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.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
The world appears as a division/reflection of the Infinite Indivisible One. There appears to be the opposites 'alive' and 'not alive', 'conscious' and 'not conscious'. It is as though the Primordial Pure Conscious Being split in two, to show what it is and what it isn't. This is a play of separation, of reflection and contrast, an expression of the inexpressible Infinite One by means of its opposites.
The world doesn't have a beginning or an end, only an appearance of beginnings and ends. The truth is Infinity, and limitations can only be illusory or imaginary. It's much like a dream. In a dream there is you, other people or animals, and the world in which the dream happens. But it is all the dreamer. The dream seems to split into you and a world. But really there is no splitting, and the division is imagined.
Back to the real world. Well, it's not really real. It's an expression of the Real. Nevertheless, there is a realness about this world. The realness is the Consciousness in which it appears. The world appears to have a contrast of conscious beings and non-conscious objects, alive beings and not-alive objects. This all appears within Consciousness. Consciousness is Life itself. It allows the appearance of opposites within its indivisible infinite oneness.
In this planet apparently non-living forms (elements etc.) have combined and interacted. They've been called the building blocks of life. It seems that these buildings blocks have combined and interacted to an extent that living conscious beings have been formed, namely animals and humans. There is a path of evolution from barely animate, to animated, to intelligently animated, or as we call them, alive and conscious beings. This sense of difference of what is alive and not-alive seems quite obvious to us, but if you look closely it's difficult to find the divide. The reason for this is that there is no divide between alive and not-alive. There is only Life.
This seeming dichotomy of Life into alive and not-alive cannot be perceived without the permanent Life that you are. This flow of alive and not-alive appears within the absolute life of Consciousness. It is by Consciousness that it is perceived, and it is in Consciousness, made of Consciousness.
It's worth mentioning here that it's not that the elements and forms come to life and become conscious beings. Really, life and consciousness is timelessly here. The life that the human body has is Consciousness. The consciousness that the human body seems to have is this Consciousness that is the background to the appearance of the world. Imagine Consciousness like a perfect sheet of paper, then different creatures are drawn on the paper. The real substance of the creatures is the underlying paper. The drawn beings don't come to life, yet at the heart of their being there is pure Life. This pure Life is expressed in the world of opposites as a coming and going, a rising and falling, what we call 'coming to life' and 'losing life'. It is all Pure Life expressed through a world of opposites.
It is the same Consciousness that is the heart and life of all beings. The beings/creatures/humans/animals are like pockets of perception in the world. These pockets of perception are the means by which Infinite Consciousness perceives the expression of itself. Like the dream analogy, the world is Infinite Consciousness perceiving itself through the illusory separation of the subject perceiving objects. For example, your human self perceiving the world around it is really Infinite Consciousness appearing to separate into the human and the world it perceives. It's all One. There is no beginning or end to the world. It is Infinite Consciousness.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Spiritual Symbols and Patterns
The Yin and Yang symbol originated from Chinese philosophy, which stated that there was an Undifferentiated Oneness (Taiji, the Supreme Ultimate) prior to the appearance of the opposing forces of duality. It's a symbol commonly used in Taoism. There are a lot of similarities with Taoism and Non-Duality. But here I'm going to look at Yin and Yang from the Non-Duality perspective.
It might seem odd for someone reading for the first time that the Yin and Yang symbol relates to an Undifferentiated Oneness. They are opposites, right? So what's that got to do with Oneness. Well, in Non-Duality we recognise that the world appears as an interplay of opposites, but this is illusory in nature. The True Reality (or I could say, the Supreme Ultimate Reality) is Infinite Indivisible Oneness.
The Yin and Yang symbol shows the interplay of opposites enclosed in a circle. The circle represents the infinite oneness. I realise that my books have been about this all along. In the books I explain about The World of Opposites and The Law of Opposites, but I also point out that the Reality is not two. The Reality is the Infinite One. I liken Reality to an Infinite Singularity, the original unmanifest state of being. This sounds a lot like the Undifferentiated Oneness of Taiji, the Supreme Ultimate.
The Yin and Yang symbol (called Taijitu) is a wonderful visualisation of the interacting, flowing forces of the world. The opposites appear as a clear reflection of each other, light and darkness. The opposing forces flow in unison, from one to the other, and one cannot appear without the other appearing. There is an underlying sense that these opposites remain as one.
As I've explained elsewhere, The World of Opposites is an appearance of separation within the Infinite Singularity of Being. It's as if the Infinite Undifferentiated Singularity exploded into a world of opposites, what is like it and what is not like it, what is and what is not. That really seems to be a natural way to make the invisible Oneness visible - by use of opposites or reflection. It seems that what first appears is 'what is' against 'what is not'. Imagine a point of light appearing in the darkness. The point is 'what is' and the darkness is 'what is not'. A duality seems to be created, and this basic duality can combine to form the complex World of Opposites that we experience. It might seem like a huge leap, but imagine how video games have developed from the basic 1 and 0. A world of complex interactions can be developed from this basic dichotomy.
It may seem like a dichotomy - a splitting into two opposites - but it's not really. You see, the Oneness is still here. The Infinite Singularity cannot really be divided in two. It is timeless and unchanging. There is no space or time in the primordial Singularity. So when space and time appear they appear within this Infinite One. This is where we reach over to Hindu philosophy, and the Upanishads, that teach that the Ultimate Reality is our own Aware Being. This Infinite One is who we are. There is none other than the Infinite One. It is the Infinite Consciousness that experiences the world as an interplay of opposites.
