The meaning of TATHĀGATA [Tathagata] and realities

Textual Scholarship
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From Bhikkhu Bodhi Part 5 of The All Embracing Net of Views

CY. The Exalted One is called “the Tathāgata” for eight reasons:

(i) because he has “thus come” (tathā āgato);

(ii) because he has “thus gone” (tathā gato);

(iii) because he has come to the real characteristic (of dhammas) (tathalakkhaṇaṃ āgato);

(iv) because he has awakened to real dhammas in accordance with actuality (tathadhamme yāthāvato abhisambuddho);

(v) because he is a seer of the real (tathadassitāya);

(vi) because he is a speaker of the real (tathavāditāya);

(vii) because he practices what he teaches (tathakāritāya);

(viii) and in the sense of vanquishing or surpassing (abhibhavanaṭṭhena).

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Here I am a mainly concerned with (iii), (iv), (v) and (vi) of the list above.

CY. (iii) Why is he called the Tathāgata because he has come to the real characteristics (of dhammas)?

(The six elements): The earth element has the characteristic of hardness—that is real, not unreal (tathaṃ avitathaṃ); the water element, of flowing; the fire element, of heat; the wind element, of distending; the space element, of intangibility; the consciousness element, of cognizing.

(The five aggregates): Material form has the characteristic of deformation; feeling, of being felt; perception, of perceiving; the mental formations, of forming; consciousness, of cognizing.

(The jhāna factors): Applied thought has the characteristic of application of mind; sustained thought, of continued pressure; rapture, of pervading; happiness, of gratification; one-pointedness of mind, of non-distraction; contact, of touching.261

(The five faculties): The faculty of faith has the characteristic of resolution; the faculty of energy, of exertion; the faculty of mindfulness, of awareness; the faculty of concentration, of non- distraction; the faculty of wisdom, of understanding.

(The five powers): The power of faith has the characteristic of not wavering because of faithlessness; the power of energy, of not wavering because of laziness; the power of mindfulness, of not wavering because of forgetfulness; the power of concentration, of not wavering because of restlessness; the power of wisdom, of not wavering because of ignorance.

(The seven factors of enlightenment): The enlightenment factor of mindfulness has the characteristic of awareness; the factor of investigation of dhammas, of investigating; the factor of energy, of exertion; the factor of rapture, of pervading; the factor of tranquillity, of subsiding; the factor of concentration, of non-distraction; the factor of equanimity, of detached observation.

(The eight factors of the noble path): right view has the characteristic of seeing; right intention, of application of mind; right speech, of embracing; right action, of originating; right livelihood, of cleansing; right effort, of exertion; right mindfulness, of awareness; right concentration, of non-distraction.

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261. Contact (phassa), though included in the jhānic consciousness, is not a specific jhāna factor. It is puzzling that it is included here.

(The twelve factors of dependent origination): ignorance has the characteristic of unknowing; kamma-formations, of volition; consciousness, of cognizing; mentality, of inclining, and materiality, of deformation; the six sense bases, of actuating; contact, of touching; feeling, of being felt; craving, of causing; clinging, of holding; existence, of accumulating; birth, of production; aging, of decaying, and death, of passing away.

The elements have the characteristics of emptiness; the sense bases, of actuating; the foundations of mindfulness, of awareness; the right endeavors, of endeavoring; the bases of spiritual success, of succeeding; the faculties, of predominance; the powers, of unwavering; the enlightenment factors, of emancipating; the path, of being a cause.

The truths have the characteristic of reality; serenity, of non- distraction; insight, of contemplation; serenity and insight, of having a single flavor; the pairs of complementary opposites,262 of not exceeding one another.

The purification of virtue has the characteristic of restraint; purification of mind, of non-distraction; purification of view, of seeing.

The knowledge of destruction has the characteristic of eradication; the knowledge of non-arising has the characteristic of tranquillity.263

Desire has the characteristics of being the root; attention, of being the originator; contact, of collecting together; feeling, of convergence; concentration, of eminence; mindfulness, of predominance; wisdom, of supremacy; emancipation, of being the essence; and nibbāna, the plunge into the deathless, of being the consummation.

All these characteristics are real, not unreal. Through the movement of his faculty of knowledge he has come to the real characteristic (of all dhammas); he has reached it without falling away from it, fully arrived at it—therefore he is the Tathāgata.

Thus he is the Tathāgata because he has come to the real characteristic.

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(iv) Why is he called the Tathāgata because he awakened to real dhammas in accordance with actuality?

It is the Four Noble Truths that are called “real dhammas.” As it is said: “These Four Noble Truths, bhikkhus, are real, not unreal, not otherwise (tathāni avitathāni anaññathāni). What four? ‘This is suffering,’ bhikkhus—this is real, not unreal, not otherwise,” and so on, in detail. The Exalted One awakened to those truths. Therefore, because he awakened to real dhammas, he is called the Tathāgata; for here the word “gone” has the meaning “awakened” (abhisambuddhattha).

