David Hall's Non-Duality Blog
My name's David Hall. I'm the creator of this web site and its content. I live in Wales in the UK.
I developed the Celtic design software KnotWorker, I create electronic music as Goldcup7, and I've written books on spirituality and non duality.
Hope you enjoy this Non Duality blog. New blogs are added on Fridays.
Please use the Contact page if you have any questions or would like me to discuss a topic.
- Category: The Universe
- Hits: 1097
It's useful to consider this: Does the universe really change? Does the universe ever become something other than what it is? By 'universe' I don't mean one universe out of many different universes, as some may theorise. I mean the Whole.
Certainly the universe appears as though it is continually changing, but there is something that remains unchanged. The universe can't really become something other than what it is. It is neither more nor less than what it always is. There is nothing from which the universe can gain, and nothing to which the universe can lose, because there is nothing else.
It seems that the universe is changelessly changing. Even from the human perspective, the Earth and other planets spin around the Sun, clouds come and go, temperatures rise and fall, plants grow and fade, animals multiply and roam around the planet. Even when we are unaware of any noticeable movement we know that there is always change. The body breathes, food is digested, skin cells die and are replaced, right now. I hesitate to say 'every moment' because there are not really many moments. It's the appearance of continual flowing change in the Now.
The universe appears to be moving continually, but where can it go? Does the universe ever go anywhere other than where it always is? Since the universe contains all, there is nothing beyond it. So the universe cannot really be said to move somewhere else. There isn't somewhere else, although movement appears to happen within the universe. Even 'within' isn't accurate, as the universe has no limits to be within. There is really neither insider nor outside the universe. There is just What Is.
From the human perspective this moving, changing universe is observed from an unmoving, unchanging point. The body may move around in the world, but this movement is observed. No matter where you seem to go, you are always Here. No matter how the universe seems to change it is always perceived Now, and it can never be anything other than what it is.
- Category: Non-duality
- Hits: 1087
It's difficult to find peace in the world. By nature the universe is continually moving and changing. If a peace is found then it's only a temporary peace. However, there is a Permanent Peace. It's not something to be found, but it's at the heart of all the searching. Permanent Peace is timelessly present whilst the world spins around. In the world it is like the still centre, and this pattern repeats throughout the universe - a still centre at the heart of movement and change. We see it in the strong trunk of a tree, from which the branches grow outwards. It's in the swirl of water going down a plughole, and the eye of the hurricane as it whirls around. It's in the opening and closing of a flower and the seeming stillness of our view from planet Earth as the stars and planets move round.
These pockets of peace that we perceive aren't wholly accurate. Planet Earth isn't really still. Nothing in the world of movement and change remains still. It's just that they can seem still or they can represent stillness temporarily. Yet there is a True Stillness. It is this True Stillness from which and in which this world of motion is perceived. True Stillness is beyond time and space. Time and space appear within its timeless spacelessness. It's an infinite indivisible Singularity. It's always Here and Now.
Eckhart Tolle often mentions Presence or Being Present in his talks. He sometimes mentions The Present Moment. It's not really a moment in time, of course. He is referring to the timeless Now. This Presence is the true nature of all things. It is That in which time and space seem to stretch out. All the while, Presence is right Here, Now. It is the pure, perfect peace. It's not made of anything. Presence wasn't created. It is timeless and formless. It's an unshakeable Singularity. It cannot be moved or harmed. It cannot be broken or split in two. It is the true nature of the seemingly ever-moving world.
Presence has no beginning or end, no inside or outside. How do we know it's here? Because we know. The very fact of being aware tells us that we are here. We are the Aware Presence that is here. It's not that because there is a human there is Presence. The human is perceived because of Presence. Presence comes first. Well, it would be more accurate to say Presence is timelessly present, before any appearance of first and last. It reminds one of the Bible quote (John 1:8), "Before Abraham was, I am." It means that before the world appeared, Being was present. We can think of it like this: before the universe began, Presence was all that there was; but there was no time, no past or present tense, just Presence, Now. So Presence was before any appearance of beginning. It remains as it is throughout all apparent time and change, and is all that there is once time seems to come to an end.
It's difficult to understand it if one is firmly rooted in the notion of time as reality. The problem is that time isn't reality. Presence is Reality. That's why the question of what was before the beginning doesn't seem to make sense. There is no beginning, or end. There is only the timeless Now/Presence/Peace, and in this the world of time and space whirls around.
- Category: Spiritual Practice
- Hits: 1084
Recognise the Spaciousness in which the world appears. Sights and sounds, thoughts and feelings, all appear in something. They cannot appear or be known without a field in which they appear. For example, a thought pops into the mind, "I must remember to call Jasper." The thought is perceived or known. It's difficult to say what the thought appears in, but it's a kind of empty space. We call it consciousness or the mind.
