Identity and Experience_Hamilton_1996

208 Identity and Experience
sukha A synonym for Nirvana (q.v.), and the opposite of dukkha (9.v.).
Literally, suWla means 'bliss' (contrasted with 'suffering'/dW). It is
not, however, an affective state of bliss (i.e. pleasure/happiness) but
more profoundly refers to the cessation of the unsatisfactoriness
which characterises the human condition. In particular, this refers to
the 'ease' which corresponds to the absence of the 'dis-ease' of
ignorance.
tathiigata An epithet of the Buddha, and by extension a term for any
Enlightened (9.v.) person. The term, virtually untranslatable, means
something like 'thus-gone', referring to the absence/cessation of
separate individuality experienced when one sees that 'things as they
really are' (see yathribhzitam) are selfless (see anatt@) in the sense of
being not separately identifiable.
yathiibhiitam Literally 'things as they are', this important term refers to
the Buddha's teaching that the cessation of ignorance (the cognitive
aspect of the 'fuel' which causes continued existence in samsiira (9.v.))
is 'seeing things as they really are'. Such experience is the equivalent
of Nirvana (9.v.). It follows that a key feature of human experience in
sapiira is that one does not 'see things as they really are'.