Entangled Bodies in Tibetan Great Perfection

This paper examines theories of body and embodiment in Tibetan Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) literature, focusing on transcorporeality, human bodies enmeshed in their worlds. Its primary source is The Heart Essence of the Ḍākinīs (mkha' 'gro snying thig), revealed by Pema Ledreltsal (pad+ma las 'brel rtsal, 1291–1315/17). In a world constituted by gnosis (ye shes), the authors of The Heart Essence of the Ḍākinīs theorized embodiment as porous, permeable, contagious, and enmeshed. The scripture regards bodies as interpenetrating other human bodies, divine bodies, elemental forces, and planetary cycles. Attending to this scripture's alterity on its own terms, the paper employs a decolonial framework that resists assimilating indigenous Buddhist categories into Western European philosophical norms. Instead, it treats the authors of this scripture as theorists of embodiment, whose work carries implications for both Buddhist studies and new materialism.