The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2450 page)

see
TASHB
H
.

 
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(Skt., ‘that-ness’).
1
In
Sa
khya
philosophy, in Hinduism, tattvas are the constituent subtle elements of
prak
ti
; in Jainism, tattva is the categorical (i.e. true) constituent of appearance and release.
2
In Buddhism, tattva does not have the same technical philosophical sense. The proto-Mah
y
nist
Prajñaptiv
dins
defined tattva as the real phenomenon which underlies concept (
prajñapti
). In the
Vijñan
v
da
(Yog
c
ra) this meaning is substantially retained, though now extended to take in the totality of entities. The
Ratnagotravibh
ga
of
Asa
ga
talks of reality (tattva) being devoid of the subject-object dichotomy, and other texts by the same author state that, since words and concepts do not partake of the nature of the things they denote, tattva is ultimately inexpressible.
Authors representing the M
dhyamaka tendency are careful not to use tattva in the Yog
c