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: 1220
All that we know is in consciousness. Nobody has ever known anything that is outside of consciousness. The sound of a car going past is picked up through the perception of hearing and is known within consciousness. The visible perception of the world is, via seeing, known in consciousness. The feel of material in our hands is known in consciousness. The smell of freshly cut grass is known in consciousness.
The physical pain we feel when we stub our toe or have backache is known in consciousness. The emotional pain we feel when we lose someone close, and indeed the love we feel when we embrace someone close, is all known in consciousness.
Everything comes down to consciousness. Even the sight of a distant star is known and experienced right here in consciousness. Thoughts in the mind are known in consciousness. Dreams during sleep are known and experienced in consciousness.
The point here is that all your experiences and everything you can ever know is known in consciousness. You've never experienced anything outside of consciousness. You may think that the sound of a bang is far away, or the moon in the sky is a tremendous distance away. But your experience of it is right here in consciousness.
Therefore there is no truth that we can be sure of outside of consciousness, and there is no firm evidence that anything exists outside of consciousness. It's impossible to even attempt to find the outside of consciousness. We could try some experiments, but the experiments would only appear to be done outside of consciousness. Our whole perception of them would be within consciousness. So who can say where consciousness ends?
You may feel that you are a human and consciousness is in your mind. But there are flaws with that. Can you truly see yourself? Can the eye see the eye? Can one see one's self? Consciousness is aware of the believing in the mind, the seeing through the eyes, and the body and world perceived through the body's senses. The human body is a changing, flowing appearance within consciousness. The body is not as solid as it appears.
You may feel that you are not conscious of what someone else thinks, so there is a limit to consciousness. It would be more accurate to say there is the appearance of limitation, and solidification, in consciousness. The dense world of matter is the appearance of solidified consciousness. It can only be experienced in consciousness and made of consciousness, yet it appears solid. Though subtler still, the mind appears also as a condensing or separating of consciousness into the apparently separate limited mind.
Thus the world of matter and mind appear as the condensed levels of consciousness within consciousness, made of consciousness. One Infinite Consciousness appears as many minds within many bodies in a world of varying degrees of density of form. With the density comes the stronger sense of limits and separation, yet it is all consciousness.
The term 'Consciousness' is a name for the basic ingredient of existence. We could equally call it Awareness, Spirit, God, The Infinite One, or I Am That I Am.
- Category: Non-duality
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Awareness of limitation does not mean limitation of awareness. Within Awareness the perception of limitation is experienced. That means that through the senses of seeing, hearing, touch etc. an appearance of a limited world is experienced within the infinite nature of our being, Awareness. Although there may be an identification with the body, where there is a sense 'I am this person', this identification is also experienced in Awareness. From the human perspective Awareness is that deeper essence of being, the heart of perception if you like.
Awareness is boundless and formless. Within Awareness the sense of identity as a person is experienced, the thoughts in the mind are perceived, and the emotions are felt. Through the senses of seeing, hearing and so on, the body and the world are known. The sense of identity may seem limited. Thinking appears to be of an airy yet limited form. The human body seems to be limited, although science tells us that no solid matter is impervious. We also know that the body is always changing. The skin is in a constant flow of change. So although there seem to be limits to the body, they cannot truly and accurately be defined.
Nevertheless we perceive the sense of a limited identity and a limited body. We also perceive the world as limited. The mind can single out objects, plants, animals and people, and we name them as if they are limited separate things or entities. Again, this sense of limitation is not accurate. All plants, animals and human forms are flowing expressions of the planet and are not separate from the planet. Even 'solid' rock is not a limited fixed form. Everything moves and flows within the planet, or rather the planet is a moving flowing expression. Some forms may appear to move more slowly than others, but they move nonetheless. The planet is an expression of movement, change and variety within a singularity.
We digress somewhat from Awareness by focusing on these forms. It is focusing that seems to single them out and place imaginary limits on them. Ultimately our experience of the world as limited with limited forms is experienced in Infinite Awareness.
The Sandy Beach analogy might help to explain how Infinite Awareness is the heart of all localised perceptions whilst being the boundless whole. Consider a flat sandy beach. We can draw circles in the sand to represent people. Each circle represents the person and their centre of perception, so the centre of each circle is where they experience the mind, the emotions and the seeing, hearing, smelling etc.
So we draw a lot of circles in the sand. If we now step back and look at this scene we see a plain sandy beach with many circles representing people. Each 'person' is made of sand. Each person's outer limit is seen, yet made of sand. Each person has an inside, yet this is also sand. It is all sand, with the appearance of many limited forms.
This is how it is with Awareness. There is nothing other than Awareness. Yet Awareness can appear as limits within itself. It can appear as many different limited forms, but it is always Infinite Awareness. The heart of each 'person' is Infinite Awareness. The Awareness does not become limited by the seemingly limited forms that appear in the world. The apparent limits appear within Infinite Awareness.
Just like the sand is the centre of all the circles, so is Infinite Awareness the centre of all people. Being infinite, there is nothing other than it. It pervades all people and all forms. Forms may appear limited and separate, yet they are within Infinite Awareness. So from the human perspective, Infinite Awareness is the heart or essence of our being, yet it is the whole of our being. Although we experience an apparently limited being we are the one Infinite Awareness.
By letting go of the belief of limits and the identification with being a limited form, we simply are as we are.
- Category: Non-duality
- Hits: 1174
Where do I begin? Where do I end? I know that the body has no clear limits. It is always changing. If I look closely at its supposed limits I find there are none. The body is like a flowing quality of the planet. It comes from the planet, interacts with the planet, and returns to the planet, all the while remaining as a quality of the planet. Its apparent limits are not true.
I see this body without limits. I also perceive the mind. I perceive thought in the form of words, sounds and images, like internal perceptions of the mind. These also have no limits. They appear in the mind and disappear in the mind. Yet they are not inside me. I perceive them.
I also perceive the sense of identity. I perceive the mind talking to itself, thinking about me, my and mine. But that's not me. Sometimes it feels that it's me. Sometimes I observe it, so it cannot be me. If I can see a supposed identity of me, then who am I witnessing this?
Is it the same me that observes the mind thinking about me? I ascertain that I do not perceive a me thinking about me. I perceive the workings of the mind, thoughts that think they are me, thinking that identifies as a limited separate being. I perceive this.
Where and who am I, if not this false identity that is perceived? I perceive the changing mind, body and world. I am not that. I perceive the windmills of the mind. I am like the still point around which the windmill turns. I am here. There is nowhere that I can perceive that I am except here. Wherever it seems I go, I am here. I perceive the change of time. I am now.
I am the point of here and now around which the windmill of the mind and world turns. Yet I am not a point. I am no space, no time. I am formless perceiving form. I am.
- Category: Spirituality
- Hits: 1175
Let'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.
- Category: Spiritual Symbols and Patterns
- Hits: 1155
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.