15 papers in the library · 40 citations · publishing 2023-2026
Religions January 29, 2023 Federico Divino 13 citations
The Sutta Nipāta, an early collection in the Pāli canon, reveals how archaic Buddhist doctrine was shaped through dialogue with orthodox and established powers in 6th century BCE India. The text also sheds light on contemplative practices aimed at the 'absolute' (paramattha and brahmavihāra), an area often overlooked in meditation studies.
Religions July 21, 2023 Federico Divino 7 citations
Personal crisis during deep meditation can be understood differently depending on the tradition. In contemporary mindfulness practices, such crisis appears as a 'crisis of presence,' whereas in traditional Buddhist meditation it involves the dissolution of the subject-object distinction. Drawing on Ernesto De Martino's concepts, the article argues that this phenomenon should be recognized as significant rather than negative. Modern mindfulness, detached from its Buddhist roots, has been criticized for reinforcing neoliberal and capitalist modes of cognition. Traditional Buddhist meditation aims for samādhi, a serene 'end of the world' where self-world boundaries dissolve. The article urges mindfulness researchers to explore this dimension for fuller contemplative benefits.
Philosophies April 25, 2025 Federico Divino 5 citations
Archaic Buddhism, as recorded in the Pāli Canon, contains a well-articulated theory of knowledge that includes a sophisticated view on language and its role in perception and cognition. The paper argues that Buddhist considerations on language are comparable to Saussure's early linguistic theories and address fundamental issues in the philosophy of perception and theories of cognition. This comparison offers a technical approach to the problem of consciousness, aiming to structure a systematic dialogue between the philosophy of mind and language, cognitive sciences, and linguistics, thereby providing an original perspective on these topics through Buddhist thought.
Religions February 24, 2023 Federico Divino 5 citations
Ancient Buddhism framed complete healing as the ascetic goal of ending the world—transcending ordinary experience through disciplined awareness and presence. Drawing on medical anthropology and historical-philological methods, the analysis shows that early Buddhist asceticism reconciled transcendence with healing by reflecting deeply on awareness and presence. The article contributes to the conceptual history of Buddhist medicine by examining how the ascetic problem of the 'end of the world' served as a path to total health.
Cogent Arts and Humanities July 16, 2025 Federico Divino 4 citations
The Pārāyanavagga, an early Buddhist text, is argued to express a theory of intentionality. Comparing it with Husserl’s phenomenology and Peirce’s phaneroscopy, the paper contends that the text presents contemplative practice as an exercise in deconstructing semiosic forces—unconscious processes that shape intentionality and cognition of the world. The goal is to transcend these forces into a state of Beyondness, surpassing intentionality and cognitive mechanisms of world-construction. This transcendence is hypothesized to occur through three fundamental semiosic forces, one primary and two subordinate. The article offers a semiological reading in comparative analysis with phenomenology, not a philological analysis.
Philosophies August 27, 2025 Federico Divino 2 citations
Buddhist thought and Peircean semiotics share a concern with how signs shape perception and cognition. From its earliest formulations, Buddhism adopted contemplative practice as a means of liberation from the effects of semiosis—the continuous process of sign interpretation. This article hypothesizes that the Buddhist concept of nāmarūpa (name-and-form) represents this semiosic process. After examining perceptual and sensory processes underlying nāmarūpa, the paper analyzes occurrences of this term, proposes its semiosic functions, and explores how contemplative practice aims to disengage from the power of signs.
Anthropology of Consciousness January 12, 2025 Federico Divino 2 citations
Anthropology must make consciousness a central focus to fully understand human experience. The field has evolved from positivist roots through phenomenological and ontological turns, yet still struggles with dualistic thinking, especially the separation of self and other. The author's ethnographic work on contemplative practices such as Buddhist meditation and mindfulness shows how this bias persists even in studies of meditation. Drawing on Buddhist philosophy, the article proposes 'mindful ethnography' as a way to overcome dualism. Consciousness is presented as a fundamental concern that can reshape anthropological inquiry and offer a more nuanced understanding of humanity.
