Can AI Ever Be Conscious? A Buddhist Perspective on Intelligence, Ethics & Humanity Featuring Ajahn Dhammasiha – by Rashan Senanayake
Source:Rashansenanayake
As artificial intelligence accelerates at an unprecedented pace, one question becomes impossible to ignore: What truly makes us human — and can AI ever replicate it?
In this deeply reflective and thought-provoking episode of Inspiring Design, host Rashan Senanayake sits down with Ajahn Dhammasiha, a Buddhist monk and long-time teacher, to explore the intersection of artificial intelligence, consciousness, ethics, and ancient Buddhist wisdom.
Together, they unpack why intelligence is not the same as wisdom, why data and computation fall short of consciousness, and why empathy, conscience, and moral responsibility remain uniquely human qualities — at least for now.
Ajahn Dhammasiha offers a rare perspective on AI through the lens of Buddhism, framing it not as a belief system, but as a reproducible science of the mind. The conversation challenges materialistic views of intelligence and raises urgent ethical questions about how emerging technologies should be designed, governed, and guided.
This episode explores:
Why consciousness, awareness, and feeling cannot be reduced to algorithms
The crucial difference between intelligence and wisdom
Whether AI can ever truly be “ethical” or simply imitate ethics
How Buddhist values like compassion, conscience, and non-harm could inform responsible AI development
The danger of creating highly intelligent systems without moral grounding
What the Five Buddhist Precepts can teach technologists, leaders, and society today
As AI becomes more human-like in its outputs, this conversation invites us to pause and reflect on something deeper: Just because a system can respond like us, does it understand, feel, or care like us?
This is not a technical discussion about code or computation.
It’s a human conversation about responsibility, ethics, and the future of intelligence itself.
If you’re working in technology, education, leadership, design, policy, or innovation or simply curious about the future we’re building, this episode will challenge how you think about AI, consciousness, and what it truly means to be human.
About Organisation: Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage
Dhammagiri is a Buddhist Monstery in the Theravada Forest Tradition, associated with the lineage of Ajahn Chah. It aims to transcend today’s bewildering confusion of Buddhist gurus, dogmas and techniques by returning to the original teachings of the Buddha as found in the early parts of the Pali canon, and in the living practice of the great meditation masters in the Forest Tradition.
The primary purpose of Dhammagiri is to provide suitable living conditions for a small number of monks to cultivate their meditative practice, with an emphasis on quiet contemplation and study in solitary cabins (‘Kutis’).
About Speaker: Ajahn Dhammasiha (Head Monk at Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage)
Born in West Germany in 1966, Ajahn Dhammasiha finished high school in Hanover, served as a conscript in the German armed forces, and went on to study business administration in West Berlin. Lacking passion for the contents of the formal curriculum, he expended a lot of his time and energy on his more genuine interests: Schopenhauer’s philosophy, Indian religion and culture, Berlins exciting alternative culture and party scene, and a thorough exploration of the suffering and disappointment inherent in sensual pleasures. A powerful lesson on impermanence was provided by the fall of the Berlin-Wall, and the dramatic changes it entailed.
After finishing his degree in 1993, he attempted a compromise of material necessities and spiritual aspirations by starting a PhD on ‘Indian Corporate Culture’. While in India, he read the Dhammapada which hit him as a true revelation. He travelled to Sarnath and Bodh Gaya, and finally succeeded in dropping worldly concerns to fully devote his life to the spiritual quest.
In June 1996, he ordained as a Theravāda Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka in the Sri Kalyāṇi Yogāshrama lineage, with Most Ven. Paṇḍita Kadaveḍḍuwa Jinavaṃsa Mahāthera as preceptor. For three years he trained at Nissaraṇa Vana, Meetirigala, a forest monastery dedicated to solitary practice of meditation, and meticulous observance of the Theravāda Vinaya. His approach to practice was guided by the Suttas of the Pāli Canon, which he studied extensively in their original Pali language, and by the examples of senior monks like Ven. Ñāṇavimala & Ven. Ñāṇadīpa
In 1998 he came to Australia and started training in monasteries in the tradition of Ajahn Chah, where he was fortunate to receive teachings from some of the most highly respected masters of the Thai Forest Tradition: Luang Por Plien, Luang Por Tui, Luang Por Liem and Tan Ajahn Anan. While spending the rains retreat 2006 at Vimokkharam, a quiet Forest Hermitage in Melbourne’s Dandenong Ranges, he received an invitation by Brisbane Buddhist Vihara, to help in establishing a forest monastery in South East Queensland.
Since moving to Brisbane in 2007, he has served as the founding abbot of Dhammagiri Forest Hermitage, providing Dhamma teachings and overseeing the physical development. Dhammagiri is the first forest monastery in Brisbane, and the only one in Queensland associated with the tradition of Ajahn Chah. The hermitage is located on 85 acres in a serene, natural environment amid forested hills adjoining D’Aguilar National Park, only 33km (45mins) from Brisbane’s city centre. Since its inception, Dhammagiri has hosted several of the most revered Thai meditation masters, and many of the most esteemed English speaking senior monks in the Theravada tradition.
In addition to his responsibilities as abbot of Dhammagiri, Ajahn Dhammasiha has taught Buddhism and meditation at monasteries and Buddhist Centres in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, India, UK and Germany; and he has led five pilgrimages to the sacred Buddhist sites in India.
A wide range of Ajahn Dhammasiha’s teachings can be found on our online platforms linked below.
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