The Human Experience
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Human Experience
Are the concepts 'right' and 'wrong' subjective? Well, the simple answer is yes. But a more telling answer is yes and no. Humanity has a subjective view of what is right and wrong, but this is influenced by a higher purpose or higher understanding of the nature of Truth. What is right is closest to Truth/Reality. What is wrong is further away. But the reality is that there is nothing other than Truth/Reality, so what appears to be wrong or untrue is not what it seems.
That may take some explaining. When it's understood that Reality is a Singularity, then what appears to be separate, divided or in opposition is understood to be incorrect or unreal. So opposites are useful, but not correct. There are no real opposites, only the Singularity seeming to be divided into what is like it and what is not like it. For example, a shining star in space expresses the life, light and clarity of the Singularity in contrast to the lifeless darkness around it. Yet it is all still the Singularity.
So it is with right and wrong. This is the appearance of what is like the Singularity and what is unlike the Singularity. What Is appears as what is and what is not. But the opposites are themselves inaccurate. There is only ever What Is. So even though 'right' appears closest to Truth and 'wrong' seems to be further away, they are both nothing other than Truth. The unreal and the untrue cannot exist, only conceptually.
Although things in the world may appear to be right and wrong, it is only from a narrowed perspective that this apparent duality is observed. The whole, complete picture is that there is never anything wrong. There is only Truth, Rightness and Reality. It is the same with all apparent opposites. Good and bad, alive and dead, love and hate, clarity and confusion, near and far, peace and war, freedom and restriction, one and many - these are all expressions of what is like the Singularity and what is unlike it. Yet there is only ever the Singularity. No matter how many there appear to be, there is only ever One.
We can go a step further with Rightness. Although 'right' is closer to Truth than 'wrong', pure Rightness is just What Is. It's neither right nor wrong really. We only know the quality of Rightness from the contrast of its opposite. Rightness, Truth, Reality, Love, Clarity, Complete, One, Unlimited are the basic qualities of just being. So there is a point to be made that they are not qualities at all.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Human Experience
Humanity allows the ego to be in control. In control of everyday decisions. In control of how each human life pans out. In control of lives, relationships, towns, countries, human society and the planet. The ego is in charge. The ego is the dictator of human life. Or so it thinks.
The ego is the sense of 'me', the separate identity. 'Me' as an individual separate from others. There is also the collective ego, a group identity separate from others, where we identify as 'we' or 'us' and different to 'them'. This sense of separation forms into an identity, a strong held belief that I or we are separate and different from others. The stronger this identity develops, the more distant its sense of separation is from 'others'. The stronger the sense of ego is, the more it will be at odds with 'others' and the world. The stronger the ego, the more difficult life becomes.
The strong ego isn't just the boasting self-conceited ego. It's also the self-deprecating ego, the one that feels it is less than others. Either way, it's a distancing from others. The sense of separation. The ego boosts its idea of separation and difference in order to maintain its sense of self and identity. It can do this by putting others down or inflating its own sense of superiority. It can also criticise itself and dwell in a sense of inferiority. It all amounts to the same thing: the ego distances itself from others in order to increase its sense of identity. It's in these ways that the ego becomes controlling.
The ego seeks to control, to maintain and improve its individual identity. Life must be the way it wants it. People must act the way it wants them to. This will usually fail and cause all sorts of problems, but the ego criticises and blames either itself or others for this. So it still boosts its sense of identity separate from others.
Not only does this happen on a personal level, in our human lives and relationships. It happens in work life, where strong egos make their way up the ranks to strengthen their sense of identity, power and control. It happens in family life, community life and political life, where strong egos can get themselves into positions of power. The ego can then control and dictate over many 'others'.
With collective egos groups will clash with each other. For example, gangs fight other gangs to maintain the boundaries of their territory, fans of sports teams can develop a strong dislike of others, companies sometimes compete ruthlessly against similar companies, countries seek to battle other countries or take them over. This is all the play of the ego.
But the ego isn't real. The sense of identity is flawed. It's a false identity. There are no true boundaries to any identity. The countries have no true boundaries. The companies, sports teams and gangs are only divided in the human mind. These seeming divisions are not natural and take effort to maintain. Similarly with our human forms. The human body isn't separate from the planet, or indeed the universe as a whole. The limits of the human body can't really be found. This division of the world is purely intellectual, not factual.
So the point here is to recognise that the ego wants to rule the world. It wants to rule human life, from daily activities and decisions to worldly affairs. What can 'we' do about it? Well, this apparent dictator is never really in control. It just thinks it is. Really it is for the dictator itself to turn itself in. The ego will bring about the end of the ego. This is the path of Self Realisation. The ego goes out into the world seeking something, maybe happiness. But it will only find it when it recognises its mistake of assuming it's someone separate from the world.
