A Meditation on Sign-Processes in Their Open-Ended-Ness: On the Non-Purposiveness of Semiosis in Cosmic Play and Equipoise
R. Hothi
Signs and Society March 1, 2026 DOI: 10.1017/sas.2025.10047 (opens in new tab)
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Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | Argues that semiosis is open-ended and non-purposive, and that cosmic play (līlā) can be characterized by latitude, excess, indeterminacy, generativity, and expenditure, or "endless textural differentiation." Proposes an account of equipoise (sahaj) in action that realizes a non-coercive creativity, drawing on Peirce's "musement" and "cosmic love," and contends that Sikh philosophy (gurmat) offers key sources for treating semiosis as ludic and equipoisal. |
Abstract
This essay considers sign-processes in their open-endedness. The concern is specifically the non-purposiveness of semiosis for what it might intimate about the provisional nature of forms and the possibility of a radical openness to self-transformation. Sikh philosophy ( gurmat ), semiotics, and deconstruction here offer a heterogeneous problem-space for considering the anteriority of non-purposiveness in cosmic play ( līlā ) and equipoise ( sahaj ). The study first finds a recurrent commitment to the non-purposiveness of play across diverse approaches in metaphysics, modern aesthetic theory, and the more recent so-called ludic turn, developing from this thread a constructive treatment of cosmic play consisting of latitude, excess, indeterminacy, generativity, and expenditure, or endless textural differentiation . This essay then elaborates an account of equipoise in practical involvement whose pursuit of action is alive to that which is imperceptible amidst this endless textural differentiation, developing an account of action that realizes its own ludic workings in a non-coercive creativity as intimated by Peircean considerations of musement and cosmic love . Findings offer the study of signs an orientation to the un-fore-seen ( im-pro-visus ) constitutive of semiosis, in doing so heightening for social semiotic analysis a sensitivity to the indexical excess that conditions the formation of any text. In each instance, Sikh philosophy is found to offer key sources for considering semiosis as open-ended, non-purposive, and ludic-equipoisal.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
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|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |