What happens when our capacity to generate answers outpaces our capacity to cultivate wise judgment? As artificial intelligence expands what can be produced and processed, the university faces a foundational question: what kind of knower are we preparing?

This presentation approaches research through the relationship between the knower, knowledge and the knowable. Drawing on Indian philosophical traditions, hermeneutics and spirituality research, it examines how researchers’ worldviews, motivations and habits of attention shape the questions they ask, the evidence they recognise and the interpretations they consider possible. It explores the relationship between information, methodological competence and lived understanding, including our responses to what remains unknown. Linear, cyclical and experiential understandings of time open further questions about progress, technological acceleration and the pace of human understanding.

The discussion then turns to researcher preparation: questioning inherited conditioning, situating knowledge in its cultural context, developing an integrative perspective and engaging deeply with living traditions. These processes connect knowing about a phenomenon with understanding it through sustained engagement. Contemplation, dialogue and reflexivity are examined alongside the demands of research rigour, including triangulation, transparent interpretation and critical scrutiny. The tension between faith and suspicion becomes an invitation to investigate how openness and discernment can develop together.

The presentation culminates in epistemic dharma, understood as the responsibility to steward knowledge ethically and contextually. This provides a basis for rethinking doctoral education, research practice and the university’s wider purpose, with implications for leadership and organisational decision-making. The discussion asks: what would change if the formation of the knower became an explicit responsibility of the university?