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Sanskrit: tathāgata तथागत
Pāli: tathāgata
Chinese: rúlái 如来
Tibetan: de bzhin gshegs pa དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་
Definition:
Tathāgata is one of the ten epithets of the Buddha. It has generally two meanings: “one who has thus gone” or “one who has thus come.” This term articulates the Buddha’s journey to enlightenment—a path that guides all sentient beings towards liberation. Tathāgata denotes the essence of the Buddha’s enlightenment as both a departure from saṃsāra and an arrival at nirvāṇa.
Significance:
In mainstream Buddhism, the term tathāgata functions as a descriptor of the Buddha. This title elucidates the Buddha’s attainment of a state beyond the conventional dichotomies of coming and going, existing and non-existing. The term’s etymology—combining “tathā” (thus) with either “gata” (gone) or “āgata” (come)—hints at the wisdom of understanding reality as it is, unpolluted by subjective interpretation. This usage explains a fundamental Buddhist teaching: the nature of enlightenment transcends ordinary linguistic and conceptual frameworks.
In the Mahāyāna, the concept of tathāgata finds resonance in the doctrine of the tathāgatagarbha. We may translate this term in English as the “essence” of the tathāgata. The notion of a tathāgata essence suggests that all sentient beings have the potential for enlightenment, and that this potential constitutes their own fundamental nature. The tathāgatagarbha, then, is portrayed in Mahāyāna sūtras as a primordial, luminous essence that remains untouched by ignorance and defilement. This new interpretation amplifies the term’s significance, transforming the historical Buddha into a universal archetype of buddhahood, accessible and immanent within every being. The teaching of the tathāgatagarbha, then, expands the tathāgata from an epithet of the historical Buddha to a symbol of the universal potential for enlightenment.
Moving on to the Vajrayāna, in the tantras the term tathāgata assumes yet another role in the concept of the pañcatathāgata, or “five tathāgatas.” This fivefold schema delineates a quintet of transcendental Buddhas—Vairocana, Akṣobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitābha, and Amoghasiddhi. Each of these tathāgatas represents a distinct aspect of enlightened consciousness. Notably, each of the five tathāgataspreside over their respective buddha-families. These figures, while embodying the five types of wisdom, articulate a varied approach to enlightenment: each tathāgatamirrors a specific path to transcending the five aggregates and the three poisons of ignorance, attachment, and aversion. Indeed, in Vajrayāna practice, these five tathāgatas are not merely symbolic devices. The pañcatathāgata serve as meditation deities. They are engaged directly through sophisticated rituals, visualizations, and mantras, making the tathāgata a central element around which distinct maṇḍalas are constructed.
In summary, across the history of Buddhism, the term tathāgata threads together both narrative and meditative elements. In mainstream traditions, the Buddha employs the term tathāgata while speaking about himself to an audience. At the same time, the Buddha employs the term tathāgata as a title to refer to various buddhas, creating a lineage of present, past, and future tathāgatas. In so doing, the tathāgata becomes a title for enlightened beings that pervade space and time. Still, while earlier traditions portray the tathāgatas as individual buddhas, in the Mahāyāna and the Vajrayāna, the authors of the sūtras and tantras also bring the tathāgata’s potential for enlightenment within the mind of each sentient being. In other words, the earlier narrative aspect depicting a buddha’s journey to enlightenment from saṃsāra to nirvāṇa shifts, more explicitly, into an inner voyage to recognizing and realizing the tathāgata potential within. For the bodhisattva, the journey may take three great cosmic ages. For the tantrika, it may only take one short lifetime.