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
It might be thought that meditation is about being calm and still, sitting in a still position, calming the body, the breath and the mind. It sounds right, yes, but it's not exactly right. Calming the body is good, to give it peace and rest. Calming the breath sounds good too, to bring about the calm throughout the body. Calming the mind seems more like an essential part of meditation, not getting caught up in negative thoughts or thoughts that go off on tangents.
That all sounds good. But there is more to meditation than that. The benefits of meditation mentioned above are good for the mind and body, but there is a deeper knowing in meditation. You perceive the thoughts that may or may not be stilled. You perceive the breathing that may or may not be calm. You perceive the body that may appear to be still or moving. You see, the mind, the breath and the body can never truly be still. They appear in the World of Motion where everything is in a constant flow of movement. Even if the body appears to be completely still, we know that it is sitting in a spot on a spinning planet that is swirling through the universe.
There is a relative calm that can be brought about through meditation, though not True Stillness. Yet the True Stillness is here. It is the 'place' from which the mind, breath and body are perceived. You are the Stillness that the meditating mind and body is trying to reach. So it doesn't really matter if the mind is flowing, the breathing is heavy or the body is restless. It doesn't matter if the mind feels agitated and unable to concentrate. It doesn't matter if trying to control breathing causes breathing to be unsettled. It doesn't matter if the body is fidgety or uncomfortable. The highest aim of meditation is to just be as you are.
Being as you are requires absolutely no effort. You don't need to do anything. In fact, you don't really do anything. The witnessing of the mind, body and world just happens naturally, without effort. The movement of the world appears in the timelessness of Being. You don't need to try to be calm. You are Perfect Calmness already. You don't need to try to be still. You are Timeless Stillness itself.
There's no need to try to achieve peace or indeed to try to stop trying. There's no need to worry about failing. This trying and worrying, succeeding or failing, is a play of the mind perceived by You. You are complete already. You don't need to achieve peace. Whether the mind finds peace or not doesn't affect the peace that you are.
So in meditation when the mind becomes agitated or there is a focus on something, let it go. It doesn't matter. In fact, it's not you holding on, focusing, or letting go. You are the Awareness in which this appears to happen. These instructions are for the mind to let go of its identity with actions and trying to control the world. All is well. You are perfect peace as you are.
The mind may in time come to rest in the timeless peace of Aware Being, but the mind is not you. You are Aware Being already. So is meditation necessary? Not really. Nothing is needed to be the Still Peace that you are. But meditation is for the body-mind to come to the peace of the Aware Being that you are. Meditation naturally happens when the mind withdraws from identifying with the forms of the world.
Of course, you can 'meditate' wherever the body may be, whatever the circumstances. The meditative state of the mind is the withdrawing into the timeless nature of Aware Being that is always present. You are always Here and Now, wherever the mind or body may seem to wander. Even as the Earth spins around the sun, it appears in the Stillness of Awareness. This Peace and Stillness is with the body-mind wherever it goes. The mind will, in its own time, recognise this and find peace.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Spiritual Practice
Recognise the Spaciousness in which the world appears. Sights and sounds, thoughts and feelings, all appear in something. They cannot appear or be known without a field in which they appear. For example, a thought pops into the mind, "I must remember to call Jasper." The thought is perceived or known. It's difficult to say what the thought appears in, but it's a kind of empty space. We call it consciousness or the mind.
Take another example: we hear the sound of a car driving past. There is an awareness or knowing of the sound. There is a field like silence in which the sound comes and goes. It's not altogether different to how thoughts come and go in a space of awareness. It is ultimately the same space of awareness that perceives or knows the sound and the thought. The knowing of these is like the centre of perception. It is the same space in which all perceptions are experienced. Sights, smells, taste, touch, feelings, are all experienced in the same place of knowing.
So our practice is to recognise that space in which all things are perceived, known or experienced. We are that Infinite Spaciousness. How wide or deep is it? No width, no depth. It has no size because it is limitless and formless. It is that which perceives apparent limits and forms, yet is itself limitless and formless. Any limits of things are imaginary or conceptual. These imaginary or conceptual limits are perceived in this Knowing Spaciousness. Recognise this. We perceive the thoughts and ideas of things being limited. We perceive the sense of the world being made of separate forms. But this is just an idea or assumption of limitation and division in the world. The world we experience is only ever experienced in one place. The sense of distance and time is experienced in this Knowing Spaciousness right Here and Now.
Knowing Spaciousness can't really be known, as it is Knowing itself. Just as the eye cannot see the eye. But we can know it is here because we know. In other words, I know therefore I am.
The practice is to recognise that even the person or personality is known. We are not the person, the thinker or the body doing actions. Recognise that these are perceived and we are That which is naturally perceiving, or Aware. Thoughts float by in the Spaciousness of Consciousness like clouds drifting through the endless sky. Spaciousness is unaffected by whatever appears because it has no form or substance. Yet it is the Full Emptiness in which all things appear.
Who is it that is doing this practice or seeking to be aware of this Knowing Spaciousness. Truly there is no-one. There isn't really a limited person trying to do this. It is an activity in the mind. It's an activity of the sense of being someone seeking to find who knows this. It may seem a little odd, but basically it is Self Enquiry. It is the sense of self seeking its source. Recognise that this is perceived. This seeking is perceived. It is not who we are. We are the knowing of this. We are the Knowing Spaciousness.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Human Experience
Humanity allows the ego to be in control. In control of everyday decisions. In control of how each human life pans out. In control of lives, relationships, towns, countries, human society and the planet. The ego is in charge. The ego is the dictator of human life. Or so it thinks.
