 In response to this supposed explanation, the opponent asks for the Buddha’s justification for speaking in this way, and (4) Vasubandhu provides two separate reasons, targeted at two different levels of listeners. For students who do not yet understand the truth of appearance-only, the Buddha taught the sense bases in order to help them to understand the absence of self in persons. This seems to cohere with Vasubandhu’s Treasury argument that uses the sense bases as a way to explain away the apparent self. For students who do understand the truth of appearance-only, the doctrine of the sense bases is useful for helping them to understand the absence of self in the elements—that is, in the sense bases  themselves.[33]  Thus, for Vasubandhu, the Buddha’s teachings are still useful, even when they are understood to have been spoken from a provisional standpoint.