Benlai mianmu

benlai mianmu (J. honrai no menmoku; K. pollae myŏnmok 本來面目). Translated as, “original face”, "one's original face", etc.

A Chan metaphor for the original clarity of the mind; the human beingʼs true, innate buddha-aspect; oneʼs true nature.

In the Chan school, this expression is used to describe the inherent state of enlightenment and is often synonymous with buddha-nature (C. foxing).

According to the Princeton Dictionary, the term is best known in the gong'an attributed to the sixth patriarch Huineng (638–713):

“Not thinking of good, not thinking of evil, at this very moment, what is your original face before your parents conceived you?”

Quotations

Dogen states:

Cease practice based
On intellectual understanding,
Pursuing words and
Following after speech.
Learn the backward
Step that turns
Your light inward
To illuminate within.
Body and mind of themselves
Will drop away
And your original face will be manifest.

Bankei states:

"What's called one's 'original face' is also none other than the Unborn Buddha Mind. What you have from your parents innately is the Unborn Buddha Mind alone—there's nothing else you've got innately. This is an expression left behind by a master of old in his attempt to make people realize the fact that the Unborn Buddha Mind is none other than one's original face. Even what we call 'father and mother' are names of traces that have already arisen. The man who has conclusively realized the Buddha Mind abides at the source of father and mother, and that's why we speak of [that which exists] 'before father and mother were born.' This 'before they were born' is none other than the Unborn; so the Buddha Mind is the same as your original face. . . ."

— Bankei

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 

Further reading

• Original face, Wikipedia