Tathatā: the creation of doctrinal foundation for Mahāyāna Buddhism

Abstract

Tathatā or suchness is one of the fundamental doctrinal concepts in Mahāyāna Buddhism and it was first introduced in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, which is considered by almost all Buddhist scholars as the earliest Mahāyāna literature. The compilers of the scripture must consider the teaching of tathatā as an important event so it is marked by an earthquake. In fact the concept of tathatā is the foundation of Mahāyāna philosophy because other important Mahāyāna concepts such as the Dharmakāya, the Buddhadhātu, the Tathāgatagarbha, the dharmasvabhava and the Mahāyāna concept of Mahāparinirvāṇa are identified with tathatā and have tathatā as their basis. In this study we find that the word tathatā is already used in the early Buddhist discourses such as the Saṃyuttanikāya, but it is used only as an adjective to describe the important doctrines such as the paṭiccasamuppāda and four noble truths. It is only in the early Mahāyāna literature that tathatā was conceived and explained as a philosophical concept to denote ontological reality.