buddha

The term "Buddha" refers to an awakened or enlightened being, most famously Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism. The title "Tathagata" is one of the most frequently used by the historical Buddha to refer to himself, meaning "one who has thus gone or arrived". This implies that the historical Buddha was one of many who have achieved enlightenment and taught others the path to it.12

The core of Buddhist teachings, as formulated by the Buddha, are the Four Noble Truths, which address suffering, its origin in craving, its cessation, and the path to its elimination. This path is known as the Eightfold Path. The ultimate goal in Buddhism is to achieve enlightenment, or bodhi, which ends the cycle of rebirth and leads to nirvana. In later Mahayana Buddhism, Tathagata also came to represent the inherent buddha nature within everyone.342