CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Consciousness Research
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1655534
This article is part of the Research TopicDeepening Consciousness: What Phenomenology, Yogic, and Buddhist Meditation Can Contribute From a Psychological PerspectiveView all 7 articles
Liangkang Ni on Husserl and Buddhism: A Comparative Phenomenological Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
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Over several decades, Liangkang Ni has developed a distinctive perspective on the parallels and divergences between Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology and Buddhism, particularly Yogācāra Buddhism. Despite the significance of his contributions, Ni’s writings remain largely unavailable in English and have thus had limited exposure in Western phenomenological discourse. This article addresses that gap by offering a thematic reconstruction of Ni’s key insights. The first part examines Ni’s reading of Husserl’s own philosophical reflections on Buddhism in relation to phenomenology. The second part explores Ni’s reconstruction of genetic and structural parallels between Husserl’s genetic phenomenology and Yogācāra doctrines such as vijñaptimātra (consciousness-only), ālaya-vijñāna, and manas. The article assumes some familiarity with Husserl and uses his framework as an entry point to introduce Buddhist concepts. Rather than offering new empirical data, the article provides conceptual clarification and theoretical integration aimed at informing contemporary debates in consciousness studies.
Keywords: Phenomenology, Buddhism, Edmund Husserl, Yogācāra, Transcendentality, consciousness research, Liangkang Ni
Received: 28 Jun 2025; Accepted: 06 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gutland and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Huan Liu, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
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