"Dharma" in Sanskrit ("Dhamma" in Pāli) means "retaining one's own nature, so that it can be recognized". That is to say, everything has its own attributes and appearance (S. prak?ti and lak?a?a, P. pakati and lakkha?a) and maintains its own properties, by which people can perceive it as what it is. For instance, water maintains its property of wetness and acts according to its fixed track, so people recognize it as water when they see it. Conversely, when something is devoid of wetness and obey different rules from water, there then can be no conception of water. Therefore, Buddhism views everything as "dhamma". The terms "all dhammas", "each dhamma" appearing in Buddhist canons indicate "all things" or "universal existence". According to this interpretation, the discourses delivered by the Buddha based on his own empirical comprehension of dhammas are also "Dhamma" since they hold true to the principle of "retaining its own nature, so that it can be recognized."
“法”字的梵語是達磨(Dharma)。佛教對這個字的解釋是:“任持自性、軌生物解?!边@就是說,每一事物必然保持它自己特有的性質(zhì)和相狀,有它一定軌則,使人看到便可以了解是何物。例如水,它保持著它的濕性,它有水的一定軌則,使人一見便生起水的了解;反過來說,如果一件東西沒有濕性,它的軌則不同于水的軌則,便不能生起水的了解。所以佛教把一切事物都叫做“法”。佛經(jīng)中常見到的“一切法”、“諸法”字樣,就是“一切事物”或“宇宙萬有”的意思。照佛教的解釋,佛根據(jù)自己對一切法如實的了解而宣示出來的言教,它本身也同樣具有“任持自性、軌生物解”的作用,所以也叫做法。