Take another example: we hear the sound of a car driving past. There is an awareness or knowing of the sound. There is a field like silence in which the sound comes and goes. It's not altogether different to how thoughts come and go in a space of awareness. It is ultimately the same space of awareness that perceives or knows the sound and the thought. The knowing of these is like the centre of perception. It is the same space in which all perceptions are experienced. Sights, smells, taste, touch, feelings, are all experienced in the same place of knowing.
So our practice is to recognise that space in which all things are perceived, known or experienced. We are that Infinite Spaciousness. How wide or deep is it? No width, no depth. It has no size because it is limitless and formless. It is that which perceives apparent limits and forms, yet is itself limitless and formless. Any limits of things are imaginary or conceptual. These imaginary or conceptual limits are perceived in this Knowing Spaciousness. Recognise this. We perceive the thoughts and ideas of things being limited. We perceive the sense of the world being made of separate forms. But this is just an idea or assumption of limitation and division in the world. The world we experience is only ever experienced in one place. The sense of distance and time is experienced in this Knowing Spaciousness right Here and Now.
Knowing Spaciousness can't really be known, as it is Knowing itself. Just as the eye cannot see the eye. But we can know it is here because we know. In other words, I know therefore I am.
The practice is to recognise that even the person or personality is known. We are not the person, the thinker or the body doing actions. Recognise that these are perceived and we are That which is naturally perceiving, or Aware. Thoughts float by in the Spaciousness of Consciousness like clouds drifting through the endless sky. Spaciousness is unaffected by whatever appears because it has no form or substance. Yet it is the Full Emptiness in which all things appear.
Who is it that is doing this practice or seeking to be aware of this Knowing Spaciousness. Truly there is no-one. There isn't really a limited person trying to do this. It is an activity in the mind. It's an activity of the sense of being someone seeking to find who knows this. It may seem a little odd, but basically it is Self Enquiry. It is the sense of self seeking its source. Recognise that this is perceived. This seeking is perceived. It is not who we are. We are the knowing of this. We are the Knowing Spaciousness.
- Category: The Universe
- Hits: 1085
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: Non-duality
- Hits: 1077
In ancient Chinese philosophy there is an understanding of opposites in the world, with the Yin and Yang forces or qualities. But these opposites were considered to appear within the Supreme Ultimate (Taiji), which is a Perfect Inexpressible Singularity. Let’s explore and understand what this means.
So we know that this seems to be a World of Opposites. There are opposite qualities such as light and dark, good and bad, clear and clouded, moving and still, truth and lies. But these are not the Truth. They have some relative truth, but they are not the Absolute Truth. So words spoken or written may be close to or far from the Ultimate Truth, but words can never be the Truth. The reason that words can’t be the Absolute Truth is because they are expressions dependent on opposites and relativity.
It’s useful to really understand this. In the world all words are less than true, all movement is illusory, all clarity is less than perfect, all goodness is less than perfect purity, and all light is darker than Pure Light. So even though the opposites may appear to be like and unlike the Supreme Ultimate, the Absolute, Reality, they are inevitably less than it. They are less than the Ultimate because they are expressed in the seemingly divided World of Opposites.
It seems as if the world has fallen out of the paradisiacal state of Pure Perfection. It seems that the Supreme Formless Singularity has been divided to create a world of forms and opposites. So all that appears in the world is less than Perfection. What the world has to offer will never suffice. Even the most beautiful is less than perfection. Even the kindest of people is less than the Selflessness of the Supreme Singularity.
This is why the Supreme Ultimate can also be called the Great Extremity, or the Supreme Superlative. It is the Highest of the high and low. The Greatest of the good and bad. The Purest of the pure and tainted. This world is like an expression of the Supreme Ultimate by means of contrasting opposites, those like it and unlike it. But they are never really it. The expression always falls short of Truth and Reality. The Reality is imperceptible, as there is no other, no separation, no division of what is and what isn’t. There only seems to be a division of the Supreme Ultimate. It is Pure Unseen Perfection. Perfect Clarity. Formless Being.
But there is a seeming paradox. The world that appears seems to be less than the Whole, less than the Supreme Ultimate. But it isn’t. There is only the Whole, only the Supreme Ultimate. The seeming paradox is that although the world is to be understood as being less than the Supreme, it is also to be recognised that there is only the Supreme. There is never more than or less than the Supreme Singularity. The opposites are illusory in nature. Oneness is never divided in two. The world only seems to be a World of Opposites.
I could say it is the Supreme Singularity reflecting within itself. But all statements about it will be less than the Truth. The closest we can actually come to describing the Supreme Ultimate is by saying nothing.