every sentient being to attain Buddha-hood and manifest this timeless Buddha-nature. "[I]t is obvious that the Mahaparinirvana Sutra does not consider it impossible for a Buddhist to affirm an atman provided it is clear what the correct understanding of this concept is, and indeed the sutra clearly sees certain advantages in doing so." Context The Nirvana Sutra is an eschatological text. Its core was written in India in a time which was perceived as the age in which the Buddha-dharma would perish, and all the Mahayana sutras disappear. The sutra responds to this awaited end with the proclamation of the tathagatagarbha, the innate Buddhahood present in all man: The existence of the tathagatagarbha must be taken on faith: Buddhadhātu A central focus of the Nirvana Sutra is the Buddha-nature, "the nature of the Buddha", that which constitutes a Buddha. According to Sally King, the sutra speaks about Buddha-nature in so many different ways, that Chinese scholars created a list of types of Buddha-nature that could be found in the text. Buddha-nature, "true Self" and Emptiness The buddhadhātu is described as a true self, due to its eternal nature. It is what remains when "non-Self" is discarded: According to Dharmakṣema's extended version of the sutra, this "true Self" is eternal, unchanging, blissful, pure, inviolate and deathless: Paul Williams comments: Mark Blum speaks both of the fictitious discursive self and the real Self of the Buddha-nature. Commenting both on the non-Self and Emptiness teachings of the Nirvana Sutra, he states: "Self" as skillful means Paul Williams also notes that while we can speak of the tathāgatagarbha as Self "actually it is not at all a Self, and those who have such Self-notions cannot perceive the tathagatagarbha and thus become enlightened." Williams writes:Of course, this Self is not a Self in the worldly sense taught by non-Buddhist thinkers, or maintained to exist by the much-maligned ‘man in the street’. The Buddha taught the not-Self doctrine in order to overcome the egoistic Self which is the basis for attachment and grasping (see the translation in Ruegg 1973: 81–2). Elsewhere in the large and heterogeneous Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra the Buddha seems rather to portray his teaching of the tathāgatagarbha as being or entailing a Self as a strategy to convert non-Buddhists. It is said that some non-Buddhist ascetics see the Buddha and would follow him were he not a nihilist who taught not-Self. The Buddha knows