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: Spirituality
- Hits: 1314
What is Non Attachment? Why is Non Attachment important? The simple answer is that it is our nature to not be attached. But let's explore and understand that better.
Non Attachment, or Detachment, is an important element of Buddhism. The aim is to bring about peace by letting go of attachments to objects, people, thoughts, and feelings. There is good reason for this. The Buddhist tradition focuses on how suffering is experienced due to these attachments. The Buddha became free from suffering and free from attachments, or rather the Buddha realised the true nature which is not attached and is without suffering.
When you recognise that reality is a Singularity it explains this. There is nothing other than the Singularity. So who or what is there to be attached to? That is the realisation of enlightenment, that there is no other. Non Attachment is the way to live in harmony with the true nature of being.
When we live by false concepts of separation, we consider ourself to be separate, and suffering ensues. By feeling attached to people, objects, thoughts or emotions, we strengthen the sense of being separate from them. We seem to get caught in the push and pull of the world.
Our true nature is without limits. There is not truly a border where we end and something else begins. Let go of these attachments and just be. It is the pure nature of our being just to be.
How do we practise this Non Attachment? By letting go. Let go of the importance of objects. Let go of depending on people for happiness. It does not mean that we should reject people and objects. On the contrary, by dropping attachment and boundaries we become more at one. Our interactions with objects, people, feelings and emotions become less selfish. When we let go we loosen the ties that bind. We realise our freedom. The clash between me and others fades. There is only an infinite oneness. It wipes out all boundaries of separation and attachment.
- Category: The Human Experience
- Hits: 1312
It may be accepted as normal, but it's worth noting that human life can seem dull, boring and dreary. For many people life is a suffering, a heavy, dark experience, where death is something to look forward to. This is the experience of life at the far edge of separateness.
This isn't what life really is, but here we experience the dense weightiness, sluggishness and dullness that is the expression of life at the far end of the Spectrum of Life. The human experience is one of feeling the weight of the world. It is the hardened dense world of matter. It weighs us down, slows us down, and gets us down.
This is the human experience of life. It is not the only way that life can be experienced, and even within humanity there is a range of experiences of life. There is a fresher, dynamic, more vibrant experience of life. Most people have occasional glimpses of it. Many people chase after it, looking for those experiences that bring out the feeling of freshness, fun and excitement. It's difficult to maintain that freshness, as human life soon sinks back to its average state.
This is how it is for humanity. But it won't stay like this. Humanity can and will change. There are higher states of life to reach, and we can bring that about in our human experience of life now and in the development of humanity. We are looking for a freer, fresher, dynamic sense of life. This is not the truth of life, but it is closer to the truth than feeling restricted, dull and weighed down. The truth is Pure Life, which is totally free, without restriction, and totally fresh without age or deterioration. It is the timeless state of Now, or the Fullness of Life. The Fullness of Life is complete oneness, without lack, without confusion, heaviness or restriction.
It is through the Way of Oneness that we can find the Fullness of Life that is here right now. It is from the state of unlimited being that we perceive this human experience. It is necessary to withdraw from identifying as human, and to recognise that we are perceiving the human experience. As we look deeper to the Heart of Oneness we find that life is more alive. We change our focus from the weighty world of matter to the fresh spiritual weightless sense of being.
We are not matter. We are not human. We perceive this human experience with all its ups and downs. We perceive this human experience as if it were far away from the Fullness of Life. But the Fullness of Life is right here, where we are perceiving from.
- Category: The Human Experience
- Hits: 1305
It's important to understand the ego and its influence in each human life and humanity as a whole. The ego is the sense and belief of being a separate self, an entity separate from others. The ego grows from the mind's identification with the human form. The stronger the ego, the more it is identified with the human form and its sense of importance in and against the world. The extreme ego has a hardened mental shell that protects itself from others and distances itself from others. It clashes with others, often other egos with hardened mental shells. We are talking here of a clenched fists, angry, hateful, destructive ego, narcissistic and sadistic. It sounds harsh, but that's the extreme of the ego. It will cause misery and suffering to others wherever it goes.