The ego is the sense of 'me', the separate identity. 'Me' as an individual separate from others. There is also the collective ego, a group identity separate from others, where we identify as 'we' or 'us' and different to 'them'. This sense of separation forms into an identity, a strong held belief that I or we are separate and different from others. The stronger this identity develops, the more distant its sense of separation is from 'others'. The stronger the sense of ego is, the more it will be at odds with 'others' and the world. The stronger the ego, the more difficult life becomes.
The strong ego isn't just the boasting self-conceited ego. It's also the self-deprecating ego, the one that feels it is less than others. Either way, it's a distancing from others. The sense of separation. The ego boosts its idea of separation and difference in order to maintain its sense of self and identity. It can do this by putting others down or inflating its own sense of superiority. It can also criticise itself and dwell in a sense of inferiority. It all amounts to the same thing: the ego distances itself from others in order to increase its sense of identity. It's in these ways that the ego becomes controlling.
The ego seeks to control, to maintain and improve its individual identity. Life must be the way it wants it. People must act the way it wants them to. This will usually fail and cause all sorts of problems, but the ego criticises and blames either itself or others for this. So it still boosts its sense of identity separate from others.
Not only does this happen on a personal level, in our human lives and relationships. It happens in work life, where strong egos make their way up the ranks to strengthen their sense of identity, power and control. It happens in family life, community life and political life, where strong egos can get themselves into positions of power. The ego can then control and dictate over many 'others'.
With collective egos groups will clash with each other. For example, gangs fight other gangs to maintain the boundaries of their territory, fans of sports teams can develop a strong dislike of others, companies sometimes compete ruthlessly against similar companies, countries seek to battle other countries or take them over. This is all the play of the ego.
But the ego isn't real. The sense of identity is flawed. It's a false identity. There are no true boundaries to any identity. The countries have no true boundaries. The companies, sports teams and gangs are only divided in the human mind. These seeming divisions are not natural and take effort to maintain. Similarly with our human forms. The human body isn't separate from the planet, or indeed the universe as a whole. The limits of the human body can't really be found. This division of the world is purely intellectual, not factual.
So the point here is to recognise that the ego wants to rule the world. It wants to rule human life, from daily activities and decisions to worldly affairs. What can 'we' do about it? Well, this apparent dictator is never really in control. It just thinks it is. Really it is for the dictator itself to turn itself in. The ego will bring about the end of the ego. This is the path of Self Realisation. The ego goes out into the world seeking something, maybe happiness. But it will only find it when it recognises its mistake of assuming it's someone separate from the world.
The end of the ego is in the dissolving of its sense of separate identity. Ultimately the ego needs to give itself up, stop trying to control, stop blaming others, stop thinking it's separate. Love and kindness to others, putting others first, is a step in that direction. But ultimately there must be no sense of 'me and others'. That is Self Realisation: that there is only an Infinite Indivisible One.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
The world appears as a state of disharmony. It's as if the natural unmanifest state of Oneness, a Singularity, has fallen out of unity and harmony into what now appears as a fluctuating world of disharmony. In today's scientific world view, it's as if the Big Bang blew apart the peace and harmony of the unmanifest Singularity.
It's a useful way to understand the world. It's like a state of chaos. But there is some order to it. The disharmony hints at a state of harmony that can't really be known. The Oneness of a Singularity, in other words Total Harmony, cannot really be perceived. But we can understand what Pure Harmony is by seeing what it isn't. This world of disharmony fluctuates and swings between opposites. Things can seem to be more in harmony or more in disharmony. As I've explained elsewhere, we can understand it as a Continuum of Disharmony, ranging from very little disharmony to great disharmony. This 'very little disharmony' is usually what we term as harmony. But it can't be a true harmony. It's just disharmony that is more harmonious.
You see, disharmony is the falling out of equilibrium, the falling out of unity or oneness. That's how the world appears. Without this apparent separation from the Singularity it would be impossible for one to perceive something. There needs to be a sense of separation between the subject and object for someone to perceive something. That utilisation of the appearance of separation, which gives rise to the appearance of the universe, has a seeming downside in that it disturbs the peace and harmony of the Singularity.
What that means is: the creation of the world is the creation of disharmony. Disharmony is inevitable in the world because it is the cause of the world. Chaos will inevitably appear. So we'd do well not to expect life to play out simply and calmly. There will be periods of relative calm and relative disruption. That's life. Human life, anyway.
Now to the important bit. Disharmony is just a play. The Singularity of Pure Harmony is never destroyed. It doesn't fall out of harmony in order to create the world. There only appears to be a world of disharmony. The Truth is that Pure Harmony is timelessly here. Prior to the appearance of the world and disharmony, Pure Harmony is. It is within the Singularity that the seeming division of the singularity appears. In other words, the world of disharmony isn't really created, it's just a play within the Infinite Peace and Harmony of the Singularity.
You are not someone who sees the world. There is only the totality of the world, whether it may appear to be blown apart or not. There is only an appearance of a turbulent life, with ups and downs. You remain as you are, as the world seems to fall into chaos and come back again. You are unchanged by the changing appearance of the world. Nothing is gained. Nothing is lost. It only appears to happen.
Infinite Peace and Stillness is your true nature and the nature of all as One.