The Universe
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
The world appears as a division/reflection of the Infinite Indivisible One. There appears to be the opposites 'alive' and 'not alive', 'conscious' and 'not conscious'. It is as though the Primordial Pure Conscious Being split in two, to show what it is and what it isn't. This is a play of separation, of reflection and contrast, an expression of the inexpressible Infinite One by means of its opposites.
The world doesn't have a beginning or an end, only an appearance of beginnings and ends. The truth is Infinity, and limitations can only be illusory or imaginary. It's much like a dream. In a dream there is you, other people or animals, and the world in which the dream happens. But it is all the dreamer. The dream seems to split into you and a world. But really there is no splitting, and the division is imagined.
Back to the real world. Well, it's not really real. It's an expression of the Real. Nevertheless, there is a realness about this world. The realness is the Consciousness in which it appears. The world appears to have a contrast of conscious beings and non-conscious objects, alive beings and not-alive objects. This all appears within Consciousness. Consciousness is Life itself. It allows the appearance of opposites within its indivisible infinite oneness.
In this planet apparently non-living forms (elements etc.) have combined and interacted. They've been called the building blocks of life. It seems that these buildings blocks have combined and interacted to an extent that living conscious beings have been formed, namely animals and humans. There is a path of evolution from barely animate, to animated, to intelligently animated, or as we call them, alive and conscious beings. This sense of difference of what is alive and not-alive seems quite obvious to us, but if you look closely it's difficult to find the divide. The reason for this is that there is no divide between alive and not-alive. There is only Life.
This seeming dichotomy of Life into alive and not-alive cannot be perceived without the permanent Life that you are. This flow of alive and not-alive appears within the absolute life of Consciousness. It is by Consciousness that it is perceived, and it is in Consciousness, made of Consciousness.
It's worth mentioning here that it's not that the elements and forms come to life and become conscious beings. Really, life and consciousness is timelessly here. The life that the human body has is Consciousness. The consciousness that the human body seems to have is this Consciousness that is the background to the appearance of the world. Imagine Consciousness like a perfect sheet of paper, then different creatures are drawn on the paper. The real substance of the creatures is the underlying paper. The drawn beings don't come to life, yet at the heart of their being there is pure Life. This pure Life is expressed in the world of opposites as a coming and going, a rising and falling, what we call 'coming to life' and 'losing life'. It is all Pure Life expressed through a world of opposites.
It is the same Consciousness that is the heart and life of all beings. The beings/creatures/humans/animals are like pockets of perception in the world. These pockets of perception are the means by which Infinite Consciousness perceives the expression of itself. Like the dream analogy, the world is Infinite Consciousness perceiving itself through the illusory separation of the subject perceiving objects. For example, your human self perceiving the world around it is really Infinite Consciousness appearing to separate into the human and the world it perceives. It's all One. There is no beginning or end to the world. It is Infinite Consciousness.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
Considering order and chaos gives us a useful glimpse into the nature of reality. The world seems to flow with an appearance of both order and chaos. By 'chaos' I mean the opposite of orderliness, which we can describe as randomness, where things happen by chance. For example, a tree grows according to the orderly 'pattern' stored in the seed, but chaos applies in the formation of the tree, giving rise to its uniqueness. So no two trees are the same. They follow a pattern (order) but there is chance (chaos) in where and how the branches grow.
Let's consider emptying a pencil case onto a table. If we tip up the case and let the stationery fall out it lands on the table in a chaotic fashion, with pens, pencils, rulers, erasers and so on scattered randomly. So there appears a scene of orderly objects scattered chaotically. It appears chaotic but there is an argument that the chaotic scattering is actually orderly. That is, the objects fall according to gravity and a complex array of forces applying to each object as they fall. These forces are the orderly forces of nature. The appearance of randomness is then not so random, but determined by natural forces. Similarly, the branches of a tree grow according to its orderly plan and the forces of nature, including gravity, the wind, the sun and other environmental factors.
It can be considered that Chaos is merely a play of order, where order creates the appearance of chaos, similar to how numbers are 'randomly' generated in a computer game. Random number generation in computer games often uses a 'seed' number, which can be taken from the computer's clock time and fed it into a complex algorithm to produce apparently random numbers that can trigger events in the game. So it's not really random. Other things can be used for the 'seed' number, such as the fluctuating electrical power supply, and that brings a more chaotic element to the randomness. But it could be argued that the power supply fluctuates in an orderly manner, according to nature's laws.
So is Chaos real? There is a scientific view that quantum physics is completely random, that there are random fluctuations in the quantum realm that are not orderly and give rise to randomness in the world. Or maybe it is just another appearance of randomness that will be found to have an orderly source.
From the Non Dual perspective there is not this play of order and chaos. There is only an appearance of opposites in separation, just as there is only an appearance of 'order and chaos'. The Reality is that there is only One, an Infinite One without division, form or limitation. In itself the One can be considered as complete order, as there is no confusion or randomness in simply being. It is an Order beyond the sense of 'order and chaos'.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
It's useful to imagine a singularity. Really, I should say the Singularity, as there can only be one singularity. You can't have many singularities floating around, overlapping or bumping edges, because there are no edges to a singularity. The Singularity has no beginnings or ends, no inside or outside. It is formless, indivisible and dimensionless. Let go of the notions of time and space - they don't exist in the Singularity. There is no space or distance, no time or change. The Singularity is complete in its perfect, still, untainted nature.
