To understand what this means, we will need to examine in more detail the doctrine of
the Two Truths, which was briefly mentioned in chapter 1. It will emerge that whether
one is 'in‘ saṃsāra or nirvana depends upon the way one experiences the world.
A person who is deluded and trapped within cyclic existence grasps at a belief in the reality of the world and of its contents, and he is especially attached to belief in the existence of his own self. In Nāgārjuna‘s terms, it is said that he perceives all these as existing with svabhāva. Therefore, we will need to enquire into what exactly svabhāva means, and what it is that Nāgārjuna seems to be negating with the doctrine of emptiness.
Briefly, I shall characterize svabhāva as the experience and conceptualization of a thing as existing independently, as something unitary and irreducible, and with a fixed essence.