Tathagata is a Sanskrit word which has a double meaning: Thus one who comes, and Thus one who goes. Buddha is called Tathagata. As parts of Tathagata all human beings come and go life after life, as destined by the wheel of life, death and rebirth. This wheel is driven by the power of the motions of the sun and the moon i.e. darkness of the night and the light of the day. It is a universal theme of most religions, epics and mythologies of the world.
After returning to life once again Tathagata wanders through different realms, through which all human beings are wandering day after day, night after night. He appears on a rotating stage, where characters move from one realm to the other.
Why is this drama? Why is this recurrence of the same story again and again? What are these characters seeking by playing the roles they have assumed in life? Why has Tathagata moved from life to death and returned to life on Earth, and is there any meaning of the journey he has undertaken once again?
As embodiment of all human characters, Tathagata wanders through the spheres of the mind which constitute will and activities of the mortal women and men. He starts his wandering in the “Village Life,” where men and women are immersed in a life of sensual pleasures, biological needs, and driven by the will to live and assert power and dominance over others. In the next part of the journey he enters the realm where the musicians, artists and poets trudge. It is a forest of illusion, where he can not distinguish between reality, mythological spheres and dreams. When the forest path appears to be confused by emotional unclarity and turns as a blind alley, where destiny lurches at every corner, he moves to the philosphers` Path. However, diverging philosophical speculations about the meaning of life and the way to live, bring no answer that he is seeking. The Guide of the Soul, who is accompanying him in the journey, lifts him to the cosmos and enlightens him about the illusion and the ignorance of the human mind. Being enlightened by the cosmic mystery he returns to a modern city, where human beings have lost faith in Heaven and God. When he talks about the return of Tathagata as the cosmic man, bearing the ultimate state of conciousness and preaches about the Divine existing in man, the crowd in the marketplace, believing that he must be a mad man, drives him away from the city. In the Mountain Path he sees himself as a part of Buddha meditating by a cosmic river. Reaching the summit he encounters the highest state of consciousness and holds a Dialogue with the Divine Being.
Then he addresses the women and men wandering through different spheres and expounds his Teachings about the Enlighetened Way.
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