"Suchness" in Theravada? (Kalaka Sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly based on Ven. Thanissaro (watmetta.org) translation of the Kalaka Sutra: "At Kalaka's Park" (AN 4.24); Wikipedia edit

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was staying in Saketa at Kalaka's park, where he addressed the monastics: "Meditators!"

"Venerable sir!" they responded.

The Blessed One then said, "Meditators, whatever in the world — with its devas, maras, brahmas, its human-generations with their wandering ascetics and Brahmins, royalty and commoners — is seen, heard, sensed, cognized, attained, sought after, pondered by the intellect, that I know.

"Whatever in the world — with its devas, maras, and brahmas, its human-generations with their wandering ascetics and Brahmins, their royalty and commoners — is seen, heard, sensed, cognized, attained, sought after, pondered by the intellect, that I directly know.

"That has been realized by the Tathagata ["One Arrived at Suchness"], but in the Tathagata [1] it has not been [not become] established [2].

"If I were to say, 'I do not know whatever in the world... is seen, heard, sensed, cognized... pondered by the intellect,' that would be a falsehood in me.

"If I were to say, 'I both know and do not know whatever in the world... is seen, heard, sensed, cognized... pondered by the intellect,' that would be just the same.

"If I were to say, 'I neither know nor do not know whatever in the world... is seen, heard, sensed, cognized... pondered by the intellect,' that would be a fault in me.

The Truth is not arrived at by mere reasoning.

"Thus, meditators, the Tathagata, when seeing what [there] is to be seen, does not construe [imagine] a seen. He does not construe an unseen. He does not construe [an object] to-be-seen. He does not construe a seer.

"When hearing...

"When sensing...

In the seen let there be only the seen, Bahiya.

"When cognizing what is [there] to be cognized, he does not construe a cognized. He does not construe an uncognized. He does not construe [an object] to-be-cognized. He does not construe a cognizer.

"Thus, meditators, the Tathagata — being the same with regard to all phenomena that can be seen, heard, sensed, or cognized — is 'such' [3]. And I tell you, there is no other 'such[ness]' higher or more sublime.

"Whatever is seen or heard or otherwise-sensed

and fastened onto as true by others,

One Who is Such — among the fettered —

would not further claim to be true or untrue.

"Having seen well in advance that arrow

where generations are fastened and hung

— 'I know, I see, that is just how it is!' —

there is nothing of the Tathagata fettered."

NOTES

1. Reading tathagate with the Thai edition.
2. That is, the Tathagata has not taken a stance on it.
3. "Such": thus; just so; as it is; like that; tathātā.

"Such"?

Tathātā (Sanskrit तथाता, Pali तथता or tathatā, Tibetan དེ་བཞིན་ཉིད་, Chinese 真如) is variously translated as "thusness" or "suchness." It is a central Mahayana Buddhist concept [Notes 1, 2], having a particular significance in Chan (Zen) Buddhism. The synonym dharmatā is also often used.

Suchness.

While in the world the historical Buddha referred to himself as the "Tathāgata," which can mean either "One Who Has Thus Come" [more commonly in Mahayana writings rendered the "Thus Come One"] or "One Who Has Thus Gone" (Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 296), the "Welcome One" ("Well Arrived") or "Well Gone One" and may perhaps more correctly be interpreted as "One Who Has Arrived at Suchness" [who understands, "This is the way things are and not otherwise" or "Thus are things by their own inherent nature"]. [Mahayana seems to confound the Buddhist "suchness" with the old Hindu concept tattva].  More

1. Arthur Goldwag (2014). 'Isms & 'Ologies: All the Movements, Ideologies and Doctrines That Have Shaped Our World (p. 206). Most of its doctrines agree with Theravada Buddhism, but Mahayana does contain a transcendent element: tathata, or suchness; the truth that governs the universe.
2. Jay Stevenson (2000). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eastern Philosophy (p. 144).

• See also MN 2, MN 58, MN 63, MN 72, AN 10.93, AN 10.94, AN 10.95, AN 10.96, Ud 1.10, Ud 8.1