Tathātā Dharmatā

Tathātā (; ; ) 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. Although it is a significant concept in Mahayana Buddhism, it is also used in the Theravada tradition.

The Buddha

The Buddha referred to himself as the Tathāgata, 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, 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 phenomenon which is un- constructed in Theravada is Nibbana.

According to Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, ''tathātā'' is merely the way things are, the truth of all things: "When tathātā is seen, the three characteristics of anicca 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'' describes the concept more fully:

R. H. Robinson, echoing D. T. Suzuki, conveys how the ''Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra'' perceives dharmata through the portal of śūnyatā: "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."

Madhyamaka

In the Madhyamaka Mahayana tradition, Tathātā is an uncompounded permanent phenomenon, (as is Nirvana – in Madhyamaka, not being products, all absences are uncompounded and permanent – not everlasting, but not subject to decay and dissolution). Tathātā is the natural absence of intrinsic/inherent existence or nature. It is a natural absence, because intrinsic existence (or the equivalent synonyms) is a fiction, or a non-existent: Intrinsic existence is the faulty object of an ignorant consciousness. All fictions, being fictions, are naturally absent. So, because of this, the fiction of inherent existence is absent from all phenomena, and that absence is Tathātā.

See also

*Ten suchnesses
*Reality in Buddhism
*Dharmadhatu
*Ziran (Daoism)
*Tattva (Hinduism)
*Haecceity (from Latin, "this-ness")
*Quiddity (from Latin, "what-ness")

References

Sources

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{{Buddhism topics

Buddhist philosophical concepts