Category: The Universe

Published: 25 April 2025

Hits: 921

Time can be understood as the continual transition of change. We know that planet Earth spins on its axis, giving the appearance that the sun spins around it. We divide one whole spin into 24 hours and call it a day. We divide one hour into sixty minutes and each minute into 60 seconds. We use these methods to measure what we call time.

Time is the flowing appearance of the universe. Without any change or flowing there is no time or sense of time. Time doesn't really go faster or slower. If the planet were to spin on its axis once in 12 hours that wouldn't make time faster. So time is constant in that sense.

It's important to realise that there are not really moments in time. There are never any definable chunks of time, like seconds and minutes. These are just human ways of measuring the continual flow of change. An hour isn't really made of 60 minutes. It is continual and indivisible. There isn't one minute then another then another and so on. Change just flows. So there are no real moments of time.

Really, there isn't even time. There is just an appearance of flowing change. This all appears Now. The appearance of change is a reflection and dispersion of a singular unchanging Oneness. Change is a reflection of Stillness. Stillness is the nature of Reality. There is truly nowhere to go and nothing to do, but in this Here and Now the dimensions of time and space can appear.

So there are no moments of time, just One. Well, really it's not even a moment of time. It's more like No Time. It can't be understood logically except by reflection of what it's not. Complete Stillness cannot be perceived, but by perceiving motion and change we can understand Stillness.

Category: The Universe

Published: 07 March 2025

Hits: 917

We tend to think of opposites as separate qualities. Good is different to evil. Light is different to darkness. High is different to low. Order is different to chaos. Happiness is different to sadness. On is different to off. But there is another way to understand opposites – we can consider opposites as expressions of one quality seemingly stretched apart. A continuum.

Take a heartbeat for example. The heart beats rhythmically as a pulse. We could understand this as a beat of on, off, on, off, on, off etc. But that’s not really what is happening. The rhythm of the heartbeat is continually flowing. The heart is pulsing, extending and contracting in a flowing motion, with peaks and troughs that give the sense of on and off. The heart flows between these opposite states, giving the sense of a beat or pulse So with the heartbeat it’s useful to understand it as a pulse of on and off, but it’s more accurate to understand it as a continuum of opposites.

Let’s also consider day and night. We usually think of these as opposites. Day is when the sun is in the sky. Night is when the sun is below the horizon. We know, of course, that the sun isn’t rising and falling as it appears to be. This is just a reflection of the planet's rotation, that gives the appearance that the sun is moving. That’s pretty basic really, and taken for granted these days. But it is an example of the reflection of movement and stillness in the world, a great display of the mechanics of manifestation. But let’s get back to the point of day and night. We can consider them as opposites, where one is light and the other dark. That’s one way to understand it. But a more accurate way is to understand it as a flowing between the brightening and darkening of light, a continual flow of brightness, becoming more bright, then less bright, more bright, then less bright. We could call it a Continuum of Brightness that gives the appearance of what we can then call day and night.

Perhaps a more difficult and emotive pair of opposites to consider is good and evil. These too can be considered as a continuum. Goodness is a kindness, a closeness to others, an openness, a selflessness, showing actions that are constructive and supportive of the whole. Evil is its opposite, hateful, distancing from others, closed, selfish, with destructive actions that are self-serving and against the whole. We can consider them as distinct opposites, but they have a connection. The opposites are bound together as reflective qualities of one quality. They are not clear cut. We could say there are degrees of goodness and evil, ranging from great goodness, to slight goodness, to okay-ness, to some badness, to destructive evil. We can consider this a Continuum of Goodness, a flowing out from supreme goodness, stretching away, becoming its opposite as extreme evil. Evil actions are actions at odds with Wholeness. They are actions seemingly far removed from the respect of the Wholeness of Life. Yet they are inevitably still within the Wholeness of Life.

You see, the opposites are never really separated or divided. Wholeness is maintained. The opposites do not stand alone, separate from one another. The Continuum of Opposites is the appearance of separation whilst maintaining Wholeness. This brings us back to the point mentioned above, where the reflection of opposites in the world shows the mechanics of manifestation. The apparent separation of opposites is the means by which the universe appears. Contrast is needed for something to appear from nothing. Yet these contrasting qualities can never truly be separated. They can only appear to be separated. The Wholeness of the Singularity is timelessly maintained throughout the appearance of separation that makes perception of the world possible.

I have often used the term ‘The World of Opposites’. That’s a way to understand the appearance of the world. A more accurate way would be as ‘Oneness’.

Category: Spiritual Practice

Published: 08 April 2025

Hits: 919

It might be thought that meditation is about being calm and still, sitting in a still position, calming the body, the breath and the mind. It sounds right, yes, but it's not exactly right. Calming the body is good, to give it peace and rest. Calming the breath sounds good too, to bring about the calm throughout the body. Calming the mind seems more like an essential part of meditation, not getting caught up in negative thoughts or thoughts that go off on tangents.

That all sounds good. But there is more to meditation than that. The benefits of meditation mentioned above are good for the mind and body, but there is a deeper knowing in meditation. You perceive the thoughts that may or may not be stilled. You perceive the breathing that may or may not be calm. You perceive the body that may appear to be still or moving. You see, the mind, the breath and the body can never truly be still. They appear in the World of Motion where everything is in a constant flow of movement. Even if the body appears to be completely still, we know that it is sitting in a spot on a spinning planet that is swirling through the universe.

There is a relative calm that can be brought about through meditation, though not True Stillness. Yet the True Stillness is here. It is the 'place' from which the mind, breath and body are perceived. You are the Stillness that the meditating mind and body is trying to reach. So it doesn't really matter if the mind is flowing, the breathing is heavy or the body is restless. It doesn't matter if the mind feels agitated and unable to concentrate. It doesn't matter if trying to control breathing causes breathing to be unsettled. It doesn't matter if the body is fidgety or uncomfortable. The highest aim of meditation is to just be as you are.

Being as you are requires absolutely no effort. You don't need to do anything. In fact, you don't really do anything. The witnessing of the mind, body and world just happens naturally, without effort. The movement of the world appears in the timelessness of Being. You don't need to try to be calm. You are Perfect Calmness already. You don't need to try to be still. You are Timeless Stillness itself.

There's no need to try to achieve peace or indeed to try to stop trying. There's no need to worry about failing. This trying and worrying, succeeding or failing, is a play of the mind perceived by You. You are complete already. You don't need to achieve peace. Whether the mind finds peace or not doesn't affect the peace that you are.

So in meditation when the mind becomes agitated or there is a focus on something, let it go. It doesn't matter. In fact, it's not you holding on, focusing, or letting go. You are the Awareness in which this appears to happen. These instructions are for the mind to let go of its identity with actions and trying to control the world. All is well. You are perfect peace as you are.

The mind may in time come to rest in the timeless peace of Aware Being, but the mind is not you. You are Aware Being already. So is meditation necessary? Not really. Nothing is needed to be the Still Peace that you are. But meditation is for the body-mind to come to the peace of the Aware Being that you are. Meditation naturally happens when the mind withdraws from identifying with the forms of the world.

Of course, you can 'meditate' wherever the body may be, whatever the circumstances. The meditative state of the mind is the withdrawing into the timeless nature of Aware Being that is always present. You are always Here and Now, wherever the mind or body may seem to wander. Even as the Earth spins around the sun, it appears in the Stillness of Awareness. This Peace and Stillness is with the body-mind wherever it goes. The mind will, in its own time, recognise this and find peace.

Category: The Human Experience

Published: 25 March 2025

Hits: 909

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.