What happens when AI meets the Middle Way? In this crossover between The Way Between Podcast and The Living Conversation, Adam Dietz and Anthony Wright speak with Dr. Nick Egan about Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, and whether artificial intelligence could ever have consciousness, or Buddha nature. The conversation explores the harmony between technology and spirituality, the limits of mind, and how to live wisely in an age of machines.

In this special crossover episode between The Way Between Podcast and The Living Conversation, host Adam Dietz joins Anthony Wright to talk with Nick Egan, PhD, a leadership coach and longtime Buddhist practitioner, about the question: Does AI have Buddha nature?

Together they explore:

• The Middle Way between fear and worship of technology
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• What Buddhist and Confucian thought reveal about consciousness
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• The difference between using the tool and being used by it
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• Why the mind’s true nature can’t be replicated in code
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• Spiritual materialism and the traps of attachment—even to enlightenment itself

Mentioned in this episode:

– Jacuzo Kwong Roshi (Sonoma Mountain Zen Center)

– Tibetan ideas of mind-stream (sem gyu)

– Alan Watts, Trunkpa Rinpoche, and the Dalai Lama

– Confucian harmony and the “heavenly mandate”

🜂 “If we’re doing our job as human beings,” Adam says, “we harmonize whatever comes our way; even AI.”

Find the hosts:

• Adam Dietz → thewaybetween.substack.com
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• Anthony Wright → theonat.com
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• Guest Nick Egan → nickeganphd.com