Essays
Inquiry into Being
Essays are where one question can be isolated, examined carefully and followed wherever it leads.
They are shorter than books, more focused than conversations, and free to revisit, challenge or deepen ideas as the inquiry develops.
Latest Essays
Recent investigations
The newest additions to the growing Probing Consciousness essay library.
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What Exactly Are We Defending?
PROBING CONSCIOUSNESS · ESSAY 05 Why criticism can provoke anger, withdrawal or shame in one moment—and thoughtful consideration in another. By Dharmendra Singh · October 1, 2026 Imagine that someone close to you says: “You…
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Must Every Thought and Feeling Be Followed?
Probing Consciousness · Essay 04 A thought can offer information, raise a question or suggest an action. But when does a suggestion become a command? By Dharmendra Singh ·Published September 18, 2026 You are sitting…
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Can The Knower Be Found?
We usually feel that the one who knows experience is somewhere inside us. But when we look for that knower, what do we actually find?
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Beyond What We Think We Know
We accumulate names, roles, memories, beliefs and explanations about ourselves. But are these what we are, or what we have learned to think we are? This essay invites a direct investigation beyond our accumulated descriptions…
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What Do We Actually Know About What We Are?
How much of what we call ourselves was acquired, and what remains when those descriptions are set aside? An inquiry into self, awareness, knowledge and Consciousness through direct investigation.
The Function of the Essays
One question at a time.
Different parts of Probing Consciousness serve different purposes.
Self & Consciousness develops direct inquiry into identity and Awareness.
Meditation explores attention, stillness and resting in Awareness.
Fear & Mortality brings the inquiry into vulnerability, loss, aging and death.
Research asks what evidence and method can establish. Conversations tests ideas in relationship with other people.
Essays have another role.
They allow a single question, tension, observation or contradiction to receive concentrated attention.
An essay may begin with a moment of lived experience, a philosophical problem, a scientific claim, a contemplative observation or a question from a reader. It does not need to solve the whole inquiry. It needs to examine one part of it well.
Their Distinct Purpose
To isolate a question.
To examine an assumption.
To connect abstract ideas with lived experience.
To revisit a conclusion when something new appears.
To let the inquiry remain alive between the books.
Why Essays?
Not every question needs a book.
A book needs structure, continuity and a sustained movement.
An essay can stop at one difficult point and remain there.
It can examine a single word, challenge one assumption, respond to a new study, explore one human experience or return to a question that has changed with time.
This makes the essays more responsive than the books.
They are where the wider inquiry can think in public.
How an Essay Begins
A small question can open a large field.
An essay may begin with something ordinary.
A moment of irritation. A fear. A memory. A disagreement. A scientific claim. A sentence from a contemplative tradition. A question that will not disappear.
From there, the essay can slow the question down.
What are we assuming? What is actually being experienced? What belongs to interpretation? What is being overlooked?
The aim is not to force every essay toward the same conclusion, but to let each question reveal what it can.
Open-Ended Inquiry
An essay may clarify a question without closing it.
Some essays may arrive at a strong conclusion.
Others may reveal that a familiar conclusion rests on weak assumptions.
Some may end with a direct experiment. Others may leave a philosophical tension unresolved.
A later essay may return to the same subject from a more developed understanding.
The essay library is therefore not a catalogue of fixed answers. It is a record of inquiry developing over time.
Where would you like to begin?
There is no required sequence. Each doorway gathers essays around a different kind of question.
What am I?
Essays examining identity, self, Being and the meanings carried by the word “I.”
Explore →What is Consciousness?
Essays exploring Awareness, experience, subjectivity and the fact that experience is known.
Explore →What can I actually know?
Essays on knowledge, certainty, interpretation, evidence and the limits of explanation.
Explore →Why do we suffer?
Essays on fear, resistance, attachment, grief and difficult human experience.
Explore →What is meditation?
Essays examining attention, the meditator, stillness and different understandings of practice.
Explore →Are we really separate?
Essays examining subject and object, self and world, relationship and the appearance of separation.
Explore →Essays & Books
Short inquiry and sustained inquiry serve different purposes.
Essays can move quickly
They can respond to a new question, test a distinction, explore a contradiction or develop an idea that may not belong in a larger work.
They allow the inquiry to remain flexible and responsive.
Books can move deeply
A book can build an inquiry step by step, return to difficult questions from different angles and sustain a movement over much greater distance.
Essays may open a doorway. Books can remain inside the question much longer.
Find
Find an essay
Search by title, subject, keyword or essay number.
Explore
Explore by subject
Follow one subject across different essays, contexts and stages of the inquiry.
The Working Approach
Follow the question farther than the first answer.
An essay may begin with a strong intuition.
That intuition can still be questioned.
Evidence can be examined. Language can be clarified. assumptions can be exposed. Experience can be investigated.
A later essay may revise an earlier understanding.
The purpose is not to protect a body of conclusions, but to deepen the quality of the inquiry.
The Working Principle
No authority.
No required belief.
No promised destination.
Do not believe. Investigate.