The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2449 page)

(Skt., ‘suchness’; Chin.,
chen-ju
; Jap.,
shinnyo
). Mah
y
na Buddhist attempt to express the absolute and true nature inherent in all appearance, and obviously contrasted with it
qua
appearance. It has no ‘own nature’ (
svabh
va
), and is not other than the buddha-nature (
buddhat
,
bussho
,
tath
gata-garbha
), except of course that the ‘two’ cannot be compared or equated, because they have no characterized nature to be so compared. For that reason, the Buddha as
tath
gata
is necessarily synonymous with tathat
(e.g. as argued in the
Diamond S
tra
).

 
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Tatian
.

Christian
apologist
and ascetic. He was a pupil of
Justin Martyr
in Rome between 150 and 165. His
Oratio ad Graecos
attacks Greek civilization as too evil to be reconciled with Christianity. In the Syriac Church he was venerated as the author of the
Diatessaron
, which remained in use until the 5th cent.

 
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