Segment 29 / The Dignity and Tranquility of the BuddhaThe Buddha say to Subhūti, “If someone asserts, ‘The Tathāgata comes, goes, sits, or lies down,’ such a person does not grasp the true meaning of my teachings. Why is this? The Tathāgata does not come from anywhere nor go anywhere; this is why He is called the Tathāgata.”
The essential meaning of this Segment is as follows: The Buddha says,“Subhuti, if someone claims that the Tathāgata comes, goes, sits or lies down, they fail to understand what I have talked about. Why is this? It is because the Tathāgata neither comes from anywhere, nor goes anywhere. That is, there is not a place nor what resembles a place that a Tathāgata comes from, neither a place nor what resembles a place that a Tathāgata goes to. This is why He is called the Tathāgata.”
In this context, the Buddha continues to elucidate the realm of the Tathāgata’s “true emptiness”. It may appear that the Buddha enters, leaves, sits, or lies down, however, when we dwell in true emptiness we would know that, the Tathagata never moves. In this state of true emptiness, there is nothing exists that can move. For anyone who has realized emptiness, all actions, speech, or silence, are seen as illusory manifestations. In the Tathagata’s true emptiness, there is no self, no person, no birth nor death, no change or variation, only suchness, no coming nor going. Therefore, the Buddha declares, “The Tathāgata does not come from anywhere nor go anywhere; this is why He is called Tathāgata”.
At this juncture, it is pertinent to recall the Buddha’s earlier statement about Tathāgata in Segment 17: “The Tathāgata is the suchness of all Dharmas or phenomena.” This implies that all Dharmas, in their true nature, are thusness that remains unmoving, never undergoes birth, death, or changes, neither comes nor goes, this is why it is called Tathāgata.
All Dharmas inherently possess the perfect and complete Buddha nature. Contemporary science has shown that the universe originated through the Big Bang explosion, forming countless stars and planets thereafter. From the perspective of Buddhism, all phenomena, including the Big Bang, arise through interdependent causes and conditions. However, Buddhism also teaches emptiness together with the dependent origination, suggesting that, in order for humans to return to the source of life and comprehend the ultimate purpose of existence, they must dwell calmly in the realm of that all phenomena arise from conditions yet are empty in nature, unshakable and unchanging, unaffected by the world’s fluctuations, and not misled by appearances.
From this standpoint, the Big Bang explosion is only illusory, the universe is only a false existence. Only dwelling in this view, human beings can return to the origin of life, end the wandering in time and space, attain true peace, and realize that the ultimate purpose of life is to return to its source. Only at this point when one establishes oneself in the “True Emptiness of the Tathāgata”, one sees all phenomena in the universe as wondrous manifestations, indistinguishable from the pure, undefiled origin, and one fully appreciates and engages with everything that time and space have to offer, transforming all realms into the Pure Land.