Tathātā (;
Sanskrit: तथाता;
Pali: tathatā) is a Buddhist term variously translated as "thusness" or "suchness," referring to the nature of reality free from conceptual elaborations and the subject–object distinction. While also used in Theravada, it is a significant concept in
Mahayana
''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing br ...
Buddhism.
The Buddha
The Buddha referred to himself as the
Tathāgata
Tathāgata () is a Pali word; Gautama Buddha uses it when referring to himself or other Buddhas in the Pāli Canon. The term is often thought to mean either "one who has thus gone" (''tathā-gata''), "one who has thus come" (''tathā-āgata''), ...
, which can mean either "One who has thus come" or "One who has thus gone", and can also be interpreted as "One who has arrived at suchness".
Theravada Buddhism
In
Theravada
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school ...
, this term designates the nature of existence (''bhāva''), the truth which applies to things. According to the ''
Kathavatthu'', ''tathātā'' is not an unconditioned or un-constructed (''asankhata'') phenomenon. The only phenomena which is un-
constructed in Theravada is
Nibbana.
According to
Buddhadasa Bhikkhu
Phra Dharmakosācārya (Nguam Indapañño) ( th, พระธรรมโกศาจารย์ (เงื่อม อินฺทปญฺโญ); ), also known as Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ( th, พุทธทาสภิกขุ; , 27 May 1906 � ...
, ''tathātā'' is merely the way things are, the truth of all things: "When tathātā is seen, the
three characteristics
In Buddhism, the three marks of existence are three characteristics (Pali: tilakkhaṇa; Sanskrit: त्रिलक्षण trilakṣaṇa) of all existence and beings, namely '' aniccā'' (impermanence), '' dukkha'' (commonly translated as "su ...
of
anicca
Impermanence, also known as the philosophical problem of change, is a philosophical concept addressed in a variety of religions and philosophies. In Eastern philosophy it is notable for its role in the Buddhist three marks of existence. It i ...
mpermanence dukkha uffering and
anatta ot-selfare seen,
sunnata mptinessis seen, and
idappaccayata pecific conditionalityis seen. Tathātā is the summary of them all -- merely thus, only thus, not-otherness."
Mahayana Buddhism
Tathatā in the East Asian Mahayana tradition is seen as representing the base reality and can be used to terminate the use of words. A 5th-century Chinese Mahayana scripture entitled ''
Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana
''Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna'' (reconstructed Sanskrit title: ''Mahāyāna śraddhotpādaśāstra''; ) is a text of Mahayana Buddhism. Though attributed to the Indian master Aśvaghoṣa, no Sanskrit version of it exists and it is now ...
'' describes the concept more fully:
R. H. Robinson, echoing
D. T. Suzuki
, self-rendered in 1894 as "Daisetz", was a Japanese-American Buddhist monk, essayist, philosopher, religious scholar, translator, and writer. He was a scholar and author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in s ...
, conveys how the ''
Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra
The ''Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra'' ( Sanskrit, "Discourse of the Descent into Laṅka" bo, ལང་ཀར་བཤེགས་པའི་མདོ་, Chinese:入楞伽經) is a prominent Mahayana Buddhist sūtra. This sūtra recounts a teachi ...
'' perceives dharmata through the portal of
śūnyatā
''Śūnyatā'' ( sa, शून्यता, śūnyatā; pi, suññatā; ), translated most often as ''emptiness'', ''vacuity'', and sometimes ''voidness'', is an Indian philosophical concept. Within Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and other ...
: "The ''Laṅkāvatāra'' is always careful to balance Śūnyatā with Tathatā, or to insist that when the world is viewed as śūnya, empty, it is grasped in its suchness."
See also
*
Ten suchnesses
The Ten suchnesses (; ja, 十如是, jūnyoze) are a Mahayana doctrine which is important, as well as unique, to that of the Tiantai (Tendai) and Nichiren Buddhist schools of thought. The doctrine is derived from a passage found within the s ...
*
Reality in Buddhism
Reality in Buddhism is called ''dharma'' (Sanskrit) or ''dhamma'' (Pali). This word, which is foundational to the conceptual frameworks of the Indian religions, refers in Buddhism to the system of natural laws which constitute the natural order ...
*
Dharmadhatu
Dharmadhatu ( Sanskrit) is the 'dimension', 'realm' or 'sphere' (dhātu) of the Dharma or Absolute Reality.
Definition
In Mahayana Buddhism, dharmadhātu ( bo, chos kyi dbyings; ) means "realm of phenomena", "realm of truth", and of the noume ...
*
Ziran (
Daoism
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...
)
*
Tattva
According to various Indian schools of philosophy, ''tattvas'' () are the Classical element, elements or aspects of reality that constitute human experience. In some traditions, they are conceived as an aspect of deity. Although the number of ' ...
(
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
)
*
Haecceity
Haecceity (; from the Latin ''haecceitas'', which translates as "thisness") is a term from medieval scholastic philosophy, first coined by followers of Duns Scotus to denote a concept that he seems to have originated: the irreducible determination ...
(from Latin, "this-ness")
*
Quiddity
In scholastic philosophy, "quiddity" (; Latin: ''quidditas'') was another term for the essence of an object, literally its "whatness" or "what it is".
Etymology
The term "quiddity" derives from the Latin word ''quidditas'', which was used by the ...
(from Latin, "what-ness")
References
Sources
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{{Buddhism topics
Buddhist philosophical concepts