About
Dharmendra Singh
Writer, social innovator, and creator of
Probing Consciousness; an international research and collaboration project dedicated to the study of Consciousness.
I am Dharmendra Singh. For much of my life, I have lived with questions about
the nature of Consciousness, knowledge, identity, love, peace,
suffering, meditation, fear, death and what it means
to be human.
Probing Consciousness grew from that inquiry.
Not from a system I wanted others to accept, but from questions I could not stop investigating.
The Inquiry
I did not begin with a system.
I began with questions.
What is happiness—and why do we suffer?
What is knowledge—and what is merely belief?
What is the relationship between thought and identity?
What is meditation?
What are fear and death asking us to confront?
What is Consciousness?
These questions have accompanied me through much of my life.
Some have changed. Some have deepened.
Some remain open.
An Independent Path
My education has largely been the inquiry itself.
I am largely self-taught.
My exploration has developed through decades of reading,
writing, meditation, observation, questioning and engagement
with different ways in which human beings have tried
to understand themselves and the world.
The inquiry has never belonged to only one discipline
or tradition.
Learning Across Traditions
Learn widely. Examine carefully.
Philosophy, psychology, science and contemplative traditions
have all contributed to my exploration.
Over the years I have encountered ideas from Vedanta,
Buddhism and other contemplative traditions alongside
scientific and philosophical approaches to mind
and Consciousness.
I have found profound questions within these traditions.
I have also found claims that deserve examination
rather than automatic acceptance.
I am interested in what survives careful investigation—
including the investigation of my own assumptions.
The Path of Inquiry
The questions gradually turned inward.
Reading and thinking were important, but eventually
some questions seemed to require something more direct.
01
Question
Something does not seem adequately understood.
02
Explore
Read, think, listen, compare and examine.
03
Look Directly
Investigate what can actually be observed in experience.
04
Question Again
Allow what is discovered to refine the next question.
Direct Inquiry
Eventually, the question turns toward the one asking it.
What am I?
Not what have I been called.
Not what do I believe about myself.
Not what does a tradition tell me that I am.
What can actually be observed?
What is the relationship between thought
and the sense of self?
What is present before a description is added?
What is Consciousness?
And what, if anything, can be discovered
about it directly?
The Writing
Different books. Different doorways.
The books approach different dimensions of the larger inquiry
rather than trying to make every question belong to one volume.
Knowledge & Identity
The Essence of Knowledge
An inquiry into knowing, the known and the knower—
and the question of what we are.
Attention & Awareness
Meditation
An exploration that moves from meditation as practice
toward investigation of the meditator.
Fear & Mortality
Fearless Journey
An inquiry into fear, mortality, identity
and compassionate presence in the face
of dying and loss.
Self-Knowledge
Atma Bodha
An investigation of Self-knowledge through
questions raised by the Vedantic tradition.
Action & Freedom
Bhagavad Gita
An inquiry into action, knowledge, conflict,
responsibility and freedom.
Why Probing Consciousness?
The questions became larger than the books.
Books allow a question to be followed slowly and deeply.
But inquiry does not have to remain inside books.
It can continue through essays, research,
conversations, meditation, Activities,
public discussion, art and direct investigation.
From Writing to Platform
One inquiry. Many ways to enter it.
Probing Consciousness brings these different
expressions together in one place.
A reader may begin with an essay.
Another person may begin with an Activity.
Someone else may encounter the work through research,
meditation, a book, art or conversation.
The doorway can differ.
The invitation to investigate remains.
The Purpose
Create better conditions for inquiry.
My hope is not to tell another person what they must discover.
It is to help create conditions in which worthwhile questions
can be investigated seriously, carefully and openly.
If deeper understanding can also contribute to greater
compassion in how we meet ourselves and one another,
the inquiry has a human purpose beyond ideas alone.
No Special Authority
The work should stand or fall through investigation.
I do not ask readers to accept a conclusion
because I wrote it.
Nor should an idea become true merely because it comes
from a philosopher, scientist, spiritual teacher,
ancient text or respected institution.
We can listen carefully.
We can learn from one another.
We can examine evidence and arguments.
We can investigate experience.
And we can continue questioning.
The Working Principle
No authority.
No required belief.
No promised destination.
Do not believe.
Investigate.
An Invitation
We can begin with the question.
You do not need to share my background,
my experiences or my present understanding.
You do not need to adopt a philosophy.
You do not need to become religious or spiritual.
You do not need to reject either.
If there is a question worth investigating,
that is enough to begin.
Created September 20, 2026 · Dharmendra Singh · Probing Consciousness