Human history has seen this kind of ego dominate others and enrol others in its egotistic aims. We should be cautious of giving power to ego dominated people, yet it continues to happen. Sometimes people see a person with a strong ego as charismatic, and that may be the case, as it can often present as a distinctive personality with a certain charm and flair. A good lesson to learn is to recognise the ego when you see it, and to know its pitfalls.
Recognising the ego in others can also lead us to recognising the ego in us. Ultimately we experience the body, the perceptions, the feelings, the thoughts, and the identity within the mind. We experience the ego identity. It is not who we are. It is more like the opposite of who we are. The ego is the sense of separate self. Our true nature is the infinite and undivided selfless self. The ego is incomplete. It needs and wants. Our true nature is complete, without need or want.
The ego is the phantom ego, the mistaken identity, the great pretender, the false king. It is a bundle of thought forms that cling to its imagined identity with the human body. We perceive this. We are the Awareness that perceives the play of the ego and the world. It is through this sense of identity that we perceive the world.
What do we do about this pesky ego? There are things that we can do to lessen its control (it loves to control). Recognising that you are not the thoughts is a good starting place. See that the thoughts that arise are perceived by you but not thought by you. When thoughts about 'me' and 'mine' and 'others' run along, step back and know that you are perceiving them. Recognise that there are no limits to anything. There are no things. There are no limits that define who you are.
There are also practical actions that can be taken:
Peace - be at peace. Allow peace to permeate through the mind, the ego, the body, and to others and the world. You are the peace at the heart of being. You are unshakeable stillness. You cannot stop the motion of the world, but you can recognise the peace and stillness of your being. This allows peace to permeate through the human nature in its contact with others.
Acceptance - accept the mind, the ego, the body, others and the world. Let it be. Don't get caught up in it. It's okay for the world to be as it is. Know that you are unaffected by the ego's problems. This acceptance and realisation brings a centring of your being. It helps withdraw the mistaken sense and belief of identity and ego.
Love - be the love that you are. Allow love, the highest love, to shine through the mind and the ego, out into the world. Show kindness to others. Be selfless and caring and non-judgemental. Help where you can. But know that you are not the doer. You are not a body, ego or mind. This expression of love and kindness comes from the heart of your being and shines through the human form, bringing light into the world.
- Category: Non-duality
- Hits: 1310
We perceive darkness and light in the world. Light is the clarity of awareness, clear seeing or knowing. Darkness is the clouding of clarity. Yet even the darkest darkness can be perceived. Darkness cannot exist without the perceiving of it. The seer and the seeing of light and darkness are inextricable.
It is in Awareness that we perceive this play of darkness and light. We can consider them as a Continuum of Light, ranging from clear light to obscured light (i.e. darkness). It is in this apparent dispersing of light that the opposite of darkness appears. Darkness is like the fading of light far from the source of light. Yet this is a play of opposites within the singularity of Pure Light.
Pure Clarity is a better term than Pure Light. The light we perceive is the nature of Clarity expressed as clear seeing. What we perceive as light is the nature of our transparent formless being, which is a Singularity, expressed through its apparent dispersion into a play of opposites. Remember, the seer, the seeing and the seen cannot be truly separated.
Let's try and simplify that. Let's say in the beginning there is a timeless infinite Singularity. There is no form. There are no limits. There is no obstruction or confusion. It's nature is Pure Clarity. Then the world appears as if the Singularity is split in two, into opposites like it and unlike it. So from pure Clarity there appears light and darkness. Light pertains to clear unobstructed seeing or knowing. Darkness is the limiting and clouding of clarity. It is through this play of opposites that the nature of the Singularity is expressed. The world, the universe, appears as a dispersion of a Singularity.
The Singularity is Pure Clarity is Pure Awareness. It is never truly dispersed. There is only an appearance of splitting into opposites. The continuum maintains the singularity, although apparently stretched out through time and space. It is in Pure Awareness that the world appears.
Pure Awareness (aka Pure Clarity) is the nature of our being. It is within Pure Awareness that we perceive this play of light and darkness, the interplay of opposites that we call the world. Light and darkness, clarity and confusion play out within our pure awareness of it.
- Category: Non-duality
- Hits: 1300
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.