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: Spiritual Practice
We continually experience activity. The world is always moving and changing. We perceive this movement and change. Maybe we're mesmerised by it. Even when all seems still, it's an illusory stillness, as the world keeps on turning. But this is the reflection of Reality.
In meditation we calm the activity of the body and the mind, but they can never be perfectly still. The body and the activity of the mind belong in the world of movement and change. They can slow down or speed up, but not really stop. In meditation we slow them down. Breathing becomes more relaxed, and mind activity can be settled to a degree. The important thing to realise is that we are not the activity of the body or the mind. We perceive this activity from a placeless place of Stillness.
True Stillness cannot be achieved. Not because it is impossible, but because it is already here. The activity we perceive is a reflection of the Stillness in which it is perceived. The movement of the world appears in the Stillness of Being. All space and time appear Here and Now.
So in meditation we sink back into the true nature of Being. We sink back into the Stillness which perceives the apparent motion of the world. We perceive the breathing and the wandering mind activity. We are not that. We are not moving at all. Our nature is Perfect Peace. Pure Clarity. Let the world turn. Let the mind wander. But know that you are not turning or wandering. You are the Stillness right Here.
There may seem to be a 'me' that moves about or thinks thoughts, but that sense of 'me' is made from thought activity itself. It is also perceived. We are That which perceives any sense of me or other. We perceive the mistaken sense of identity. It doesn't change us. The one who may be mesmerised by the movements and activity of the world is not really who we are. We perceive this 'being mesmerised' or 'being caught up in the world'. The world moving and the thoughts thinking appear within the Stillness of Pure Consciousness.
In the world stillness appears illusory, whereas in Reality movement is illusory. The world appears as a reflection of Reality, yet it is nothing other than Reality. All apparent activity appears within the Non-Activity of Stillness, the nature of Perfect Peace, which is the heart of all and the whole of all.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
I often write about opposites. I've written about the Law of Opposites and the World of Opposites. You will also hear mention of the 'interplay of opposites' in Non-Duality teaching. What have opposites got to do with Non-Duality? Opposites would mean duality, right?
I call this world 'The World of Opposites'. The reason is that the world appears to be an imbalance, a splitting of a singularity into opposite qualities or opposite energies that separate and interact. The opposites seem to spread out and rejoin, over and over, creating the multiplicity of life that we see in the world. We understand the qualities of good and bad, right and wrong, high and low, true and untrue, real and illusory, strong and weak, formless and form, free and restricted, boundless and limited. This interplay of opposites forms the building blocks of the universe. It repeats in the falling of rain and rising of vapour, the flowing tides, the flow of breath, the procreation of life forms, the creation of night and day, magnetic forces, and so on.
This splitting of a singularity into opposing forces gives rise simultaneously to the Law of Opposites. The Law of Opposites pervades the universe. It is the inevitable interaction between opposites, bringing repulsion and attraction, dispersion and reunification. What is done must be undone, what goes up must come down, what goes out must come in etc. The Law of Opposites maintains equilibrium in a universe that has seemingly fallen out of unity. The opposites that appear are like and unlike the singularity from which they have seemingly separated.
But that's not the whole picture. The Non-Duality understanding is that this is a play of opposites. The Singularity doesn't really divide itself into what it is and what it isn't. There is never anything other than the Singularity. The Singularity remains Whole. It's infinite. It has no limits. The universe can never be less than or more than what it is. The Singularity seems to split in two and interact within itself, with what is like it and its opposite. Hence the World of Opposites is a reflection of Reality. Reality is an Indivisible Infinite One Aware Being. Division and limits are illusory.
Let's consider as an example, Light. The Singularity is neither light nor dark in itself. It has no form, no space or time, no distance. Yet it is perfect clarity, which is the purest Light. The Singularity is Aware, it is alive and knows clearly. Light and darkness arise when the Clarity of formlessness seemingly divides itself into formless and form. Form appears to block the clarity. The blocking of clarity develops into darkness. We can then understand the Singularity as Pure Clarity, or Pure Light. Its opposites - darkness, obstruction and confusion - give the contrast to demonstrate the nature of the Singularity. So from Pure Light there appears the opposites of light and darkness, but they are never separate. There is a Continuum of Light ranging from most light to least light (or darkness). The most light is closest to the Singularity. The least is furthest from it.
Another example may help. Consider the range from white to black. White and black seem like opposites, but if you imagine or see the gradual shading from white, through greys to black, then it can be understood that the opposites are not truly separate. It is a continuum of shading.
So even when opposites appear they are not really divided. It is more of an apparent stretching out of Oneness into what is like it and what is not like it, with a range or continuum in-between. But truly there can never be anything other than Oneness. The opposites are illusory. There is only Reality.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Spiritual Practice
If asked, you could probably say where you are now and what the time and date is. But that's not really where and when you are. That's where the body is relative to the planet and according to the accepted timekeeping of the area. We can only say where something is relative to where something else is, so there's a never-ending relativity of location. There's no definitive or absolute location. Similarly with time, we can only give a date and time relative to the accepted timekeeping system.
