Religions
April 24, 2026
Youngsun Yang, Eunyoung Lee
Indian intellectual traditions developed a distinctive 'relational organ model' in which brain and heart function as complementary poles of a single vital-cognitive network connected by the nāḍī (neural-energetic channel) system, neither purely cardiocentric nor encephalocentrist but integrated within a hierarchical framework. This model evolved from the Atharvaveda through classical Āyurvedic texts to Haṭha Yoga literature, which located ultimate consciousness in the cranial Sahasrāra while preserving the heart as the integrative hub. The Sāṃkhya philosophical framework provided the metaphysical key by distinguishing non-material consciousness (puruṣa) from the material cognitive apparatus (antaḥkaraṇa). The article brings these historical findings into dialogue with modern neurocardiology and prāṇāyāma science.
Religions
March 20, 2026
Youngsun Yang
Indian philosophy offers a distinctive spectrum of views on omniscience (sarvajñāna), ranging from a personal Creator-God to impersonal textual authority and perfected human achievement. The article argues that the question of who knows everything is ultimately not epistemological but ontological—it concerns the nature of consciousness itself. Across Vedic, Upaniṣadic, Nyāya-Yoga, Mīmāṃsā, Jain, Buddhist, Sāṃkhya, and Advaita traditions, omniscience shifts from cosmic personhood to Self-knowledge, logical necessity, authorless text, or human attainment. The final analysis shows that authentic liberation transcends encyclopedic omniscience, requiring a transformation from object-knowledge to non-objectifying awareness. The "All" cannot be an object of knowledge because it is the condition for any knowledge whatsoever.
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.