TI-YONG: Toward a More Thorough Understanding of the “Essence-Function”

Kyentse Foundation Lecture Series

The ti-yong 體用 paradigm, which thoroughly pervades and informs the Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian manifestations of traditional East Asian philosophy, has received surprisingly scant attention from modern-day scholarship. Even then, attention has been limited in ways that do not capture the full original intent or scope of the paradigm, which is to provide a priorities-based soteriological system and an ethical framework for personal behavior. This presentation will examine ways in which the “essence-function” can be understood as a conceptual tool for the practitioner to reconcile the contradictions that emerge in juxtaposing the world of one’s inner being with external “realities.”