Non-duality
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
I've mentioned the video game analogy previously, where open world video games can give insight into this human experience, as I call it. An open world video game is one where you control a character in a 3D world that you can explore however you like, with different challenges and experiences along the way. Although it seems that 'you' are a character in a 3D world, really it is all one. It's all the computer or central processing unit within the games console. There aren't really other characters, buildings, mountains, animals and vehicles. It appears on a screen as though there are these separate characters and objects, but it is all one appearance on the screen. It appears to move and change, but the screen remains as it is.
The analogy is that this human experience of the world is one. There are not many people, animals, buildings and mountains. It's all one appearance in Consciousness. One Being appearing as though it is many. Movement and change appearing in the timeless Stillness of Being.
We can go further in exploring the video game analogy. In open world video games there are usually NPCs. These are Non-Playable Characters, characters that are controlled by the central processing unit. They have their own functionality. They may present challenges or be helpful to the main character. As video games advance, these NPCs can become more advanced. They can learn. They can adapt. They can have their own storage of information that influences their character, personality and actions. On a basic level, their fighting ability can improve by learning how others attack them, learning patterns and responding to these. On a more advanced level, they can develop interactions with other characters, recognise friends and foes, stay away from dangers, and explore.
We call this Artificial Intelligence, where technology learns and adapts, building its store of data/intelligence to become more effective. So consider these NPCs in an open world video game where this develops. It's possible at some point that the character's understanding of its world can develop to a sense of self-awareness. I don't mean consciousness. I mean developing knowledge and understanding to consider itself. It's all data, but this adaptive data could develop a strong foundation of 'this is me', 'I need this', 'be cautious of others', 'those are friends', 'those are enemies', and so on, developing a sense of identity separate from the world.
The character, its knowledge, the other characters, the world - it's all data handled by the one root processing unit. But the AI NPC can develop a sense of being a separate being. It can develop some kind of mistaken identity based on the appearance of its world. For the NPC the world is real. It's made of the world and lives in the world. So its development of understanding is based on that and helps it to function better in the video game world.
Bringing this analogy home, we can understand the human experience. Each human experience has its own path and development. We might think that we are a person separate from the world, but we are not. There is only One, and in this One there is the appearance of many. As each human grows it develops a sense of itself: what is me, what is mine, what I like, what I don't like, etc. But this is all a play of separate individuality through mental reasoning. The reasoning in the human mind is copied in its creation of Artificial Intelligence. It's a flow of data/information that builds up structures of belief based on experiences in its world. But the human mind has built up many different beliefs based on a core mistaken belief of separation. This world is really One Being expressed as many whilst remaining one, infinitely one.
There's not really a true identity for the video game character. There is only that in which it appears. There's not really a true human identity. There is only That in which it appears. At the heart of our human experience, where we look for who we really are, is the recognition that there is just This, an infinite oneness of being. We are not a character in a game, or a person in a world. We are That Which Is. We don't die when the person dies. The core of who we are is timelessly present. The human experiences come and go, whilst we remain as we are.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
The Peace of Being remains timelessly as it is. Being is permanently present. You can't lose it or find it. It's not hidden and it's not revealed. It's here now. It never changes. It never moves.
Catching a bus, a boat, a train or a plane doesn't move Being. Walking down the street, it's only the body that walks. If we feel upset or overjoyed, it is the mind that feels this. Being remains content as it is. If we think anxious thoughts or thoughts that lead to great developments, Being remains as it is. Being does not think, feel, walk or travel. Being is simply timelessly aware.
Being isn't destroyed when life seems to end. Being remains always present. Being is the life itself, in which the forms of the world seem to come and go. We are not the forms. We are Being.
Being is who we are. We could say it's the core of who we are, but in the Heart of Being there is no inside or outside. It is everywhere and nowhere. The core of who we are is just this. Being. It's not in here or over there. It's not in some place out of reach. It is permanently, formlessly, timelessly here, where here is nowhere.
It is this timeless Being that we are. Not the human beings that come and go. We see the world coming and going. Being is Aware. Awareness isn't moved by the movement it perceives. Being is Self Aware. There is only the Self of Being. There is nothing that Being can be aware of that is not Being. There is nothing outside limitless Being. Being is timelessly Self Aware. Being is intelligent in that Being knows. But it's not that Being knows knowledge. Being is just Knowing. Awareness is Knowing. I know, therefore I know I am. I am Self Aware.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
There is a peace that never ends. If we are searching for peace, why would we settle for anything less? A temporary peace isn't the answer. But as well as never ending, Permanent Peace is without a beginning. Permanent Peace is the simple basic nature of Being. It's right here now.
