Tathagata

“ But the shame which we may have incurred on our heavenward journey has all been left behind. The Tathāgata, Who has called us, and Who has sent us forth in this life on our heavenward journey, has so contrived that all our shame shall be left behind: and there is no mistake in what He does. It is not with us a question of merely shedding our old skins as the snakes do: we are entirely born again and made new creatures, once and for all. One by one, we throw off our old habits, and, as we do so, we find the new glory of the garment which the Tathāgata gives. ”

“ The Tathāgata saw that we could find no haven of rest, and that we were constantly beset by the storms of sin and evil, and, thanks be to His Mercy, He has given us His Name and His Call to save us. What an inexpressible happiness this is for us! Here we find nothing but persons that vex us and things that give us pain: if then, in the whole Universe, and more especially in that Afterworld to which we must all soon go, there were no Voice to speak to us, how black it would all be! And how joyful it all becomes, when we hear the Voice bidding us fear nothing, for that He sees us. ”

“ My dear brethren, it will not do for us to cling to our old robes and weep because they are taken from us: we must not want to resume once more the old rags which we have cast off from us. My past is my dead self: the Tathāgata takes that dead self and disposes of it as he likes. Why then should I look back on that dead self, which is now in the hands of the Tathāgata, and think of it with regret and sorrow? If you wish, brethren, to go on fretting and worrying for ever, all you have to do is to resolve in your minds to set no store by the happiness which the Hotoke gives you in the present. ”

“ Might I understand the doctrine of the Blessed One. And this wish is fulfilled too.25
"Glorious Lord! Most glorious is the truth preached' by the Tathāgata! Our Lord, the Buddha, sets up what has been overturned; he reveals what has been hidden; he points out the way 'to the wanderer who has gone astray; he lights a lamp in the darkness so that those who have eyes to see may see.26
"I take my refuge in the Buddha. I take my refuge in the Dharma. I take my refuge in the Sangha."27
The Tathāgata, by the exercise of his virtue and by wisdom, showed his unlimited spiritual power. ”

“ Just as a mighty trumpeter makes himself heard—and that without difficulty—in all the four quarters of the earth; even so is the coming of the Tathāgata: there is not one living creature that the Tathāgata passes by or leaves aside, but regards them all with mind set free, and deep-felt love. ”

“ If it were not for them, we might forget the Buddha as many a man forgets his parents when he has nothing to remind him of them. We should be like the turbulent, quarrelsome, vagrant-knights in the prison of Echizen: we should forget the Tathāgata, and remain hopelessly involved in the meshes of Suffering.
But some will say, "We have no images, yet we never forget the Tathāgata: our hearts can never forget him." Such men are exceptions: we ordinary beings, who are always falling into habits of forgetfulness, cannot possibly afford to do without the help of images and symbols. ”

“ The lad of our story,—he was only a lad,—got his pleasure from the reverence he paid to the dolls which symbolized his earthly parents: and we,—poor prisoners, fretting and chafing in the dungeon of human life,—need as aids to our perfect comfort, case, and spiritual strength, some symbolic representation of our true Father, the Tathāgata.
Now, where shall we get this symbol of the Tathāgata from? Shall we get an image or a picture to represent Him, and pay it reverence? We may. An image is a precious thing, and so is a picture; but we cannot always be worshipping them. ”

“ Then, Sâriputra, the Tathâgata reflects thus: If, in the conviction of my possessing the power of knowledge and magical faculties, I manifest to these beings the knowledge, forces, and absence of hesitation of the Tathâgata, without availing myself of some device, these beings will not escape. For they are attached to the pleasures of the five senses, to worldly pleasures; they will not be freed from birth, old age, disease, death, grief, wailing, pain, melancholy, despondency, by which they are burnt, tormented, vexed, distressed. ”

“ This Buddha-knowledge is attended with too many difficulties to be gone through to the end. Under those circumstances the Tathâgata, knowing the creatures to be feeble of character, (does) as the guide (who) produces the magic city in order that those people may have repose, and after their having taken repose, he tells them that the city is one produced by magic. In the same manner, monks, the Tathâgata, &c., to give a repose to the creatures, very skilfully teaches and proclaims two stages of Nirvâna, viz. the stage of the disciples and that of the Pratyekabuddhas. ”

