Dharma has not only a collective svarūpa; it has an individual svarūpa as well. Consider the five elements, the root and foundation of creation. For water, the power to flow and the power to cool are its natural dharma; for fire, the power to burn, and heat: these are its dharmas. In the same way, each thing has its own dharma. For human beings it is humanness, for animals animality: these are armours of dharma that protect each of them from losing its powers. If fire had no power to burn and no heat, would anyone call it ‘fire’? The svarūpa and svabhāva proper to fire display its dharma. If that svarūpa and svabhāva perish, it means the fire has died. That is exactly why fire, once it loses its power to burn, becomes lifeless and turns into charcoal, a corpse in form.