The “Totality” of the Substance

Abstract

Tathatā (Thusness) has been referred to as the “essence of all phases and aspects of existence in their totality.”⁵ The Chinese t’i (body) translates here as the primal “body of existence,” suggesting the universal substratum that underlies all “aspects of embodiment in their totality.” Later in the text the word tzu-t’i (Jap: jitai) is used as connoting the sheer potentiality to act which resides in the “hidden” essence of all existence. It is in this sense that t’i is translated now as the substance, namely, as the “hidden” aspect of an ever-self-disclosing and self-embodying Tathatā. Thus substance connotes Tathatā, i.e., the essence in its aspect of primordial “non-manifestation”: substance is the essence as unmanifested. As such, however, the unmanifested is there to manifest itself, that is, the essence of the unmanifested is to manifest itself. The truth of this statement implies, therefore, the inherent and essential ordination of Tathatā to act towards manifestation. In view of this ordination to act, the substance can be envisioned as connoting three complementary aspects: (I) the substance “as such”; (II) the substance “as agent”; (III) the substance “as patient.”