Essence Function MJE 12202023

Essence-Function is how reality operates. It has its base in the Awakening of Faith in Mahayana, or Awakening of Faith in the Great Way, if you prefer. The unhindered interpenetration of all dharmas is reality. There is no seam between Absolute & elative Truths, there is no "and" or "but," and there is barely even a hyphen between Essence and Function. EssenceFunction is more accurate as a reflection of reality. 

Think of "Essence" not as a soul or spirit, or a thing at all. It's the basis, it's ground zero, its behind everything, it's in the middle and front of everything. It's the noun. "Function" is how Essence is manifested, just as the Absolute only manifests through the relative and vice versa. There can be no Essence without Function, there can be no Function without Essence. Function is the verb.

If you look at the tangle of holiday lights you may have wrestled with recently, the lights are Essence, the untangling, hanging, and turning them on is Function. They are inseparable; there's no dividing line between them. In the end, the lights just do what lights do--throughout that whole process.

When we look at Buddha Nature as our Essence--the commonality among all of us--what is our correct Function? Is it to hate, slander, vilify, and malign ourselves and each other? Drop a dime in the Salvation Army bucket, donate something, or time, or money to someone less fortunate than you, and without any expectation of congratulations, no Great Cosmic "Attaboy." 

Just be generous, compassionate, loving, and imperturbable in the face of difficulties, meeting your duties head on. Function is Peace on earth, good will to all sentient beings, peace on earth and good will to you.

Myeong Jin Eunsahn gave the Dharma talk on December 20, 2023.

"The Mind of a Pre-Natal Baby"

In tonight's Dharma talk, Dae'An Citta discuses the book "The Nature & Rationale of Zen/Chan Enlightenment - The Mind of a Pre-Natal Baby," by Professor Ming Gong Du. While this is an interesting approach, the author arrives at the destination in a less than convincing manner.  In Zen we refer to one's Original Face, or your Face Before Your Parents Were Born, so the term pre-natal baby seems to fit that. There's also No Mind, Pre-Conceptual Mind, so it would seem promising. 

However, there are a number of points where the book misses the mark, including some fairly major areas. He contends that Chan/Zen is more Daoist than Buddhist to the point where it isn't Buddhism at all, that it's an entity of its own, that it didn't start with Bodhidharma but with Huineng, among other points. But our Zen practice is "Don't Know Mind," and our direction is "How may I help you?" 

The aspect of compassion in the practice is wholly overlooked in the book, and it could be argued that it's the most important element in Zen. ZM Seung Sahn is noted for saying, "Try, try, try for 10,000 years, become enlightened, and save all beings." The Bodhisattva vows are important! It's where we put our practice into action. It's fine to sit on a cushion and consider yourself enlightened, but what does that mean in the big picture if it stays there and isn't shared in the world. We have to be as comfortable in the world as we were in the womb. The Buddha and all the Zen Masters made saving all beings through their teaching their act of compassion. To be fully awake is to be fully compassionate.