Whosoever says that the Tathāgata goes or comes, stands, sits or lies down, he does not understand the meaning of my teaching. And why? ‘Tathāgata’ is called one who has not gone anywhere, nor came from anywhere.
Diamond Sutra, verse 29
The Buddhist state is instantaneous, immediate and cuts off past and future.
Tathāgata means ‘thus come’ or ‘thus gone.’
The name itself is a description of reality: not ‘existence’ (because that would entail dualism), not ‘no existence’ (because that would entail nihilism), but something luminous hovering in the background, behind our conceptualisations.