Now, let's recognise what we're talking about here. This Singularity I've asked you to imagine is what was before the universe began. It's what was before time and space appeared. So really there is no 'was' about it. It's timeless. Confusion arises about this and we wonder, "How can something exist before time began?" The answer is that time is illusory. There is no 'before' time, because time only seems to appear. All we ever know is right now.
But let's continue imagining the Singularity. We're talking about the Singularity that gives rise to the apparent multiplicity of the universe here. Imagine it like a seed, completely contained and unexpressed. The opposing forces that will come into play in the universe are unexpressed, and we could consider that they are cancelled out, although really they've not split open yet.
We need to go further in understanding the nature of this Singularity. It is this Singularity that gives rise to the life of the universe. But life doesn't appear by chance. Life is the nature of existence or being. This Singularity is Life itself. The Singularity is alive before time begins. In the Singularity, this 'alive' means nothing. It just is what it is. It is only from our human perspective of conceptualising what seems to be either alive or not alive, that we can understand the Singularity as being Life itself, pure unexpressed Life.
What happens next? Well, there isn't a next. There only seems to be a next. It only seems that the Singularity burst forth into an expression of multiplicity. The universe seems to have appeared from out of the Nothing of the Singularity, dividing in two, splitting and reuniting, multiplying across the universe. This is the appearance of distance and change that we call space and time. The universe appears in the Singularity as if the Singularity opens up into a multiplicity and closes again, much like the opening and closing of a flower through the day. The universe continues to express the moment of creation right now.
It seems as if the Singularity divides itself and experiences separation and imbalance. It would be expected that the end of time and space will be the reuniting and rebalancing of the universe into the Singularity again. It's useful to understand this, because it's the reason for human life as we know it on planet Earth. But it's not strictly true, unless you recognise that the universe only seems to happen. The Singularity is right here now. It never went anywhere. It never broke. It never split. The Singularity does not change. Distance and change are illusory. There is nowhere other than the Singularity and there is no change in the timeless Singularity.
The conclusion is that there is no universe. There is only the Singularity. What we call the universe is a play of separation and limitation within the indivisible, unlimited Singularity. We must conclude then another aspect of the Singularity: that it has the ability to imagine. Not only is the Singularity alive, but it can imagine and create an illusory universe within itself.
You may think that it's not too dissimilar to the human mind, and you'd be right. The human mind is a natural development in the evolution of the illusory universe, expressing the unexpressed nature and origin of the universe. It's a development of becoming self expressing, creative, and self aware. The Singularity is alive and aware. It is the Heart of Awareness. From the perspective of the universe and beings in the universe, the Singularity shines like the heart of awareness in each being, the Being of all beings, the Heart of all hearts, the Self of all Selves. Although there is nothing other than the Singularity, the world appears as a division or stretching of the Singularity into what is close to it and what is far from it. The Singularity then appears to be the light of life at the heart of all beings. Pure Conscious Awareness.
But truly the Singularity encompasses all space and time. In the heart it is the whole. There is no far or near. There is no past or future. There is only the Pure Consciousness of the Singularity.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
Awareness is the nature of Being. It is the core of all experience. All that is experienced appears within Awareness. I use the word Consciousness synonymously, or sometimes say Pure Consciousness to give an understanding of its unchanging nature. The words Spirit and God can also apply to Awareness. Awareness is our timeless, formless nature, in which the appearance of space, time, individuality and separation are experienced. Awareness is the core shared nature at the heart of all seemingly separate beings.
Well, from the human perspective it seems that Awareness is at the heart, the core, the centre. From the human perspective Awareness is the still centre around which the world seems to move. Yet there is nothing other than Awareness. The world appears in Awareness, made of Awareness, perceived by Awareness. Awareness really has no inside or outside, no separation of opposites. Awareness has the qualities of a singularity: unlimited, unseen, undivided, unmoving, uncreated, unchanging, complete, formless, flawless, spaceless, timeless.
By contrast the world appears to be a World of Opposites. Awareness perceives form and change, limitation and division, creation and destruction, birth and death, waking and sleeping, individuality and multiplicity, gain and loss. The World of Opposites appears within the Singularity of Awareness like a reflection of Awareness's own imperceptible nature. The world shows what cannot be seen. Forms appear to express the formless.
In the world there seems to be a separation between the subject and the object, the observer and the observed. This is like a stretching of Awareness into 'one being aware of another'. When attention is focused on an object there seems to be a narrowing and limiting of Awareness. This is similar to what the human experience does. It seems to narrow Awareness to a point of individuality aware of many. But it's only a play. Awareness does not become human. Awareness remains as it is, whilst the human form appears as a focus of Awareness observing itself.
All apparently separate limited human beings are Awareness perceiving itself as the world, seemingly as something other than itself. It is like the archetypal sacrifice of God, giving up immortality to experience the mortal world, giving up infinity to experience limitation. But truly God doesn't give up immortality, freedom and infinity. Awareness is unharmed and unchanged by the world, just as conflict in a dream doesn't cause the body to be harmed.
This World of Opposites we experience is only a play of separation within the undivided limitlessness of Awareness. Nothing is near or far from Awareness. Nothing is before or after Awareness. Awareness does not sleep or wake just because the body shuts down for the night. Formless timeless Awareness is not born, nor does it die. The World of Opposites is all a play in Awareness, made of Awareness, known by Awareness.