In the early Yogācārin texts, we often find the same sort of claims about the ineffability and indescribability of ultimate reality, which we encountered in Mahāyāna sūtras as well as in Nāgārjuna‘s works. For instance, Asaṅga states that reality is "above the categories of thought", that is, it "goes beyond...existence and nonexistence"(MSA 9.24;Shastri 1989,20) and in a phrase that echoes Nāgārjuna, as well as several Pāli texts, we hear that the Buddha did not ever teach anything (MSA 12.2; Shastri 1989, 20).
Thus far,then, it appears that Yogācārin philosophers agree with the Madhyamaka that nothing can be said, properly, of ultimate truth, that our statements are always inadequate to express it.
The chapter on "Knowing Reality", in Asaṅga‘s Bodhisattvabhūmi, provides a cogent explanation of this claim. Dharmas, that is, the objects of our perception, do not
correspond in a direct relation to the names that we use to refer to them; in fact, there is often more than one name for a single phenomenon. Therefore, if words are supposed to express the essential nature of a thing—and here Asaṅga has in mind its svabhāva—then that thing would have to have several essential natures. This is clearly impossible, as long as 'nature‘ is understood in terms of svabhāva.((The reader will recall that svabhāva has the sense of unity and irreducibility, whereas an entity with
multiple essential properties can be divided, conceptually, into parts.))
Moreover, since there is no universal agreement about what a particular thing ought to be called, this further demonstrates that the relation between a thing‘s svabhāva and its name is merely a contingent one.
This leads Asaṅga to conclude that the ultimate nature of things is inexpressible; words simply cannot point to it (Willis 2002, 158–160).
What strikes one immediately, from this account, is that Asaṅga adopts precisely
the opposite approach to Nāgārjuna. While the latter appeared to negate svabhāva
altogether, Asaṅga starts from the premise that it exists, but goes on to claim that it is inexpressible. This, I want to suggest, actually turns out to be saying the same thing.
It will be recalled that Nāgārjuna did not categorically deny the existence of svabhāva; his final position on the topic is that a wise man does not say that it exists nor that it does not exist (MMK 15:10). Later Mādhyamika philosophers argued that when one looks for svabhāva, it is not found. Similarly, Asaṅga tells us that svabhāva cannot be captured with words, concepts, or thought; according to him, too, svabhāva is ineffable.
Therefore,although one starts from a provisional negation of svabhāva, and the other from an affirmation, in the end, both concur that it cannot be expressed.