The Power of Consciousness. Part 1 of 2.
A transcribed talk in Germany. April 2026
The Power of Consciousness
A talk at a retreat at Waldhaus Buddhist Zentrum,
Andernach, near Koblenz, Germany.
28 April 2026. Transcribed, edited and adapted into written form.
Part 1. Reviewing Science, Education, and the Primacy of Thought
Summary: A society that trains the intellect while neglecting other primary areas of application of consciousness inhibits the evolution of the whole person. We need to take bold steps to see the limits of conceptual of knowledge, and what comes across often as biological/neurological determinism. We have the potential to know limitless reality.
In this two-part reflection, I explore consciousness not as a minor by-product of the brain, but as a powerhouse that shapes how we live, love, and understand our place in the world. This essay questions the dominance of biological science and education based on passing exams. What happens when we neglect ethics, empathy, and the whole person?
This afternoon I want to explore Consciousness with you. Let me begin with a brief overview.
I hope the scientists among you will not find what follows too irritating. In recent years, while researching for a book and for other projects, I immersed myself in a considerable amount of scientific literature. Again and again, I encountered the same underlying orientation: science focuses primarily on the material world – on matter, energy, subatomic particles, measurable processes. Within that framework, consciousness appears quite often as little more than an extension of the brain, a by-product or emergent property of neurological activity.
I appreciate the importance of the whole human organism and the immense work of neuroscience and related disciplines. Yet, as someone who happily left school aged 15, sometimes I have to look up the terminology to understand what scientists mean in their articles.
What strikes me when I scan the indexes and glossaries at the back of science books reveals what I do not find. I often look for the words such as ethics, feelings and compassion. I look for anything that acknowledges a human beings potential for transcendence of suffering and limits of identity. These words rarely appear in the Word Index at the end of the book. A scientist may mention consciousness perhaps on a couple times in a science book, even though the author cannot write about the science without the reality of consciousness.
This omission amounts to a serious distortion. In the reality I know and the reality that people worldwide know contains a major range of experiences. We experience a world of consciousness, mind and matter. Reality does confine itself to the matter.
Our reality includes our heart, our feelings, our emotions, our sense of being, our relationships and connections. Insights and wisdom emerge from a holistic view of reality. Any account of a life that sidelines or omits these dimensions makes a profound error of judgment.
To understand what it means to be fully human, we require an embrace of the whole:
Our inner world
Our outer world
The relationship between them.
Scientific inquiry cannot adequately define reality, particularly not one that relies solely on what can be measured, counted, and determined by thought. When one approach dominates at the expense of the rest, we all lose something essential such as an expansive view of reality.
Western Philosophy and the Primacy of Thought
When I reflect on this, I recall some of the major philosophers of the West. A classic example: “Cogito ergo sum” – “I think, therefore I am.”
René Descartes undertook a radical project. He set out to doubt everything, to question every assumption he could find. After exhausting his doubts, he concluded that only one thing remained certain: he thought. From that conclusion, he declared “I am.”
On that basis – the primacy of thought – he built his philosophy.
From a Dharma perspective, his conclusion remains kindergarten. Not because he lacked intelligence, but because the conclusion “I think, therefore I am” does not resolve the deeper questions; it simply asserts a starting point rooted in thinking itself. The Dharma would not take “what I think” as the foundation for “what I am.” We would ask ourselves
I think therefore I am what?
What do I think about?
What is this I?
Who is this “I”?
What ways does matter influence consciousness?
What ways does consciousness influence matter?
Regarded as the father of Western philosopher, Rene Descartes of France made logic his primary source for philosophy. Another intellectual giant, Immanuel Kan from Germany shaped much of the intellectual culture of the West and now worldwide. Their influence penetrated into educational systems, institutional frameworks and formed analytical assumptions about reality.
The result? We are conditioned into an educational culture grounded in reason, analysis, knowledge, concepts, and examinations. Students learn that the highest value lies in the thinking mind. A system of ongoing competition harms sensititive children and adults and breeds arrogance among the clever.
This conceptual education excludes the whole person. It leaves little room for emotional intelligence, ethical inquiry, spiritual exploration, or the cultivation of wisdom and compassion. When the whole person does not receive nourishment, another dynamic inevitably appears, namely competition between people of different qualities.
Education and the Wound of Competition
Once you adopt an examination-driven system that primarily measures conceptual reasoning, you inevitably divide children and young people into categories:
“Clever” ones,
“Not so clever,”
Some feel stupid, inadequate, or useless because they fail to meet academic standards.
I would call this approach a form of child abuse with a long-lasting impact, resulting in views of superiority and inferiority and all the arrogance and anger that goes with such views.
When education refuses to recognise and nourish the full range of human capacities – emotional, relational, aesthetic, practical, intuitive – it injures children. It judges them almost entirely on their exam performance. From the age of five or six, they start to internalise the belief: “If I pass, I am a success. If I fail, I am a failure.” That belief can remain lodged in the psyche for decades, for the rest of their lives. In other words, it results in a lifelong trauma.
Consider a 15-year-old teenager in my town. He struggles with formal exams, carrying a heavy sense of failure. Yet he possesses remarkable gifts: he has a a precious capacity for empathy and creativity. He can repair cars with great skill. Neighbours come to him regularly because he fixes their cars far more cheaply than the local garage. He shares his gifts with neighbours in his community, a contribution which car owners appreciate. In the eyes of the exam system, he registers as a failure.
