Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c7.s2.t13.16

c7.s2.t13.16

Nāgārjuna concludes his examination of the Tathāgatakāya by identifying Tathāgata with the world (jagat),² or nature itself, and asserting that the Tathāgata, whom people or even Bodhisattvas have in view, is only a bimba (image) of kuśaladharmas and is not the real Tathatā or Tathāgata.³ A dialectician like Nāgārjuna cannot go further than this to establish the Reality. It is by denial of the existence of unreal things, including the so-called Tathāgata, that he points towards the Reality—the real Tathāgatakāya, the Dharmakāya.⁴