 Reductions of wholes to aggregates of parts, forms to further forms, properties to other properties, effects to causes, or names to further names are infinite. They never bottom out in a metaphysical foundation. The proposition that an object’s form delimits existence crumbles because the regress defers an object’s existence to the next ontological level, an unending descent into subtler causes or further mereological parts. Therefore, attempting to isolate stable independent existence as delimited by a given form is a receding horizon. The form’s existence is self-evident at each point, but forever out of objective reach. Śaṅkara argues that this non-finding of existence in a form or as a form should not lead to positing the emergence of objects (e.g., properties, forms, wholes, etc.) from non-existence somewhere in the chain of dependency (a position he interprets as Vaiśeṣika philosophy). Nor should one conclude that if no unchanging ultimate essence can be objectified, then everything must be empty of essential existence, and therefore no metaphysical foundation ultimately exists (see ChUbh 6.2.1–2). He considers this latter position, which he construes as the Madhyamika Buddhist, to be counter-intuitively nihilistic. It also conflicts with his premises that existence is self-evident and that it persists even as something evolves or devolves. Decomposition chains do not reveal any disruption of existence, only disruption of forms.