Reality, that is, everything that exists, is possessed of three characteristics viz., utpāda (origination), vyaya (cessation) and dhrauvya (persistence). A reality is that which has all these qualities.
The question arises here as how origination, cessation and persistence can occur in one reality, as all of them are opposed to each other. How origination and cessation can maintain the permanence of reality? How permanence can take place in origination and cessation?
This is explained thus - The soil can be moulded in different shapes, but soil remains as soil. The gold can be moulded in different forms and shapes but gold remains as gold.
For example: There were three brothers living together. They had one gold pitcher. One of them wanted to maintain it; the second one wanted to make a crown out of it and the third one wanted to achieve gold. Now the goldsmith broke the pitcher and made the crown. Here the cessation of gold as pitcher took place and a new form i.e., crown originated. But, gold in both the states remains gold. The first brother became sad, the second one became delighted and the third one remained neutral.