A wonderful and marvelous quality of Tathagata | Buddha




Narrated by: Joseph Goldstein

“At one time Ananda was recounting to the Buddha the many wonderful qualities that the Buddha embodied and the Buddha said referring to himself as the Tathagata.

the Buddha said that being so Ananda remember this too as a wonderful and marvelous quality of the Tathagata.

For the Tathagata feelings are known as they arise as they are present as they disappear.

Perceptions are known as they arise as their present as they disappear thoughts unknown as they arise as they’re present as they disappear.

Remember this to Ananda as a wonderful and marvelous quality of the Tathagata.”

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), or sometimes “one who has thus not gone” (tathā-agata). This is interpreted as signifying that the Tathāgata is beyond all coming and going – beyond all transitory phenomena. There are, however, other interpretations and the precise original meaning of the word is not certain.

The Buddha is quoted on numerous occasions in the Pali Canon as referring to himself as the Tathāgata instead of using the pronouns me, I or myself. This may be meant to emphasize by implication that the teaching is uttered by one who has transcended the human condition, one beyond the otherwise endless cycle of rebirth and death, i.e. beyond dukkha.