The end of the ego is in the dissolving of its sense of separate identity. Ultimately the ego needs to give itself up, stop trying to control, stop blaming others, stop thinking it's separate. Love and kindness to others, putting others first, is a step in that direction. But ultimately there must be no sense of 'me and others'. That is Self Realisation: that there is only an Infinite Indivisible One.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Human Experience
Can you be in tune with the whole? Can you be so at one with the world that all your actions are in harmony with the world? Well, yes and no.
As long as there is a 'you' or a 'me' there is a sense of separation from the whole, a falling out of harmony with the whole. So 'you' can never be in complete harmony with the world or the whole. You will be more or less in disharmony with the whole. At best 'you' can be close to harmony. At worst, far from harmony. When close to harmony, the sense of 'me' is diminished to such a degree that 'your' actions are for others and for the whole, as best as 'you' can. When far from harmony 'your' actions would be disruptive and harmful to others and the world. The 'me' will be out of harmony to a greater or lesser degree. Or so it seems.
The good news is that there is a true Harmony. Harmony is the truth. Harmony is the truth within the appearance of disharmony. What appears to be you and what is believed to be you is not you. What appears has no limits. What appears is the Whole. There is nothing other than the Whole and it isn't really divided up into separate forms.
The human mind sees the world as separate and believes this, developing its sense of identity as separate from others or the rest of the world. This sense of separation is thought based and at the root of identity. This is the 'me' that can feel alone in the world, fearful of the world or angry against the world. The stronger the sense of separate identity, the more 'I' will feel distant, isolated, or at odds with the world. This is where the disharmony comes in.
The 'me' can't achieve harmony because it is by nature a sense of separation and disharmony. It's a separating out from the whole, like an imaginary cutting out a piece of the whole. But the whole is never truly separated. The Harmony is always here. The whole is always the whole. Nothing is gained or lost. It just is.
So what do we do to find this Wholeness? We let go of the sense of being separate. We allow the recognition of Oneness to permeate this sense of being separate, so that it gradually dissolves. Know that the sense of 'me' is witnessed, but you are not it. It appears and disappears within the whole. You are not this or that. You just are.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Human Experience
In spirituality circles you may hear of Maya or Illusion. It refers to the illusory nature of the world. So what's so illusory about it?
The term 'Maya' comes from Indian philosophy and means illusion or magic. It generally refers to the appearance of the changing universe from and in the Unchanging Reality. The illusion is that there is a world that seems to move and change, whilst Reality is unmoving and unchanging. There appear to be many limited forms but the Reality is a formless Infinite Indivisible One.
Is the world really an illusion? Well, yes and no. The illusion is that the world appears to be other than the Divine Reality. The world appears to be something it is not. There can be nothing other than the Infinite One, so what appears to be other than the Infinite One is illusory. So, is there an illusion or isn't there? The illusion is that there is an illusion. There is only Reality.
This may sound confusing. It needs an example. The traditional example is of the snake and the rope. From a distance there appears to be a snake in the road. This is illusory, because on closer inspection it is found to be just a harmless piece of rope. So the 'illusion' is really a mistaken understanding. The rope appeared to be something it wasn't. The rope didn't really change its appearance to become a snake. It was simply as it was. There was really no illusion, just a mistaken understanding.
And so it is with the world and Reality. From a seemingly limited perspective the world seems to move and change, and have many limited forms that come into being and disappear again. It is the seemingly limited perspective that projects this view of the world. The world appears as if it is a reflection of the Unseen Unchanging Formless Reality. There appears to be a play of opposites that makes What Is appear to be what it is not. The Permanent Reality appears to be changing, but it remains the same.
This is the human experience - a seemingly limited experience of Reality. The human experience allows the Unseen Infinite One to be seen. Well, kind of, although whatever is seen will always be less than the Whole, seemingly limited. The human experience allows an appearance of many, of me and other, of beginnings and ends, here and there, now and then. It appears that the Infinite One is divided into many. There appears to be a me and what is not me. This is the illusion of the world, that there can appear to be something other than the Infinite One. But it doesn't really happen.
The Great Illusion is this play of opposites that allows countless experiences within the One. The One cannot be divided, but it can appear to be divided. Just as the rope can't become a snake, but it can appear to be a snake if the perspective is skewed, if clear seeing and knowing is seemingly limited. The Great Illusion is that I am this and not that, when there is truly no division in Reality. I do not really become this or that. It can only seem that I am this or that. Reality remains as it is. The illusion is in the mistaken perspective.
The Great Revelation then is that it is what it is. There is nothing other than Reality. There are not really many forms. There is no separation or division of the Whole. The Singularity of Reality remains timelessly as it is. Reality is qualityless though of the Highest Quality. There only seems to be less than the Whole. The world of opposites that seems resplendent with division, incompleteness and imperfection is truly the Complete Perfect Oneness of the Whole.