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: Spiritual Symbols and Patterns
- Hits: 477
The pattern of 'Many from One' is everywhere we look. It's important to notice this pattern, as it speaks of the formation and reality of the universe. There are examples throughout the planet. Flowers open their numerous petals from a central stem. Many tree branches grow from a central trunk, each branch produces many twigs, and each twig produces many leaves. Each leaf in turn shows the pattern of many form one in its many veins from its central midrib.
Oceans flow into many rivers that flow into many streams. Animal and human forms develop according to the pattern of Many from One. Feathers, arms, legs, fingers, toes, hairs, whiskers, veins and senses, all show this pattern. There is also the evolution of species, where many species develop from a single source.
This pattern is a repetition of the creation of the universe, where many seem to have come from one. I say 'seem' because of the deeper recognition, that although the world of many seems to have come from one, the one remains. Just as there may seem to be many twigs in a tree, there is just the tree. The twigs aren't separate from the tree. It is just the mind that thinks in terms of branches and twigs. It is the mind that seems to divide the world.
So, although there is a clear pattern throughout the world of 'Many from One', there is only every one, the indivisible Infinite One.
- Category: Spirituality
- Hits: 473
Do 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.
- Category: The Universe
- Hits: 470
Eckhart 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.
- Category: Non-duality
- Hits: 472
Imagine 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.
- Category: The Universe
- Hits: 470
How many moments are there? What is a moment? A moment is a vague concept of an unspecified length of time, generally considered to be a small point in time. But are there any real points in time? Can time really be divided into points of time?
Although we use a system of years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds, these are all manmade measurements of time. A year is based on the orbit of the planet around the sun, and a day is based on the rotation of the earth relative to the sun. There is a natural pulse and cyclic repetition in the world that allows for a sense of periods of time. But that's not to say that periods of time are really set.
We come to accept and believe in our terms for time, assuming that time is really divided in this way. But time cannot truly be divided. It is a flow of change. We will find no true beginnings, ends or divisions of time. Time cannot be truly grasped and labelled.
It is more accurate to understand time as the appearance of change within an unchanging permanent. That is, the appearance of change that is perceived as the flow of time is known relative to One who remains unchanged and unmoving. Namely, Consciousness.
It is in Consciousness that the experience of change is perceived. Consciousness is unchanging and timeless. Change appears as a reflection of the unchanging nature of Pure Consciousness, like floating clouds reflected on the still water of an infinite lake. The lake remains still and unchanged whilst change appears within it.
There are not moments in time. There are no seconds or minutes etc. There is only Now. Now is not a point in time. Now is timeless, experiencing the illusion of time. Now is the Pure Consciousness which allows the perception of its opposites. But there is nothing other than Now, only an illusory appearance of 'not now'. There is only Now.