Tathagata

Rather than the title ‘Buddha’ Siddhattha Gotama sometimes called himself or was called by others ‘Tathàgata.’ The title Tathàgata is a somewhat paradoxical one and can mean alternatively ‘Thus come’ or ‘Thus gone.’ The origins of this term and why it was used is unclear. In one of the very few mystical statements he ever uttered, the Buddha says that the word tathàgata means ‘Dhamma body, supreme body, Dhamma become, supreme become’ (D.III,84).