and objects, self and other. This dependent nature is the basis for both our deluded perceptions (parikalpitasvabhava) and our potential for liberation (pariniṣpannasvabhava). Understanding the paratantrasvabhava is crucial because it is through this dependent arising that both suffering and its cessation manifest. It is the flow of conditioned existence that we navigate, and it is within this flow that transformation is possible.