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 Tuesdays and Fridays.
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Immanent Omnipresent TranscendentLet's understand these terms and how they all tie up in understanding Awareness, Consciousness, Beingness, or God. By those names I mean the same Infinite One Being. Some might find any or all of those names difficult. So let's clarify that first.

There are many names that are used for God or That Which Is. It is not here considered that God is a bearded man in the sky, watching over humanity. The God discussed here is much more personal than that, yet impersonal. That sounds confusing maybe, but what I mean is that the Impersonal is at the heart of all persons. The core of our being is That Which Is. God is that essential impersonal nature that gives life to the world and allows the appearance of personal beings, such as humans and animals.

This is the Immanence of God, being within all beings. Immanence means that God is within. Many of us seek that inner peace and stillness that is God's nature. Some people seek the Infinite Stillness within. Some people feel a personal relationship with God, which is a path to God. It is the path of worship and devotion, where the personal relationship draws the apparently separate beings towards the Infinite Being of God.

God can also be considered as Omnipresent, being everywhere present. The reason for this is that although God may seem to be at the heart of all beings, the heart is infinite. Nothing is outside of God. Limits are illusory. There really is only God.

Yet we can also consider God as Transcendent. That means that God is beyond the world. So how can that be? God does not appear in the world. God is beyond the appearance of the world, yet the world appears within God.

So firstly I said that God is within (Immanent), then I said that God is everywhere (Omnipresent), and then I said that God is beyond the world (Transcendent). You may think, "C'mon, Dave, make your mind up." But really all three are acceptable references to the nature of God. The three are one, you could say.

The world appears as if God is the heart of our being, and in seeking God within we find the Peace of God (some may also call it the Kingdom of God). However, God's Peace is without end. God is timeless and formless. So we find that God only seems to be at the heart of our being, and in fact God encompasses the whole. God's infinite nature cannot be limited by the appearance of form. God is formless, without end, so God is beyond the appearance of things.

That should neatly sum up God's Immanent Omnipresent Transcendent nature. Seemingly contradictory but beyond contradiction. This is the nature of being.

All space and time is Here and NowEckhart Tolle famously wrote about The Power of Now. Let's look at the Power of Here. Essentially Here and Now are the same, just considered from different perspectives.

Wherever you go you are Here. You could go on a climb to get to the peak of a hill or mountain, and when you get there you are still Here. Wherever you go you still have a sense of being Here. Yes, you can say you're at the top of a mountain, you're on a boat in the sea, you're on a beach, you're flying in a plane, or relaxing at home. That's the world in which the body lives. But you're not the body. You are the presence right here, and it's not possible to be anywhere other than where you are.

The world gives us an experience of being somewhere other than here, but it's a play of space, depth and distance within our Infinite Hereness. Truly all space appears Here. We never experience anywhere other than here. If we look to a distant hill, bridge, building, or even a distant star, we perceive it right here. The three dimensions of space are experienced right here in spaceless Consciousness.

This understanding can help us to become centred. There's no real centre, of course, but when we believe that we have gone out into the world and become a lost soul, we can find our way home by returning to the centre of stillness within the appearance of the world. What that means is that we can remind ourself that we are not lost, we are not confused, we are not a human being trying to cope in a vast world. We are simply Here.

We can observe thoughts that seem to be in front of us, but they appear within us. The space of the world seems to go out from our Centre of Awareness. But rather the thoughts, body and the world appear within Awareness right Here.

So rest right Here, as you are. If you find yourself becoming entangled in thoughts, return yourself right Here where you observe thoughts. If you find yourself believing you are the body caught up in problems, return yourself right Here. Here is the placeless place of our shared being. It has no dimensions. It does not get lost or drawn out. You remain perfectly as you are right Here.

Here is the presence of our being. The dimensions of the world seem to stretch out from Here. But Here has no depth. It is infinite. All space is Here. All time is Here. All space and time is Here and Now.

There is only formless ConsciousnessImagine circles drawn on a sheet of paper. Each circle seems to have its own centre. But truly the heart of each circle is the whole paper. The circles do not truly limit the paper.

It is similar for every being. The heart of every being is the whole. It is not that every being is conscious, but rather every being has a hollow centre that is Consciousness itself. Truly there are not many beings. There is only the appearance of many beings.

