some scholars, however, who understand gata in the sense of "being in" or "situated in." If this be correct, Tathagata meaning "being thus," or "being such," can be interpreted in the same sense as Tathata or Bhutatathata or Tattva, as explained below. But in this case Tathagata will lose its personification and become a metaphysical term like the others, though it has been so persistently used by Buddhists in connection with the historical Buddha that it always awakens in their minds something more concrete and personal than a mere ontological abstraction.

Buddhism is the most speculative of all the existing religions in the world and abounds with many highly abstract terms which may sound empty to ordinary minds. Among them we have such words as Tathata (or Tathatva), Tattva, Bhutatathata, Bhutakoti, Cunyata, Alakshitam, Nirvana, etc. These are all philosophical terms for Dharmakaya. To explain: Tathata or tathatva or tattva is "suchness," or "being such," and Buddhist scholars assert that, strictly speaking, these terms alone rightly designate the nature of the highest reality. When we speak of its absolute transcendentality, people are liable to take it for an empty nothing; while if we state that it is eternally true and real, they may consider it something concrete and particular. To avoid both extremes, or rather to synthesize them, the term "Suchness" has been coined; but in reality all human efforts are altogether

insufficient to express the true nature of the Ultimate. Says Acvaghosha, "The Immortal Essence is absolutely beyond intellectual demonstrability, but we as rational beings need some words to express ourselves, and for that purpose the term 'suchness' has been selected, disposing of all others." The words in which Goethe makes Faust utter his feeling concerning God may here be quoted also as corroborating Acvaghosha's conception of Suchness:

"Who dare express Him?
And who profess Him,
Saying: I believe in Him!
Who, feeling, seeing,
Deny this being,
Saying: I believe Him not!
The All-enfolding,
The All-upholding,
Folds and upholds He not
Thee, me, Himself?
* * *
* * *
Vast as it is, fill with that force thy heart,
And when thou in the feeling wholly blessed art,
Call it, then, what thou wilt,--
Call it Bliss! Heart! Love! God!
I have no name to give it!
Feeling is all in all:
The name is sound and smoke,
Obscuring Heaven's clear glow."

When even this Tathatva is found inadequate for certain purposes, Buddhists add Bhuta = reality thereto and coin the word Bhutatathata, which means "that which really exists as such." Suchness, being an abstract term, may breed