Into the realm of zeroness: Peirce's categories and Vipassana meditation

Abstract This article examines the uncanny parallels between Peirce's sign theory and practice and the philosophy of Vipassana Meditation. It argues that Peircean phenomenology has much to add to our understanding of the physical experience of meditation as well as Buddhist theology. A Peircean lens helps elucidate the mechanics of the technique itself, the Buddhist interpretation of thought, and, most significantly, the realms of consciousness meditation accesses. By the same token, the introspective world of bodily sensations and physiological states encountered while in a deep meditative state vindicate the heuristic value of the trichotomies Peirce invented. Keywords: phenomenology; Buddhism; neuroscience; existentialism; semiotics; Peirce.