Journal of Contemplative Studies August 6, 2024 Federico Divino 2 citations
A new method combining ethnography and visual elicitation uses mandala-like images to capture how consciousness evolves during meditation. Adapted from Jungian psychology for qualitative fieldwork, the approach centers on participants' direct meditative experiences, iterative multistage mandala drawing, and a deliberate break from conventional artistic norms. A case study illustrates the visual data obtained from meditation sessions, revealing the transformative character of contemplative practice. The method marks a shift in ethnographic focus toward meditation and examines the dissolution of subjective boundaries inherent in such contexts.
Humans January 14, 2026 Federico Divino
Early Buddhist Pāli sources present cognition as a layered process arising from the interplay of sensory and affective domains, culminating in semiotic determinations (nāmarūpa) and the proliferation of conceptual constructs. Drawing parallels with Peircean pansemioticism, the article argues that both traditions treat phenomena as sign-constituted events, and that contemplative practice can interrupt habitual chains of semiosis. By bridging Buddhist phenomenology with cognitive science and semiotics, the Buddhist model—with its precise technical vocabulary and analyses of attention, perception, and conceptualization—offers tools for understanding and modulating cognitive processes in theory and practice.
Philosophies January 12, 2026 Federico Divino
In Pāli Buddhist texts, language and cognition are deeply intertwined: signs structure cognitive processes and semiosis drives the proliferation of concepts and percepts, organizing a shared yet partly subjective world. Drawing on linguistics, semiotics, and biosemiotics, the paper provides a vocabulary for understanding Buddhist reflections on these issues and offers a genealogical inquiry into why language holds a pivotal role in Pāli Buddhism.
Humans October 21, 2025 Federico Divino
The adaptation of Buddhist meditation in Western societies is transforming the practice through digital technologies, especially smartphone apps. An ethnographic study across multiple European locations shows these tools make meditation more accessible but also shift it from a communal, philosophical practice toward an individualized, commodified self-care activity. Digital mediation democratizes access while potentially undermining traditional discipline and depth. The authors argue this change mirrors broader societal trends toward personalization and digitization, raising questions about the integrity of spiritual practices in the digital age and their evolution under Western epistemological influences.
January 1, 2025 Federico Divino
A three-year doctoral project combines ethnography with theoretical and methodological inquiry to examine consciousness from an anthropological perspective through contemplative practices, broadly defined to include any practice fostering mindful awareness via bodily discipline. The study critiques standard ethnographic methodology and develops a variant that uses multi-layered drawings as visual devices to elicit narratives of subjective experience from participants engaged in meditation or contemplation. Although the number of participants was small, the author argues that the data are significant for qualitative research focused on individual subjectivities rather than collective experiences.
Religions March 26, 2025 Federico Divino
Vedic hymns in the R̥gveda contain metaphors—fire, chariot, yoke, light, ocean—that prefigure ideas later developed in Buddhist meditative practice and theory of knowledge. The Vedic seer serves as a forerunner of the Buddhist practitioner, with both traditions sharing themes of overcoming ignorance and attaining knowledge. Two major metaphorical fields are identified: one concerning cognition and knowledge, the other contemplative practice and liberation. Vedic contemplative exercises, often understood as prayer, show similarities to Buddhist meditation. While Vedic religiosity focuses on divine association, Buddhism reinterprets these ideas within a human-centered framework, indicating an intricate dialogue rather than a simple rejection of Vedic traditions.
Histories March 27, 2024 Federico Divino
Mindfulness has been transformed through transculturation and commodification into a biopolitical tool that fosters self-regulation and social control, diverging from traditional meditation. While both aim for health benefits, mindfulness is egolatric and performance-oriented, whereas traditional meditation seeks to transcend psychophysical identity. The article examines how neoliberal and capitalist societies have shaped this model and analyzes future scenarios where technological devices and AI applications could intensify biopolitical control, leading to constant self-surveillance and monitoring. This integration raises critical questions about surveillance limits and the potential exploitation of vulnerabilities through AI-powered tools.
Annali Sezione Orientale August 15, 2023 Federico Divino
Analysis of the term 'loka' (world) in the Pāli canon reveals a conception of the world as a cognitive construct, closely tied to philosophy of mind and language. The 'end of the world' (lokanta) corresponds to the state of full consciousness required to become a Buddha. The figure of the world-ender (lokantagū) serves as a metaphor for the Buddha as an otherworldly being (lokuttara), a concept also found in the Abhidhamma. Rather than an apocalyptic vision, the end of the world appears as the main goal of meditation in Early Buddhism and part of the Buddhist epistemological framework.