Transitions in Transitivity
Entangled Religions June 26, 2025 David Germano
The Seminal Heart (snying thig) tradition of Tibetan Buddhist Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) underwent dramatic changes in contemplative practices from the eighth century onward. A key innovation was the shifting roles of volitional effort and agency in meditation, alongside changes in transitivity—the directional transfer of energy and locus of agency among agents and patients. Understanding effort/lessness and agency requires close attention to the contemplative lexicon and grammar, including scripted shifts from procedural techniques to the unfolding logic of experience. This article focuses on the formative eleventh through fourteenth centuries, offering speculative thoughts on how these contemplative issues drove the tradition's dynamic changes.