“ For even supposing that in ourselves there is a defiled heart or a pure one, yet we put our trust in neither of these: our whole trust has been placed in that which is higher than our hearts, whether defiled or pure,—that is in the Sacred Name. The waves of sin and evil may rage as they will in our defiled hearts: we fear them not, for we trust only in the Name of the Tathāgata. The clear sunshine of purity may be spread abroad in the cloudless firmament of our hearts. It will not lull us to a false security; for our sole ground of confidence is the Mighty Name of the Tathāgata. ”

“ Two poor little dolls brought peace to the lad in the Echizen prison. One leaf of the sendan-flower can affect a whole grove of the poisonous iran-tree. The One Name of the Tathāgata can bring peace to us in the prison-house of life. The lad paid worship and reverence morning and evening before his dolls: so likewise we, when we rise in the morning, when we lie down at night, when we eat and when we work, when we are in sorrow and when we are in joy, ever meditate on the Divine Name and never suffer it to be absent from us. ”

“ And the Blessed One continued: "The Tathāgata teaches that all warfare in which man tries to slay his brother is lamentable, but he does not teach that those who go to war in a righteous cause after having exhausted all means to preserve the peace are blameworthy. He must be blamed who is the cause of war.17
"The Tathāgata teaches a complete surrender of self, but he does not teach a surrender of anything to those powers that are evil, be they men or gods or the elements of nature. Struggle must be, for all life is a struggle of some kind. ”

“ The trees sweat out large flowing drops, flowers and leaves out of season singly fall, whilst men and Devas, not yet free from desire, are filled with overwhelming fear. Thus were they like men wandering through the arid desert, the road full dangerous, who fail to reach the longed-for hamlet; full of fear they go on still, dreading they might not find it, their heart borne down with fear they faint and droop. And now Tathâgata, aroused from sleep, addressed Ânanda thus: "Go! tell the Mallas, the time of my decease is come; they, if they see me not, will ever grieve and suffer deep regret." ”

“ Hence, there is but one Nirvana as there is but one truth, not two or three.5
"And the Tathagāta is the same unto all beings, differing in his attitude only in so far as all beings are different.6
"The Tathāgata recreates the whole world like a cloud shedding its waters without distinction. ”

“ So, too, Sâriputra, the Tathâgata, &c, is free from all dangers, wholly exempt from all misfortune, despondency, calamity, pain, grief, the thick enveloping dark mists of ignorance. He, the Tathâgata, endowed with Buddha-knowledge, forces, absence of hesitation, uncommon properties, and mighty by magical power, is the father of the world [7] , who has reached the highest perfection in the knowledge of skilful means, who is most merciful, long-suffering, benevolent, compassionate. ”

“ We stand on the top of a flight of moss-grown steps that lead to some venerable, half-ruined temple embowered in fallen leaves, and there comes over us an indescribable feeling of reverential awe which strikes our inmost hearts. This feeling comes to us from the sight, in the shrine, of some image or picture in which the artist has done his best to pourtray the figure and heart of the Tathāgata Who has saved us. It is, however, but an indirect, secondary, representation that we thus get, and a direct representation is far better than any symbolic portrait. ”

“ If we see the mist hanging over the shore of Akashi, let us be intoxicated by its beauties: if we hear the plover piping near the village of Suma, let us dwell with fond contemplation on its distant home among the ancient rocks. At Nara, at Kyoto, or whereover we go, let us take the pleasure which each place gives us. Let us waste no tears over the past nor break our hearts with anxiety about the future: let us trust all things to the Tathāgata's hand, enjoying the present as it comes, and drinking from that honey-well of divine teaching, which bubbles up at his Sacred Feet. ”

“ Then the Blessed One spake, and said:
‘Know, Vāseṭṭha, that (from time to time) a Tathāgata is born into the world, an Arahat, a fully awakened one, abounding, in wisdom and goodness, happy, with knowledge of the worlds, unsurpassed as a guide to mortals willing to be led, a teacher of gods and men, a Blessed One, a Buddha. ”

“ When the Tathâgata, monks, knows that the moment of his complete extinction has arrived, and sees that the assemblage is pure, strong in faith, penetrated with the law of voidness, devoted to meditation, devoted to great meditation, then, monks, the Tathâgata, because the time has arrived, calls together all Bodhisattvas and all disciples to teach them thus: There is, O monks, in this world no second vehicle at all, no second Nirvâna, far less a third. ”

“ Hence, when we listen to the import of the Divine Name, and when we reverently bow ourselves before it, though our bodies may be confined within the prison-walls of human life, yet the Tathāgata's Mercy and His Spirit descend straight into our hearts, lighten the darkness of our captive souls, take from our trembling minds the fear of impending doom, and deliver them from the dread anticipation of a torment which knows no end or cessation. ”

“ The Tathāgata, however, O Kassapa, knows the law whose essence is salvation, and whose end is the peace of Nirvāna. He is the same to all, and yet knowing the requirments of every single being, he does not reveal himself to all alike. ”

“ When our helplessness was most patent, the Tathāgata, designing to save us, stood and called us by means of His Sacred Name, and encouraged and enabled us to start on our heaven-ward journey. Surely, then, it is not the will of the Hotoke that we should forever be troubling ourselves with these anxieties about home, and this remorse for past mistakes. What He desires is quite the contrary: that we should let go our griefs and lay aside our remorse, and rise peacefully above our lead of Sorrow. ”

“ So (it is the case that) we should neither rely on anything real or unreal (literally, on that which is a law or on that which is not a law) . Tathágata has ever spoken thus: “Ye Bhikshus, know ye well that my law is as it were but a raft to help you across the stream. The law, then, must be forsaken; how much more that which is no law!”
Cap. VII.—The state of perfection cannot be said to be obtained, nor can it be described by words.
Subhúti, what think you? Has Tathágata obtained the condition of the unsurpassed, just, and enlightened heart? ”

“ The Tathāgata lets his mind pervade the four quarters of the world with thoughts of love. And thus the whole wide world, above, below, around, and everywhere will continue to be filled with love, far-reaching, grown great, and beyond measure. ”

“ The old man is Tathagata, and his children the blind, suffering children of sin and passion. Tathagata fondly loves them, and would save them from their unhappiness. The old rambling mansion, unsightly, rotten, perilous, is the Domain of Karma, the Domain of Appetite. ”

“ When a shepherd gives one of the sheep that he has reared, he gives a part of himself: when the young girl makes a present of a handkerchief which she herself has embroidered, she is giving a part of herself. But when the Tathāgata revealed to us His Name, what He gave us was the Whole of Himself. The shepherd can go on living without his sheep, and the maiden can survive the loss of her handkerchief: but the Tathāgata cannot live without His Name, for It contains the whole of His Divine Heart, and the whole of His Boundless, Ineffable, Mercy. ”

“ As these mature and develop into a Law of spiritual liberty, the Lord Buddha obviously relinquishes every duty consonant with the idea of a delegated Saviour.—Chinese Annotation.
“What do you think then, O Subhuti, does a Tathagata think in this wise: beings have been delivered by me? You should not think so. And why? Because, there is no being that has been delivered by the Tathagata. And if there were a being, O Subhuti, that had been delivered by the Tathagata, then Tathagata would believe in a self, a being, a living being, and a person. ”

“ The Tathāgata has come into the world to befriend the poor, to succor the unprotected, to nourish those in bodily affliction, both the followers of the Dharma and unbelievers, to give sight to the blind and enlighten the minds of the deluded, to stand up for the rights of orphans as well as the aged, and in so doing to set an example to others. ”

“ Shall we starve ourselves refusing to accept the rich bounty which the Blessed Life offers to us? Shall we perish in the darkness of scepticism, shutting our eyes to the light of Tathagata? Shall we suffer from innumerable pains in the self-created hell where remorse, jealousy, and hatred feed the fire of anger? ”

“ Let one friend communicate to another." There was still silence, till Ânanda said "How wonderful, Lord, and how marvellous. In this whole assembly there is no one who has any doubt or misgiving as to the Buddha, the truth, the path and the way." "Out of the fulness of faith hast thou spoken Ânanda, but the Tathâgata knows for certain that it is so. Even the most backward of all these five hundred brethren has become converted and is no longer liable to be born in a state of suffering and is assured of final salvation." ”