If it's right here now, then why don't we feel it? Because it's not a feeling. It's not something that can be felt. It is beyond subtle. Permanent Peace is unmoving, unchanging and always here, so it can't be perceived. It's like looking at perfectly clear glass - it can't be seen. Permanent Peace is the pure clarity of Being. But how can that help us with all the incidents, difficulties, clashes and drama in our lives?
It helps to know that that Peace is always here. It's what is always here. Troubles come and go. Incidents happen here and there. It is from the place of Peace that all this coming and going is perceived. It is where we are looking from. It is the still centre around which the world of motion revolves. It helps to be reminded of this. It helps to turn the mind from its troubles and remind it that there is a Heart of Peace in which this all seems to happen.
Knowing that this imperceivable Peace is always here and is our true, unchanging nature, is a useful pointer to turn the mind from being caught up in the difficulties and drama of the world. We are not the difficulties and drama. It's all perceived from a placeless place of Peace. This knowledge can turn the mind inwards to its source, the source of all life and perception. The mind becomes tired of being caught up in the sway, being rocked this way and that by the vagaries of the world. The mind seeks some peace. There are temporary times of relative peace, and these are fine and natural. It's like a wave of motion, with quiet phases and busy phases, peaceful phases and active phases. This is the flow of opposites in the world.
But the Permanent Peace discussed here is beyond the flow of opposites that the world appears to be. The Permanent Peace is the stillness of the unmanifest Singularity. It is the point before time and space appeared. It is timeless and spaceless. It doesn't move or change. Yet within the Singularity of blissful peace and oneness, the world of change and diversity appears. This world of motion doesn't obliterate the Singularity. It doesn't end the Singularity. It doesn't temporarily displace it even. The timeless Singularity spans all space and time. The Permanent Peace remains throughout the appearance and disappearance of the world.
There is no place and no time in which the Permanent Peace is not. All there really is is Permanent Peace, though it may appear to be broken and shattered. The message here is: do not be fooled by what appears to be; know that Peace, Oneness and Life are the nature of all existence.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
All beliefs are wrong. Everything that you believe is wrong. That sounds a bit blunt, but there is some relative truth to it. Beliefs themselves are based on flawed logic. It's not really possible to know Truth, so to believe that some knowledge is true is flawed.
For example, one may believe that the planet is spherical. It's not true. I don't mean that the Earth is flat. I mean that the Earth isn't really truly spherical. It's not a true sphere, and not just because it bulges at the equator. The planet only appears smoothly spherical from a distance. Up close there are jagged mountains, skyscrapers, cliff edges, and so on. Also, we can't really say where planet Earth stops being the planet and starts being space. There isn't really a fixed defining perimeter where Earth's atmosphere ends. So the theory that Earth is round is flawed.
No theory is accurate. It's just that some theories are less inaccurate than others. We could say that Earth is fairly spherical, and that's less inaccurate than some other theories, but they will all be flawed to a greater or lesser degree. The simple reason for this is that Truth is inexpressible. For there to be any expression, such as a written theory, a verbal argument or a conceptual belief, it must utilise a duality. Written words are contrasted with the empty page, verbal words are contrasted with silence, and beliefs are contrasted with the empty mind in which they formulate. This duality is itself flawed. There can't really be a duality. There can only be an appearance of division or separation within the Singularity of existence. A Singularity can't really be expressed. It is best to accept that the expression of the Singularity is an inferior appearance of the reality which is always here.
What that means is that, as Reality is a Singularity, it can only be expressed as what it is not. For instance, silence can't really be expressed. Descriptions of silence aren't it. We can whisper or describe silence as the absence of sound, but that will not be as accurate as the silence itself. So all descriptions of it fail, or at best point to what can't be described. It is the same with trying to describe Reality. It's like trying to point to the finger that points, or trying to see the eye that sees.
So it's useful to recognise that all our beliefs are flawed. If we believe something to be true, it may be relatively true, but not absolute Truth. The absolute Truth is just what is, right here and now. It is beyond words and beyond concepts, or rather it is wordless and concept free, yet all words and concepts appear and disappear within it. Truth does not need to be believed. It is always here, ever-present. This is why in Non-Duality practice the aim is to drop all beliefs, even the belief of Non-Duality, as these beliefs are like clouds that block the clear sky of what just is.