Our true nature is not a conflicting or interacting of opposites. We are truly beyond the appearance of the world. The Infinite One cannot truly see itself. Only by aid of reflection and opposites can the Infinite One experience itself as limited forms. The Formless perceives forms. The Changeless perceives change. Yet there is no outside or inside of Infinite Consciousness. The play of separation of opposites appears within the Infinite One, the Ultimate Reality, Pure Consciousness.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Human Experience
In Non-Duality teaching there is not a thinker or a doer. There is only Consciousness. Consciousness can't sing and dance, and it can't walk. But we seem to be able to move about. Let's understand this.
Consciousness is stillness beyond any sense of movement. Movement is the appearance of change within the unchanging Consciousness. We are not the body that seems to move about. So although you may say, "I'm going for a walk," it's not really you that goes walking. It's the body that walks, not Consciousness. The body and its movements are not who we are. We perceive the body and its movements. Most spiritually aware people could agree that they are not the body.
Then we have the mind. We might say, "I was thinking about what you said yesterday." But we don't do the thinking. The mind thinks, or rather thoughts appear in what we call 'the mind'. We are the Consciousness experiencing the mind, its thinking and thoughts. We perceive the thoughts appearing and the sense of identity in the mind that thinks it is thinking thoughts. We can't really define 'the mind'. It is what we call the field in which thinking, feeling, sensing and perceiving appears. Ultimately 'the mind' can be considered as a focusing of Consciousness.
It's important to remember that Consciousness is like a Singularity. It is dimensionless and formless. It doesn't go anywhere or do anything. There is nothing and nowhere other than Consciousness for it to be able to move or do anything. Consciousness is formless. If there is any form (including thought forms) or there is any movement, that's not you. That's not Consciousness. It appears in Consciousness, yes. But it is illusory in the sense that it is not a true portrayal of Consciousness. Consciousness cannot 'see' itself. So anything that is perceived cannot be it. Any appearance of forms will be imperfect compared to the Pure Perfection of Formless Consciousness.
So who thinks the thoughts? Nobody. The thoughts float by within Consciousness, as part of the mind and its conditioning. The mind forms a sense of identity, which is thought-based. This thought-based identity then thinks that it is thinking thoughts. It's all a flow of thought energy that reacts to the more dense forms of the body and the world. We can understand it like this: there is solid matter of the body that changes slowly, there is liquid matter in the body that moves around, there is gas also flowing through the body at a higher rate; then there is the less dense but more volatile flowing of the mind. The flowing of the mind is part of this system that interacts with the body and the world. The mind itself can have some fixed views and more flexible views. This is all perceived in Consciousness.
So there is nobody thinking. Thoughts flow. Consciousness witnesses this. The mind forms an attachment and identity as a thinker, believing itself to be a separate entity that can think. Truly Consciousness doesn't think. The nature of Consciousness is peace, stillness, and infinite oneness.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
Consciousness is generally considered to be the state of the mind in which humans know and perceive what's going on in the world. This consciousness is generally considered to be an activity of the brain. This is the scientific view, but science is still unable to fully understand consciousness and how the brain generates it. Consciousness is considered to be a state of the mind, and the mind is generated by the brain somehow.
I'm certainly going to diverge from that perspective here. Rather than consciousness being in the mind and the mind being in the body, from the Non-Duality understanding it's the other way around. The mind, the body and the world appear within consciousness. And it's not just the Non-Duality understanding, it is the understanding of direct experience. All that you have ever experienced of the mind, the body and the world has been in consciousness. Without consciousness, the mind, the body and the world would not appear.
If you hear a sound it is within consciousness. If you open your eyes and look around, this moving image of the world appears in consciousness. The thoughts that float through the mind - "What shall I have for dinner?" or, "I must remember to send that message" - appear in consciousness. Your whole world picture, and all that you know about the world, is right here in consciousness. The hillside that you can see far away, that is perceived right here in consciousness. The sound of the plane flying overhead, that's perceived right here in consciousness. All that you know about your body is perceived in consciousness - the view of your hands, arms, legs and feet, the image you see in the mirror, the feelings of sadness and joy, the sensations of pain or discomfort, the softness of textures, and the tastes of your favourite foods, are all perceived in consciousness.
The mind and thinking is perceived in consciousness. Not only are the thoughts and images of the mind perceived in consciousness, but also the sense of 'I'. There is a sense of 'I am this', 'I do this', and 'I have this' that develops in the human mind, and this is perceived in consciousness.
Truly Consciousness is the still, silent, formless, dimensionless intelligence in which the world appears. The world of forms and solidity, of movement and sound, depth, distance, and change, appears within Consciousness. Consciousness, being formless and dimensionless, is without limits. The sensation and experience of limits appears within Infinite Consciousness. This sense of limits gives rise to the belief of separation and identity. The ego appears in the mind, but is perceived in Consciousness.
Withdrawing from the distractions of this apparently moving, changing world, and withdrawing from the chatter of the mind, Consciousness is known to be just the pure, effortless, unchanging presence in which the world seems to happen. It only seems to happen. Nothing is really done. Consciousness doesn't walk down the street or take a plane to Spain. Consciousness has no arms or legs. It is formless. Forms appear within Consciousness, similar to how dreams appear within the mind.
It might help to imagine nothing. Well, really it's more about not imagining anything, closing your eyes and letting go of thoughts, feelings, ideas and concepts, and just letting the mind be quiet for a short time.... You know that you're here. You are Consciousness. You are alive. You exist. But you aren't over there somewhere. There is no distance or limits. 'You' can't be found or defined. But you know you are aware. This is the shared core of all that is experienced. It is the Self Aware Consciousness. It has no 'substance', form or identity. It is this in which form and identity are experienced.
Open your eyes again and the world seems to fill Consciousness, but Consciousness remains just as it is.