The Conversion of Attention: Mindfulness in Classical Dzogchen

This article examines the role of "mindfulness" (Pāli sati, Sanskrit smṛti, Chinese nian 念, Tibetan dran pa) in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of the Great Perfection, or Dzogchen, according to its classical synthesis by Longchenpa (1308–1364). Here the Western philosophical notion of the "conversion of attention" is used as a hermeneutical tool.