For example, if I say I am in London in the UK, and the current time is 10am on January 5th 2025, that gives a rough idea of the time and place of where this body is in relation to the planet. 'London' isn't very specific. We could be more specific by giving a street name, post code, or even giving geographic coordinates. The location detector on a phone could detect exactly where this body is, thanks to geolocation techniques utilising satellites. Well, not quite.
The location is never perfectly accurate, in that it cannot specify the exact location by millimetres or less than that. (We could go on and on to find the finest most accurate measurements.) There is always some vagueness. Besides, this isn't a universal location, as the planet is always spinning through the universe. The universal location is continually changing. Also, the time is based on the accepted timekeeping system for the area. At that time it was a different time on other parts of the planet. Even 10am isn't accurate. Time is always flowing on. We can't give a perfectly accurate time for now.
There's good reason why space and time are only relative. They are illusory. The distance of space is only ever experienced Here. The change of time is only ever experienced Now. It is the play of the formless unchanging singular nature of Reality to give the appearance of distance and change.
It's useful to find where you really are, although it can never be found. In meditation recognise that you are not the body, nor the mind activity. You perceive the mind activity and the body activity. Go deeper in to find that placeless place Here. There is no weight, distance, time, form or disturbance in this still spaceless place. Wherever the body goes it's still Here. Whilst time seems to pass, Now remains as it is. Here and Now doesn't get caught up in the dreamlike world of space and time. Space and time play on without disturbing the timeless unchanging peace that is always right Here and Now. It's helpful to 'find' this in meditation. You can't really find it, because it's right Here already. It's where you're looking from.
Here and Now is the Reality of Being. Some call it Consciousness, Awareness, or Presence. It is the same placeless place that permeates all space and time. It is the heart and whole of all perception. It is the Beingness of every being and apparent non-being. It has no airs and graces, no pretences of grandeur. It's simply here all along, beyond time and change. We are This.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
We all know about The Big Bang. It refers to the moment when the universe was created, when from a singularity this multiplicity exploded. Like a seed of potential, the unmanifest singularity split open explosively and grew into the universe that we see now. The universe continues its expansion with the momentum of this initial explosion. That's a simplistic version of it anyhow.
Let's look at it from the Non-Duality perspective. That is, the perspective in which it's recognised that the duality, separation or multiplicity only appears to be that. The universe only appears to have forms that are separate, whilst there is no true separation. It doesn't mean that we need to dismiss the Big Bang theory. All theories are flawed, it's just that some are less flawed than others.
We can understand the Big Bang theory and creation of the manifest universe in terms of Non-Duality. Consider what was 'before' the Big Bang. There was no 'before' really, because there was no time, or indeed space, before the Big Bang. There was only a spaceless timeless Singularity. Some may call it the Void or Emptiness, but it is a Full Emptiness, a Completeness. It is the unmanifest Whole. It cannot really be described accurately. Even 'Singularity' implies that it is one, whereas it is more an Infinite One, without limitations, boundaries or definitions.
So consider the Singularity, from which the Big Bang appeared. The Non-Duality perspective would be that this Singularity never exploded into many. The Big Bang only seemed to split the Singularity into many particles and opposing forces. The apparent world of duality, or The World of Opposites, as I call it, did not and cannot divide the Infinite Indivisible One. This appearance of duality, separation and multiplicity is a play of opposites within the timeless spaceless Singularity that remains eternally unchanged and ever-present.
This is why there is no end to the universe. Although it seems to be expanding, really there are no limits to its expansion. There is nothing beyond the universe. There is no 'other' that is beyond it. The universe has no boundaries. The edge of the universe cannot be found. Similarly, the smallest final particle cannot be found. There will always be deeper and deeper search into the infinite. The answer of the universe can never be found. The answer is right here all along. The answer of the universe is right Here and Now.
Time and space are the great play of the universe. The Singularity is Here and Now. There is no outside or inside. There is no near or far. These opposites are a play of reflection within the Singularity. The Invisible appears. The Indivisible appears divided. The One appears as many. The Infinite appears to be limited. The Formless appears as form. The Peace appears as conflict. The Reality appears illusory. The Unchanging appears as continual change. The Unmoving appears as motion. The Timeless appears as time. The Infinite One Being appears as many separate beings.
So the Big Bang explodes apparently outwards into the infinite. The reflective nature of the manifest universe means that a Law of Opposites applies throughout the universe. What goes out must come in, to restore the apparent imbalance of seeming to fall out of unity. So the expanding universe will in time return to the original state of Oneness. But truly it never left.