Further, the fact that aging and death originate and commence with birth as condition is real, not unreal, not otherwise. (And so forth, until): The fact that the kamma-formations originate and commence with ignorance as condition is real, not unreal, not otherwise. The fact that ignorance is the condition for the kamma-formations, the kamma- formations for consciousness … birth for aging and death, is real, not unreal, not otherwise. All that the Exalted One awakened to. Because he awakened to real dhammas, he is called the Tathāgata.

Hence he is the Tathāgata because he awakened to real dhammas in accordance with actuality.

Sub.Cy. The four truths are “real” because their specific nature is undistorted (aviparītasabhāvattā); “not unreal” because their specific nature is not false (amusāsabhāvattā); “not otherwise” because they do not admit of any alteration (aññākārarahitattā).

N.Sub.Cy. Having first shown the fourth reason by way of the truths, he next shows it by way of the factors of dependent origination functioning as conditions and conditionally arisen phenomena, which are “real” because of the non-distortion of their specific nature. “Awakened” is said because the root “go” (gamu) has the meaning of understanding (buddhi).264

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261. In Pāḷi, words deriving from the root *gam: “*go” and words deriving from the root budh: “understand” are often treated as interchangeable in meaning. “For words signifying movement convey the meaning of understanding, and words signifying understanding convey the meaning of movement.” (Yo hi gatyattho so buddhyattho, yo ca buddhyattho so gatyattho, N.Sub.Cy.)

CY. (v) Why is he called the Tathāgata because he is a seer of the real?

In this world together with its gods, etc., in this generation with its rulers and its men, whatever visible-form object there is that enters the threshold of the eye-door of the innumerable beings throughout the innumerable world systems—that the Exalted One knows and sees in all its modes. And knowing and seeing it thus, he has analyzed it under numerous names, in thirteen sections, and by fifty-two methods, as desirable or undesirable, etc., and as found under the applicable term among the seen, heard, sensed, and cognized, according to the method given thus: “What is the material form that is the visible-form base? The material form derivative upon the four primary elements that is of colored appearance, visible, impinging, blue, yellow,” etc. (Dhs 616). This is real, not unreal. The same method applies to sounds entering the threshold of the ear-door (and the other sense objects in their respective sense doors). For the Exalted One has said: “In this world, bhikkhus, together with its gods, etc., in this generation with its rulers and its men, whatever is seen, heard, sensed, cognized, reached, sought after, or examined by the mind—that I know, that I have directly known. That the Tathāgata has understood. But the Tathāgata does not take a stand upon it” (AN 4:24). Hence he is the Tathāgata because he is a seer of the real. Here the term “Tathāgata” should be understood to mean a seer of the real.

Sub.Cy. “Under numerous names”: the visible form object is described as desirable, undesirable, neutral, inferior, past, future, present, internal, external, seen, cognized, visible form, visible-form base, visible-form element, a colored appearance, visible, impingent, blue, yellow, etc. “In thirteen sections”: this is said in reference to the thirteen expository sections which have come down in the chapter on material form (in the Dhammasaṅgaṇī). “By fifty-two methods”: this is said in reference to the four methods of defining contained in each of the thirteen sections.265 “This is real”: because of the undistortedness of his vision and the incontrovertible character of his

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262. The thirteen sections are expounded according to the various mental factors, such as feeling, contact, consciousness, etc., which originate with each sense object as their objective basis. The four methods obtain from the differentiation of the cognitive act into past, present, future, and future possibility.

teaching. The analytical derivation of the word “Tathāgata” should be understood thus: he goes to (gacchati)—i.e., he sees and knows— these dhammas beginning with the visible-form object, in the very way (tathā) they exist in their specific nature and mode.

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(vi) Why is he called the Tathāgata because he is a speaker of the real?

In the forty-five year interval between the night when the Exalted One, sitting in the invincible posture on the terrace of enlightenment, crushed the heads of the three Māras266 and awakened to the supreme perfect enlightenment, and the night when he attained parinibbāna in the nibbāna-element without residue while lying between the twin Sāl trees, whatever the Exalted One spoke, whether in the first, middle, or final periods following the enlightenment—the discourses, mixed prose and verse, expositions, stanzas, joyous exclamations, sayings, birth stories, wonders, and miscellanies267—all this is irreproachable in meaning and in phrasing, free from excess and deficiency, perfect in all its modes, crushing the vanity of lust, hatred, and delusion. There is not even as much as a hair’s tip in this that is defective. It all appears as though it had been stamped with a single seal, measured with a single ruler, or weighed upon a single pair of scales. It is all real, not unreal, not otherwise. As it is said: “Between the night when the Tathāgata awakens to the supreme perfect enlightenment and the night when he attains parinibbāna in the nibbāna-element without residue, whatever he speaks, utters, or expounds—all that is real, not otherwise. Therefore he is called the Tathāgata” (AN 4:23). For here the word gata has the meaning of enunciation (gada).

Hence he is the Tathāgata because he is a speaker of the real. Further, the word āgada or āgadana means “pronouncement”;

that is, a statement (vacana). His pronouncement is real and undistorted. Thus, changing the letter d to a t; the derivation of the word “Tathāgata” may be understood in this sense.