Dictionary

suchness en · NOUN

Etymology

From English dialect, from Middle English swichnesse (“the quality or nature of a thing”), from Old English swilċnes (“quality”), equivalent to such + -ness. Reinforced also as a calque of Sanskrit तथाता (tathātā).

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) The natural state of a person or thing; quality; character or worth.
   • The importance of which may be fully and plainly rendered thus; that since nothing in the Universe stands possessed of a Real or True Nature, i.e. doth constantly and invariately hold the precise Quale, or Suchness of their particular Entity, to Eternity; […] 1654, Walter Charleton, Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana:
2. (uncountable, usually) Existence per se.
   • 1955, J. D. Salinger, "Franny", in, 1961, Franny and Zooey, 1991 LB Books edition, page 22, Without any apparent regard for the suchness of her environment, she sat down.
   • Rather than give an answer, you have to section the tangerine and invite the questioner to have a taste. Doing this, you allow him or her to enter the suchness of the tangerine without any verbal or conceptual description. 1988, Thich Nhat Hanh, The Sun My Heart: From Mindfulness to Insight Contemplation, Parallax Press, →ISBN, page 94:
   • ca. 1928, Hans Driesch, "Philosophy of Nature", in, 1928, Edward Leroy Schaub, ed., Philosophy Today: Essays on Recent Developments in the Field of Philosophy, page 431, The same relation may prevail between the suchness of willing in men and the realization of that willing.

Forms

Synonyms

thusness · tathata

Translations (8)

cmn 如如 (existence per se) · fr talité (existence per se) · cmn 真如 (existence per se) · ja 実性 (existence per se) · ko 진여 (existence per se) · fi sellaisuus (existence per se) · vi chân như (existence per se) · ja 真如 (existence per se)