Unframed: Attention, Agency, and Awareness in Longchenpa's Chos dbyings mdzod
Libra April 29, 2026 James Macnee
Awareness unframed is a form of freedom distinct from skill mastery, according to Longchenpa's Tibetan Buddhist philosophy of breakthrough practice (khregs chod). The practice dissolves the subject–object duality that perpetuates saṃsāra, allowing natural spontaneity and creativity to emerge. Longchenpa's text systematically disrupts three forms of directedness—agential intention, intentionality toward objects, and referential language—through poetic devices. The term 'dran pa' (mindfulness) is reconceived as a mode of attention that picks out objects and must be set aside in breakthrough, not replaced by refined attentional skill. Success is radical spontaneity and 'crazy wisdom' embodied as resonant care (thugs rje), with implications for norms of attention and epistemology.