Maybe a better analogy would be to imagine circles chiselled in a smooth piece of stone. The circles are made of stone and appear to have their own stone centres. But there is only the stone. This is how beings appear in Consciousness. There is only formless Consciousness, but formations appear within Consciousness, made of Consciousness, appearing to contain Consciousness. The forms (in our case human beings) can look for Consciousness within them but they find there is no inside or outside of Consciousness: there is only Consciousness. This is Self Realisation or Enlightenment - the realisation of one's true nature as infinite without division or separation.

The heart of your being is the whole. You are not a separate being. You are not conscious within the human form. You are Consciousness itself, within which the human form appears. It is the same Consciousness that seems to be at the heart of all beings, yet it is the whole.

There is only an appearance of inside and outside within Infinite Consciousness. Consciousness has no duality or multiplicity. There is only What Is.

Emptiness scares the human selfIt's human nature to fill the space. If there's a lull in conversation or a silence when we're with someone, the human urge is to say something, anything. If we have some spare time, we wonder what we're going to do, how we're going to spend that time. How will we fill the space in our time? Also in our homes, it's easy to fill them up with things. We're always filling the space.

It seems unusual to sit with someone in silence, doing nothing. It feels okay if we're on our phones or reading books, but not just sitting there. Even on our own the mind keeps active with thoughts. We find something to do. If not we feel bored and the mind complains that there's nothing to do.

This is where the spiritual practice of just being comes in. It's not what the mind wants. It's afraid of the nothingness. But the nothingness is our spiritual saviour. The nothingness is the prefect peace of our true being. We truly are the stillness, the silence, the peace, the emptiness, the spaciousness, the nothingness. Our true nature is the core stillness that allows movement. We are the invisible nothingness that allows the apparent visible everything. We are the permanent full emptiness that animates the changing world.

This emptiness scares the human self, so it fills the space with things. The human self distracts itself from the silence, the emptiness, the peace. At least until it gets to a point of looking for that peace, looking for the quiet. Then the human self seeks quiet places and quiet times to sit and be at peace. Maybe the human self meditates. Maybe the mind relaxes a little.

Sometimes it seems that more work needs to be done to reach that placeless place of peace. We need to recognise that the mind's impulse is to avoid it.

Sit back and just be. Let go of thinking and doing, and be as you are. You are not the human who is afraid of silence and emptiness. You are the Perfect Peace of Stillness.

I am not the one meditatingDo you meditate? If you think you do, then is it really you that meditates? Let's examine it more closely.

Say I choose to sit in a comfortable position, close my eyes and meditate. Now there are many different ways to meditate. One could focus on a point. One could catch oneself from following thoughts and remain centred. One could soak up the peace of being still. Let's say I'm sat there letting go of body attachment, not being distracted by the senses, resting in the peace of being, and allowing thoughts to appear and disappear without latching on to them. If I do latch onto the thoughts I catch myself and return to peaceful stillness.

That all sounds good, but who's doing that? The body is sitting as still as it can (despite being on a spinning planet whirling around the sun in the arm of a spiralling galaxy floating across the universe). The body is not truly still, and it cannot ever be still. It is the nature of form to move and change. The mind seems less still, with thoughts floating by, picking me up and carrying me along for a time, until I withdraw. So it seems that the mind is meditating, trying to be still.

Who is this 'I' that withdraws from being caught up in thoughts? That is the sense of being a separate individual that is also in the mind. What happens is that this sense of being a separate self (the ego) is made of mind stuff - thoughts - and gets caught up in its thoughts. It is the mind that gets caught up in its own thoughts. But the mind is not an entity. It is not really a separate self. This seeming separate self is a mistaken assumption of identity in the mind. I perceive this activity of the mind, therefore I am not this activity of the mind.

I am experiencing the meditation. I experience the mind getting caught up in its thoughts and freeing itself from thoughts. I experience the body and the senses of the body while it sits in the world. I am not the one sitting. I am not the one meditating. I am the Awareness that experiences this.

This is very important to realise, that when you meditate, it's not really you meditating. It is the mind meditating, attempting to find the permanent peace that is your being. You do not move or change. You perceive movement and change. You are perfect peace. Know this whenever you meditate: you are not meditating. The mind and body are attempting to reach your perfect stillness. They cannot achieve this. But through these efforts, the mind can settle itself to an extent that its misunderstanding of being a separate identity is revealed.

The mind will find that there is not a separate mind. There is only the perfect peace of What Is. You do not do anything. You remain timelessly as you are, whilst the mind seeks to unravel itself.

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