A Love Letter to Those Trying to Do Good

Many of us want to make a difference. That impulse, to improve the world, is a beautiful one. It comes from care, from empathy, from a sense that things could be better than they are. So it’s not surprising that more and more people are bringing consciousness into their work. Whether it’s philanthropy, investing, leadership, or activism, there’s a growing movement of people asking: how can we make what we do more aware, more ethical, more aligned?

This is a sign of progress. It reflects a collective intuition that how we act matters just as much as what we do. And any step in the direction of greater awareness is worth celebrating.

But over time, I’ve noticed something subtle but important in how many of these efforts are framed. I’ve been part of the rooms, the conversations, the initiatives. And I’ve seen a recurring pattern: many of these efforts, while well-meaning and often impactful, still operate from what we might call a matter-first paradigm. In this view, the world “out there” — systems, institutions, fields of work — is treated as the fundamental reality. It’s assumed to be primary, solid, and given. And consciousness is something to be added in afterward, like a useful enhancement. Something that makes the machine run more ethically or smoothly.

But there’s another view that I’d call a consciousness-first paradigm. In this view, consciousness isn’t something that arises from the system. It’s what the system arises within. Rather than treating awareness as a modifier of the world, it’s understood as the ground of the world itself. In this paradigm, everything we do — every plan, behavior, system, and strategy — is downstream of our state of being. And unless that’s addressed, we’re still building with the same raw material: separation, identity, unconsciousness.

This may sound philosophical, but it’s not. It’s practical. Because when we treat consciousness as secondary, we tend to focus on improving outcomes without examining the origin. We try to fix the fruit without looking at the root.

This is where many efforts to “infuse consciousness” into different sectors, despite their value, can sometimes lose depth. Often, the goal becomes helping people become more conscious within their professional identities. A more conscious philanthropist. A more mindful investor. A more self-aware leader. That’s a meaningful start. But it still keeps identity at the center. It subtly reinforces the persona, even as it tries to evolve it.

And here’s why that matters — you can become a more self-aware investor and still act from fear. You can be a more ethical philanthropist and still be subtly driven by guilt, legacy, or the need to be seen as doing good. You can cultivate inner tools and practices and still never ask the deeper question: who is the one doing all this?

In other words, you can become more conscious as a role without becoming more conscious as a being.

That distinction matters. Because when we stay anchored in identity, even a refined, purpose-driven one, we’re still working downstream. We’re shaping behavior without questioning the self beneath it. But when someone becomes more conscious at the level of being, prior to identity, prior to performance, then everything that flows from them is different. The clarity, the integrity, the alignment, it’s not something they have to effort into. It’s the natural expression of where they’re coming from.

This is why behavior is so hard to shift at the surface. Because action reflects the state of consciousness it arises from. Unconscious action, even with good intentions, often recreates unconscious results. We see it in philanthropy, in politics, in impact work — the same cycles, the same patterns, just with better language or more empathy on top. But when action flows from presence, when the person acting is no longer trying to perform goodness but is simply resting in being, the result carries a different frequency. It’s quieter. More stable. More real.

That’s why so many “consciousness for X” programs eventually plateau. It’s not because they lack intelligence or effort. It’s because they’re still working within the same frame. They seek more awake investors, more mindful leaders, more compassionate funders, but they rarely invite people to step out of the role entirely, even for a moment, and touch what they are beneath all of it.

So this isn’t about discarding what’s been done. It’s about deepening it. It’s about recognizing that supporting people to become more conscious doesn’t just mean helping them be more self-aware in their careers. It means creating space for them to reconnect with their being, not as an idea, but as a felt reality. Because when someone remembers who they are beneath the role, the role begins to transform from the inside out.

And this is the deeper opportunity. We don’t need to tailor different flavors of consciousness for each sector. There is only one consciousness. But it expresses through each of us differently, depending on our unique nature, our karma, our capacities. The point isn’t to make philanthropy or business or systems change “more conscious” as fixed fields. The point is to help people become more conscious and then allow that consciousness to shape how they move through whatever field they’re called to.

This doesn’t mean abandoning action. Quite the opposite. It means recognizing that all action flows downstream from our state of being. And if we truly want to bring something new into the world, something regenerative, integrated, whole, we can’t just tweak the form. We have to start from presence. From what we are before the story.

Ramana Maharshi said, “Your own Self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world.” Not because the world doesn’t matter, but because when you know yourself beyond your persona, everything you touch begins to carry that clarity. Your presence becomes the change, not just your plans.

So yes, let’s celebrate the movement toward consciousness in every domain. Let’s honor every step in that direction. But let’s also keep going. Let’s not just bring consciousness into the existing paradigm. Let’s let consciousness be the paradigm. Let’s not just try to fit it into the structures we’ve built from a matter-first worldview, but let it undo and reorient those structures from the inside out.

Because when we become more conscious, the world we inhabit becomes more conscious, too. Not because we tried to change it. But because we showed up differently inside it.