Abstract

This study explores the profound gap between meaningful human silence and the functional pauses of AI by drawing on two silences from the Mahāyāna Buddhist classic, the Vimalakīrti Sūtra: Vimalakīrti’s praised “thunderous silence” and Śāriputra’s criticized silence. In commentaries, Vimalakīrti’s silence is presented not as a mere absence of speech, but as a potent, performative act of pedagogy—a profound demonstration of non-duality that reorients the listeners. Śāriputra’s silence, by contrast, signifies his lack of understanding.

I conclude that while speech LLMs can (and increasingly do) treat silence as a rich paralinguistic channel—modulating pauses to manage turns and to “sound” thoughtful—this is, at best, a Śāriputra-like silence. It is patterned, habitual, and bound to learned associations. A Vimalakīrti-like silence, by contrast, is a transformational act that reconfigures the listener’s entire conceptual frame.

Short Bio

Hsun-Mei Chen (陳洵渼) is completing his PhD dissertation in philosophy at Kyoto University. After earning a BS in pharmacy, he worked as a pharmacist while completing an MA in philosophy at National Taiwan University. He has held visiting fellowships at the University of Chicago, UC Berkeley, and Harvard University. His master’s thesis examined thought insertion—a symptom of schizophrenia—from the perspective of Buddhist philosophy. His current dissertation research investigates silence in East Asian Buddhist philosophy, seeking to clarify distinct philosophical models of silence within East Asian contexts. While specializing in Buddhist philosophy, he remains broadly interested in questions across other areas of philosophy.