Tathāgata
| Translations of Tathāgata |
|
|---|---|
| English | One who has thus gone |
| Sanskrit | Tathāgata |
| Chinese |
(Pinyin: rú laí/ Cantonese=yu loi) |
| Japanese |
(rōmaji: nyorai) |
| Khmer | តថាគត |
| Korean |
여래 (RR: yeorae) |
| Mongolian |
ᠲᠡᠭᠦᠨᠴᠢᠯᠡᠨ ᠢᠷᠡᠭᠰᠡᠨ Түүнчлэн ирсэн |
| Tibetan | དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་ |
| Thai | ตถาคต |
| Vietnamese | Như Lai |
| Glossary of Buddhism | |
ᠲᠡᠭᠦᠨᠴᠢᠯᠡᠨ ᠢᠷᠡᠭᠰᠡᠨ
Tathāgata (Sanskrit: [t̪əˈt̪ʰɑːɡət̪ə]) is a Pali and Sanskrit word; Gautama Buddha uses it when referring to himself in the Pāli Canon. The term is often thought to mean either "one who has thus gone" (tathā-gata) or "one who has thus come" (tathā-āgata). This is interpreted as signifying that the Tathāgata is beyond all coming and going – beyond all transitory phenomena. There are, however, other interpretations and the precise original meaning of the word is not certain.
The Buddha is quoted on numerous occasions in the Pali Canon as referring to himself as the Tathāgata instead of using the pronouns me, I or myself. This may be meant to emphasize by implication that the teaching is uttered by one who has transcended the human condition, one beyond the otherwise endless cycle of rebirth and death, i.e. beyond dukkha.
The term Tathāgata has some meanings, but a Buddhism practitioner of austerities who "comes and goes in the same way" is the most common except pronominal meanings. Although sūtras sometimes remind Buddhist that Tathāgata is arhatship, the rank of Buddhism is already insignificant and is in condition to exist as "being in such a state or condition" or "of such a quality or nature". Originally, it is called Tathāgata.
The word's original significance is not known and there has been speculation about it since at least the time of Buddhaghosa, who gives eight interpretations of the word, each with different etymological support, in his commentary on the Digha Nikaya, the Sumangalailasini:
Monks, in the world with its devas, Mara and Brahma, in this generation with its ascetics and brahmins, devas and humans, whatever is seen, heard, sensed and cognized, attained, searched into, pondered over by the mind—all that is fully understood by the Tathagata. That is why he is called the Tathagata.(Anguttara Nikaya 4:23)
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