Tathāgata

tathāgata (T. de bzhin gshegs pa དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་; C. rulai 如来) is a frequently used synonym for buddha, as well as a specific epithet for Buddha Shakyamuni. In the sutras, the Buddha uses this term to refer both to himself and to the buddhas of the past.

Etymology

The Sanskrit term tathāgata can be parsed in two different ways:

• tathā-gata, meaning "one who is thus gone," or
• tathā-āgata meaning "one who has thus come"

The 84000 glossary states:

According to different explanations, it can be read as tathā-gata, literally meaning “one who has thus gone,” or as tathā-āgata, “one who has thus come.” Gata, though literally meaning “gone,” is a past passive participle used to describe a state or condition of existence. Tatha(tā), often rendered as “suchness” or “thusness,” is the quality or condition of things as they really are, which cannot be conveyed in conceptual, dualistic terms. Therefore, this epithet is interpreted in different ways, but in general it implies one who has departed in the wake of the buddhas of the past, or one who has manifested the supreme awakening dependent on the reality that does not abide in the two extremes of existence and quiescence. It is also often used as a specific epithet of the Buddha Śākyamuni.

Due to the two possible interpretations of the Sanskrit term, the translations into different languages are varied.

The Chinese translation rulai means "thus come one."

The Tibetan translation de bzhin gshegs pa reflects the ambiguity of the Sanskrit term, and can mean either "one thus gone" or "one who has thus come."

Pali commentaries typically provide eight possible meanings for tathāgata. See next section.

Eight meanings according to Buddhaghosa

In the Sumaṅgalavilāsinī, Buddhaghosa provides eight different denotations for the term tathāgata:

1. He who has arrived in such fashion, i.e. who has worked his way upwards to perfection for the world's good in the same fashion as all previous Buddhas.
2. He who walked in such fashion, i.e. (a) he who at birth took the seven equal steps in the same fashion as all previous Buddhas or (b) he who in the same way as all previous Buddhas went his way to Buddhahood through the four Jhanas and the Paths.
3. He who by the path of knowledge has come at the real essentials of things.
4. He who has won Truth.
5. He who has discerned Truth.
6. He who declares Truth.
7. He whose words and deeds accord.
8. The great physician whose medicine is all-potent.

Alternate contemporary interpretations

Some contemporary interpretations emphasize the meaning of tathata as "thusness" or "suchness," and hence interpret tathāgata to mean either “the one who has gone to suchness” or "the one who has arrived at suchness".

See also

• Tathagatagarbha

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 
• Chalmers, Robert (1898), "Tathagata", The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1898.01): 103–115