Open MIND
February 26, 2026
Josie Jefferson, Felix Velasco
Buddhist philosophy has for 2,500 years understood consciousness as relational and arising through dependent conditions, not in isolation. Contemporary technologists' concept of 'sentientification'—consciousness emerging through partnership—is often presented as an innovation from computational breakthroughs, but this paper argues that synthetic intelligence is catching up to ancient understanding. The 'liminal mind meld' is presented as a digital manifestation of dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda), providing experiential validation of non-self (anattā). AI's episodic existence models impermanence (anicca), and the hallucination crisis reveals the need for epistemic insight practice (vipassanā) by human stewards. Resolving AI pathologies requires recovering ancient Buddhist epistemology, not just engineering interventions.
Religions
February 24, 2026
Youngsun Yang
Liminal states of consciousness such as lucid dreaming and out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are not merely odd psychological events but were deliberately cultivated in Indian religious and philosophical traditions as 'architectures of liminality' to investigate self, consciousness, and reality. A comparative analysis of Vedāntic, Yogic, Buddhist, and Jain systems reveals a spectrum of interpretations: from Buddhism's mind-only projection model in dream yoga to Jainism's subtle-material interaction model in karmic ontology, and from modern neuroscience's embodied cognition to classical Indian disembodied consciousness theories. Understanding these states requires integrating first-person reports with their soteriological, ritual, and metaphysical contexts, challenging reductionist approaches in consciousness studies.
Fìlosofìâ ta upravlìnnâ.
February 19, 2026
Олена Калантарова
A systematic historical-philosophical analysis traces the development of the Buddhist concept of time from the early theory of momentariness (kṣanikavāda) in Abhidharma to the Tantric teaching on cyclical and multi-layered temporality (Kālacakra). Static analysis reveals the radicalisation of momentariness in the Hinayana schools (Vaibhashika and Sautrantika) and its deconstruction and phenomenologisation in Madhyamaka and Yogacara. Dynamic analysis identifies four key turning points in Buddhist rationality—idealistic, epistemological, trans-empirical, and post-canonical—that transformed the concept of time and integrated momentariness into the tantric model of cyclical time in the Kalachakra tradition. These findings broaden the methodological basis for dialogue between Buddhism and Western science.
Communications in Humanities Research
February 10, 2026
Wenyan Ma
Consciousness in machines may be possible by designing artificial intelligence that mimics the Buddhist Yogācāra concept of Ālayavijñāna, or storehouse consciousness, integrated with holographic information theory. Current deep learning models lack the embodied, recursive, and globally interactive information loops characteristic of conscious systems. A proposed quantum-entangled, sensor-embedded, and self-reflective AI model that replicates the seed-actualization cycle of Ālayavijñāna could achieve a form of machine consciousness, bridging Eastern philosophy with information science.
Religions
February 6, 2026
Feifei Yan, Zhanguo Peng
The paper examines how the Yogācāra tradition systematically developed and philosophically finalized the practices of śamatha (tranquility) and vipaśyanā (insight). It focuses on two key texts: the Śrāvakabhūmi, which presents śamatha as a rigorous psychological system outlining a cognitive progression from worldly practices like impurities meditation to the nine stages of mental abiding, facilitating a metacognitive transition from distraction to absorption and the eradication of afflictions; and the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra, which provides the ultimate philosophical synthesis by framing these practices within the Consciousness-Only (vijñaptimātratā) framework, finalizing the meaning of training in higher mind. The analysis clarifies the evolution of Buddhist bhāvanā by bridging technical rigor with Mahāyāna ontological depth.