Immeasurable Dream Poem by Marieta Maglas

''Tathāgata is a Pali and Sanskrit word; Gotama Buddha uses it when referring to himself in the Pāli Canon. The term is often thought to mean either " one who has thus gone" (tathā-gata) or " one who has thus come" (tathā-āgata) . 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.The word's original significance is not known and there has been speculation about it since at least the time of Buddhaghosa, who gives eight interpretations of the word, each with different etymological support, in his commentary on the Digha Nikaya, the Sumangalailasini: -He who has arrived in such fashion, i.e. who has worked his way upwards to perfection for the world's good in the same fashion as all previous Buddhas.-He who walked in such fashion, i.e. (a) he who at birth took the seven equal steps in the same fashion as all previous Buddhas or (b) he who in the same way as all previous Buddhas went his way to Buddhahood through the four Jhanas and the Paths.-He who by the path of knowledge has come at the real essentials of things.-He who has won Truth.-He who has discerned Truth.-He who declares Truth.-He whose words and deeds accord.The great physician whose medicine is all-potent.Monks, in the world with its devas, Mara and Brahma, in this generation with its ascetics and brahmins, devas and humans, whatever is seen, heard, sensed and cognized, attained, searched into, pondered over by the mind—all that is fully understood by the Tathagata. That is why he is called the Tathagata.(Anguttara Nikaya 4: 23) .''-Wikipedia