The function is the 'self-manifesting" activity of the essence or substance. In the terminology of the "Awakening of Faith" the function is also called the "permeation" (hsün-hsi; Jap: kunjū). As such it represents universal action which consequently must be considered as primordial karma. The givenness of a universal, primordial "agency" was assumed by the previous pre-totalistic doctrine of causation, but not dialectically accounted for.