Category: Spiritual Practice

Published: 04 April 2025

Hits: 903

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: Spiritual Symbols and Patterns

Published: 18 April 2025

Hits: 900

There is some wisdom to be found in understanding the four classical elements: earth, water, air and fire. They may seem a little dated these days when we have classified many elements in the periodic table and we know that water is made of hydrogen and oxygen, and that air contains a number of different elements like nitrogen, oxygen and argon. But there is a simple wisdom in the understanding of the four elements.

You see, the four elements are the expression of the reality that underlies the universe. Earth symbolises stability, unmoving, unchanging solidity. Water symbolises fluidity and continual change. Air symbolises boundlessness, transparency, clarity, being imperceptible but essentially present. Fire symbolises energy, vibration, expression and power. Even from a basic perspective we can see the progression from fire to air to water to earth. It shows the expressive force of fire contracting to air then water then earth. There is a range or spectrum of energy, from the most energetic to the least, from the most unstable to the most stable.

What's this got to do with Non-Duality? It's a way of understanding how the true non-dual nature of Reality is expressed in the appearance of the world. What that means is that the true non-dual nature of Reality is unseen, indivisible, unmoving, unchanging life energy. It's expressed in and through the world in the apparent separation of a Singularity into a spectrum of elements that range from near to far, from high to low, from light to dark, from fire to earth, from life to death. The four elements are the play of the Singularity expressed as an explosion and condensing of frequencies of vibration. In other words, the world of energy, gases, liquids and solids, is an expression of a Singular Reality as if blown apart. High energy is close to the heat, light and source of Life. Low energy becomes cold, distant and dark. Once apparently separated they can then interact as though they are different elements.

But even the most cold and distant of solid forms is not truly impermeably solid. There is only an appearance of solidity. Reality is a Singularity. It doesn't really get blown apart into a range of frequencies. That's just how it appears. The Reality is that there can never be anything other than the Singularity. The four elements are a play of separation that form the building blocks of the world, whilst the world remains timelessly as the Singularity.

The Singularity is the Quintessence. It seems to be the centre of the cross of the four elements, the place from which they have come, the source which separates outwards to form the elements. But truly the Quintessence is timelessly the whole of the elements, without separation. Picture a cross and consider each arm of the cross to be one of the four elements. It's not that the centre is the Quintessence. It is more like the Quintessence is the whole of the cross. The cross is truly undivided. The four elements are never truly separated. They only give the appearance of separation whilst remaining timelessly Whole, eternally One.

Category: Non-duality

Published: 04 March 2025

Hits: 900

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.

Category: The Universe

Published: 02 May 2025

Hits: 873

What's it all about, this ball of life spinning through the universe? Some say it's a random development. Some say it's a logical development. Some say planet Earth was created for a divine purpose. Some say it's a school for souls. Some say it's a cage for souls. Some don't really consider it at all.

Let's consider it properly here. The spherical shape of the planet is a logical development in the sense that it conforms to the laws of the universe. There are laws of interaction in the universe that give rise to spherical shapes, spinning and swirling patterns, and elliptic paths (such as those where planets spin around the sun). These laws arise with the apparent splitting of the Singularity into opposite forces. Elsewhere I've discussed the Law of Opposites, which is a simple way of understanding the forces at play in the manifest universe.

So spherical shapes form through the forces of motion and interaction that arise from the apparent splitting of the Singularity. We call them stars, planets and moons. Planet Earth develops seemingly randomly, although in line with the laws of the universe. The Law of Opposites allows the appearance of order and chaos simultaneously, or law and chance. Law and chance gives rise to the formation of mineral, vegetable and animal forms on the planet. We say 'on the planet', but really these forms are the planet. They're not really on it or in it. They are it.

Planet Earth is an expression of appearing to be a multiplicity whilst remaining as a singularity. This is the play of the universe repeating within itself. The Singularity doesn't split and become a multiplicity. It can only appear to become many. So it is with planet Earth. The planet seems to divide itself into competing forms. Plant and animal forms compete with each other to survive. The apparent multiplicity that is created in the planet follows the Law of Opposites in that some unite and some push away. Some animals go alone, some team up. The Oneness of Reality appears as one and many. The many can team up as one, or they split up and scatter. They interact harmoniously or they clash.

This interplay of opposites flows through the planet. The plants and animals seem to have their own will, their own life. But truly there is One Life. The planet is the life of all forms that appear within it. Though they may compete with 'others' it's only an appearance of 'others'. The diversity of the planet is a play of difference, when the reality is Oneness. Humans and animals may act as one life against other lives. They seem to live for a time then die. But this is all a play of alive and dead, animate and inanimate, within the Oneness of Life expressed as planet Earth.

There is no real division between life forms on planet Earth. All life is intertwined, or rather, flowing. Where one life seems to end, it transforms gradually into other life. It's all One Life playing at living and dying, whilst remaining as Life. Humans breathe flowingly with the air of the planet, drink the water of the planet, and eat the food of the planet. It all flows through, seemingly in then out. But the air, fluid and food interact with the body. The body is part of it all. A part that only seems to be discrete. The human body only seems to have a defined form. Truly it is continually changing and moving, whilst flowing with planet Earth.

So the diversity of life that planet Earth displays is the diversity of One. It is the One appearing to become many, and each of the many appear to be one in their own right. But we don't need to stop at planet Earth. The universe itself is a play of many whilst remaining One. The Singularity that is the One Life, the One Being, the One Spirit, whatever we call it, plays at being many. It can never truly become many. It can only appear to be many. Ultimately this brings us back to: Who am I? Each seemingly separate one of us, is truly the same One Life. The limits of who we are can only be imaginary.

The One Life is limitless. It doesn't really live and die. It doesn't really change and become something else. It only seems to, whilst remaining timelessly as it is. We are the timeless limitless Infinite Indivisible One.