No wonder our societies grow so competitive and, sometimes, brutal. This competitive tension spills into sports, the workplace and the media. We even design television shows in which people compete relentlessly against one another for the entertainment of those gloating at the screen.
At the same time, we yearn for togetherness. We speak of community, belonging, and connection. We feel the absence of sharing experiences and learning from each other. Instead, we build structures that deepen separation.
An exploration of consciousness invites us to look beyond this gulf between people, so we examine what we share, what we have in common, rather than always measuring who wins and who loses.
Consciousness as a Powerhouse
From the perspective of the Dharma, consciousness does not simply trail behind the biological world as its servant. Consciousness does not merely flicker on when neurons fire. Consciousness functions as a powerhouse. It shapes worlds, opening wise possibilities and dissolving unhealthy possibilities.
Perhaps at one time, for early human beings, consciousness confined itself largely to the immediate material needs of survival. But now, as a species, we stand in a very different situation. Our conscious capacities have evolved into something vast and complex.
A simple but powerful question we can ask ourselves – here on retreat or at home – goes:
“What do I need to be more conscious of?”
Human beings possess the extraordinary capacity to step back, to place attention on something – a sensation, a thought, a relationship, a memory, a pattern in society – and attend to it.
When we do this wholeheartedly, not only with the head, but with the whole being, we begin to see far more than we saw before. Consciousness reveals and uncovers, opening the doors to insights and realisations.
Literature and the Early Stages of Expression
Someone remarked to me some months ago, “Why write books? Everything that needs to be said already exists in books.”
I declined to agree with that. As a writer and poet, I see literature as still in its early stages. Human beings have barely begun to explore and express the full range of our conscious experience. There remains an immense amount to discover, share, and articulate.
In my country, the UK, an opinion poll reported that around 40% of the public had not read a single book in the previous year. Among young people, the percentage climbs even higher. This strikes me as a genuine loss – not only culturally, but in terms of personal and collective development.
Books, including non-fiction, fiction, poetry, short stories and essays. invite us into sustained, conscious exploration. They encourage us to go deeper, to reflect, to apply themes and stories to daily life, inviting imagination and engagement. To neglect in depth reading means neglecting of one of the powerful tools for the evolution of consciousness.
One major factor in this decline lies in the attention span shaped by digital media. Reels, ten-second clips, constant scrolling, rapid entertainment – all of these fragments the mind. It makes it more difficult for people, especially the young, to give full attention to anything for long. This trend undermines our capacity to explore deeply heart opening literature, meditation, relationships and bold action.
The Question: What do I need to be conscious of?
Let us return to the present and to our retreat. Ironically, although I often discourage you from reading books while you are here, I deeply value the role of literature in conscious exploration. For now, our shared inquiry focuses on something else: direct experience.
We return to the simple yet profound question:
“What do I need to be conscious of?”
In meditation, we often begin with something apparently very ordinary: the breath. Many people initially consider this the dullest possible object of attention. “It just goes in and out. Why bother? It’s boring.”
Someone said exactly this to me on a treat in India:
He asked for my view, so I suggested.
“Just go outside; you’ll find a bucket. Fill the bucket with water. Put your head in the bucket. After a minute or two, ask yourself: Do I have any interest in breathing? Do you find it boring? And then come back and ask me your question again.”
There is nothing like experience and practice to reveal the truth. Concepts and the judgemental mind about the breath vanish the moment you cannot breathe.
Benefits of Mindfulness of Breathing
Sometimes, a little reflection supports our meditation. The Buddha regarded mindfulness of breathing as an extraordinarily beneficial practice. He said he could not think of another meditation practice that offered so many diverse benefits to the practitioner. When asked for examples, he provided ten. I can recall eight of them; I consider that an accomplishment.
1. Training to stay focussed on an object
Mindfulness of breathing trains the mind to stay with an object. We cultivate calmness, steadiness, and continuity of attention.Direct experience of impermanence
As we observe the breath, we recognise that everything we experience arises, remains, and passes. The breath embodies impermanence, breath by breath.Bridge between mind and body
Mindfulness of breathing forms a bridge between the heart-mind and body. We experience the two as intimately connected rather than separate domains.Relaxation and reduced stress
Attentive breathing contributes to the relaxation of the whole body. Tension softens; stress diminishes.Reduction of unnecessary thinking
Staying with the breath cuts through much repetitive, unhelpful thinking. Mental noise gradually decreases.Support for dealing with pain
Mindfulness of breathing provides invaluable support when facing pain. Many women, for instance, use conscious breathing during childbirth to meet intense sensations with more balance and less fear.Awareness of interdependence with the world
Every breath reminds us of our inseparable relationship with the environment. We draw the air element into the body; we release it back. We literally live in continuous exchange with the world.Enlivening the cells
With breathing – especially in sustained practice or in aerobic activity – oxygen enters deeply into the cells, enlivening them. Sometimes, in stillness, we can feel the whole body as if it breathes, the cells lighting up with life.A reminder of non-clinging.
Breath comes and goes. We cannot cling to a single breath. The same principle applies to all objects of attention. Clinging ends in suffering.
This list does not exhaust the benefits. Others exist. But even these few reveal the multi-dimensional value of such a simple, direct practice.
Part 2. Mindfulness, Mortality, and an Expansive View of Life.