Category: Spiritual Symbols and Patterns

Published: 11 June 2024

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In the material world we can find patterns that point to the spiritual. One of those patterns is the Hollow. We find it naturally occurring in plant stems such as bamboo, in bones, in lungs, the cavity of the mouth, cave formations, and at the heart of wind formations such as hurricanes and tornadoes. Humankind also uses the hollow in wind instruments, where the flow of air through a hollow tube with hollow outlets creates sounds of different frequencies. Pipework, containers, bottles and cups, even trains, ships and planes have a hollowness about them. The well-known sacred sound, Om or Aum, refers to the Hollow.

What is the spiritual significance of the Hollow? It hints at the empty space at the heart of the universe, the heart of our being. Buddhists call it emptiness or void. Eckhart Tolle calls it Spaciousness. It is the Sacred Spaciousness at the heart of our being. Our nature is not the apparent outer hardness of the human form. We are the Sacred Spaciousness that perceives the apparent outer form.

Within the Sacred Spaciousness there is no inside our outside. The heart of our being is a complete Singularity. The apparently outside world appears through the use of opposites. So the hollow is expressed as an empty circle, an empty interior with a circular boundary. Without the use of the opposites the Spaciousness cannot be expressed or perceived. You see, the hollow that we can say is the heart of our being has no limits, no boundaries. It is an Infinite One. When considered from the outside material viewpoint we can say it is at the heart of our being. But in the heart there is no inside or outside.

It is the Singularity that seems to be the heart of the world, yet it is not limited by the world. It is not devoid of life. It is pure, complete life, by which the opposites of life and death are known. Ultimately it is within the Singularity that this interplay of opposites, of inside and outside, alive and not alive, stillness and motion, plays out.

All sentient beings have this same centre. There is only one Infinite Singularity. It is the heart of the world of many, the heart of the world of opposites. We are not the play of opposites. We are the Sacred Spaciousness.

Category: Non-duality

Published: 27 April 2024

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The world appears as a flow of continual movement and change. Where stillness appears in the world it is illusory. For example, if you're sat at home on a sofa or on a bed, sat on a bench in a park, or even if you're sat on a train, there is a sense of stability and stillness. But the stillness of the sofa, the bed, the bench or the seat on the train, is illusory. It is a relative stillness. The seat on the train is relatively still in relation to the train, as it maintains its steady motion with the train. The sofa is relatively still in relation to the Earth, whilst the planet spins around. The Earth is continually spinning and swirling through the universe, and the universe is in continual motion.

This illusion of stillness in the world of motion is merely a play of opposites. What we see in the world is a reflection of the truth. Stillness is the reality, and motion is the illusion. But I don't mean the stillness that you can see. True Stillness is an infinite Singularity that has no form, no outside, no inside, no distance and no change. It is Stillness beyond any appearance of stillness, beyond space and time.

The appearance of The World of Opposites is the way in which the Singularity becomes visible. So the illusory world appears as the opposites motion and stillness, where motion is the opposite of the Singularity and stillness is its likeness. Yet the appearance of the world of opposites is itself the opposite of the Oneness of the Singularity. Hence the stillness that appears is not true stillness.

It is in this way that space and time appear as the opposite of the unseen Singularity that has no form, location, separation or change. This World of Opposites or the World of Motion is wholly illusory, yet infused with the reality of the Singularity. Space seems to stretch out indefinitely within the Hereness of the Singularity. Time appears to stretch out within the Nowness of the Singularity.

Distance and change appear within the Here and Now of the Singularity. So the illusion or maya of the world is itself illusory. There is only Reality. The illusion is held by the belief of space and time over the truth of the Singularity. Where is this Singularity, this True Stillness? It is right Here and Now. Wherever you may seem to go, however you may seem to have changed, you remain here and now as the True Stillness witnessing the world of movement and change.

Category: Non-duality

Published: 04 June 2024

Hits: 178

The human sense of being a separate limited self comes from the perception of distance and limits. The mind feels that it is at the centre of perception. The sense of distance spans outward from 'itself'. Through sight it perceives distance. Through sound it perceives distance, and also to a certain extent through touch. Even with our eyes closed we can perceive where our hands and feet are, and they are perceived as being a distance outwards from our centre of awareness.

This 'centre' or heart of awareness is not strictly accurate. It may be a conceptual point where all perceptions are known and where dimensions seems to be perceived from, but it is a relative centre dependent on the apparent outer shell. The mind has a sense that it is in the head, where the eyes see from and the ears hear from. But this is an assumption. Truly, if you reach out with the mind you will not find any limits.

Similarly, the mind can assume identity with the body and can feel that it is within the body. This is based on the faulty assumption that the body's limits are firm and impervious. But we know that the body or indeed any physical matter is not impervious. Matter gives an appearance of solidity, but we know that radiation can travel through matter that seems to be solid. For example, xrays are used to examine bones within the body, and ground penetrating radar is used to analyse buried structures beneath the soil.

Back to the human being. There is a sense of being within, because we perceive these apparent limits, the outer shell of the head and body, and the distance away from us that things appear. As I've mentioned elsewhere in these blogs and in my books, our perception of distance is always right here. We may recognise that, but there is still the sense of 'here' being within the human form.

Truly, this point 'here' is not enclosed. It is a spaceless space, within which the sense of inside and outside is experienced. We experience this sense of being within the apparently limiting human form from a field of open awareness. We perceive the imaginary limits of the heart and the whole from here, from nowhere.

So, although the spiritual seeker learns to look within to 'know thyself', it is found that there is no within. The heart of being its not a centre, because there are no limits to define it. But in seeking this heart of being we realise that there is no inside or outside, and that there is no divide that separates the heart and the whole. It is in realisation of the Infinite One that the sense of being a separate limited self falls away.

This is what is called enlightenment, self realisation, or nirvana, where the illusory separate self is "snuffed out". Maya, or the illusion of separation, is rooted out at the source and reality is perceived clearly as it is. The limits that seemed to define the separate self disappear, and it is revealed that there is no identity. Pure formless aware being.

Category: Spirituality

Published: 14 May 2024

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When you recognise that there is only one, one infinite being that is expressed through many forms, it's generally important then to live in line with that understanding. I call it The Way of Oneness.

It takes some time and effort to change from the old way of living to the new way of living in line with oneness. If that's where you're at, you'll know that it's not easy to always see the world as one. Sometimes things frustrate us. Sometimes people frustrate us. Sometimes we are frustrated with our own sense of individual self. But with some effort it improves.

The trick is to let go of otherness. There really are no others. There is only what is. Our old way of thinking was that the world, people and animals, were others. They were separate from how we saw ourself. It was us and the world of others. Now we want to let go of those old notions because we recognise there is only Oneness. But the ego is stubborn and wants to hold onto things. We have to practise letting go.

So work at letting go of the idea of 'me and them'. See that your human perspective and other human perspectives are allowed to appear different. Here's a useful list to help you on your way to a deepening oneness:

• Recognise selfishness and let it go, in favour of natural selflessness.
• Be kind to others, even if they may be unkind to you.
• Accept the world as it is, and don't seek to control it.
• Drop the attachment to objects, that you may have thought were yours.
• Drop the attachment to thoughts, that you may have thought were yours.
• See distance and change as the play of the world.
• Rest in the Here and Now that is your natural state.