Tradition
Tathātā
Overview
Tathātā (; Sanskrit: तथाता; Pali: tathatā) is a Buddhist term often translated as Thusness or Suchness. It is the intrinsic and essential nature of all existences, free from dualistic thinking, conceptualization, and subject–object distinction. It represents the genuine reality of existence, which transcends physical forms, physical senses, and intellectual comprehension, indicating a profound insight into the nature of things as they truly are.
Tathātā has a large number of synonyms found in different Buddhist schools, traditions, and scriptures, such as: Emptiness (śūnyatā 空), Reality Realm (bhūta-koṭi 實際、實相), True Suchness (bhūta-tathatā 真如), Dharma Nature (Dharmatā 法爾、法然、法性), Dharma Realm (Dharma-dhātu 法界), Dharma Body (Dharma-kāya 法身), Nirvana (Nirvāṇa 涅槃), Vajra (金剛), Actionlessness (無爲), Dharma Intrinsic Nature (Dharma-svabhāva 法自性、法自然), Buddha-nature (Buddhatā, Buddha-svabhāva 佛性), Tathagata-Treasure (Tathāgata-garbha 如來藏), The True Reality of all phenomena (sarva-dharma-tathatā 諸法實相), etc.
Although it is a significant concept in Mahayana Buddhism, it is also used in the Theravada tradition.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
Other methods of deliverance from evil are in the excessive acts of penance performed by the Indians, to which a retreat within themselves is added. Now when the Indian thus internally collects himself, and retreats within his own thoughts, the moment of such pure concentration is called Brahma, the one and the clearly supersensuous state, which the understanding calls the highest possible existence. When this is so…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Tathātā is.
Thus far we have seen the theories of these Advaitist philosophers, how there is but one _Âtman_; there cannot be two. We have seen how in the whole of this universe there is but One Existence, and that One Existence when seen through the senses is called the world, the world of matter. When It is seen through the mind It is called the world of thoughts and ideas, and when It is seen as it is, then It is the One…
Swami Vivekananda, Jnâna Yoga, Part II
States what Tathātā is.
The first presupposes no concept of what the object ought to be; the second does presuppose such a concept and the perfection of the object in accordance therewith. The first is called the (self-subsistent) beauty of this or that thing; the second, as dependent upon a concept (conditioned beauty), is ascribed to Objects which come under the concept of a particular purpose. Flowers are free natural beauties.
Immanuel Kant, Kant's Critique of Judgement
States what Tathātā is.
Philosophers who discussed Tathātā
Related ideas
- Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana
- Nirvana (Buddhism)
- Ajahn Buddhadasa
- Śūnyatā
- Anattā
- Nirvana
- Nagarjuna
- Mahayana
- Impermanence
- Theravada
- Dharmakāya
- Three marks of existence
- Madhyamaka
- Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra
- Dharmadhatu
- Buddha-nature
- Duḥkha
- Kathāvatthu
Place in the tradition
Part of Idealism.