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 Symbols and Patterns
There are a variety of patterns in the world, that point to the underlying nature of reality. Three primary patterns include 'Many from One', Reflection, and the Hollow. Let's explore these and see how they connect and hint at the unseen reality behind them.- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
How to convey that the world is not made of many things? There is a general human assumption that there are many things in the universe and we can give them names, like stars, planets, mountains, buildings, plants, animals, people etc. These may be useful terms, and it may be useful to see and understand the world in this way, but it's not accurate.
The limits that we assume define these objects don't stand up to close scrutiny. For instance, we know the sun to be a star and we can understand the qualities of a star and the phases it will go through. We give stars different names dependent on their mass and evolutionary stage. Currently the sun is classed as a G2V type star, and in time it is expected to become a Red Giant, then later a White Dwarf, then a Black Dwarf. These are names given to different stages of stellar evolution.
But we can't give exact moments when the sun changes from one stage to another, because the change is gradual. All change is gradual. Even sudden change can be seen to be gradual if examined closely. There is no flip switch of change. Even a flip switch for a light involves time for the electric current to flow. It's not really Off-On, it's Off flowing to On. It's an important point. Reality may seem to be dualistic and based on opposites, but really there is a flow of change, a continuum. But that's for another article.
Let's focus back on what we define as the sun. We generally see the circular ball of fire in the sky and think, "That's the sun!" But the sun isn't wholly defined by its visible circular edges. In fact its circular edges are constantly flowing and changing, dipping and rising, and sometimes flaring out. From a distant it may seem perfectly round, but we know that this is not really the case. The sun is a flowing ball of energy. And not only that, it is an expulsion of energy. Animal and plant life on this planet are dependent on the energy from the sun. We can't say at what point the sun's rays are no longer the sun. They are a quality of the sun. A quality that interacts with all it reaches. Similarly, when we see a distant star at night, we see its light, which is its quality that stretches across the universe. Its light is not truly separate from it.
So you see, we imagine that we know things, but if we look closely we find that we cannot truly define them. The same applies to the human body. It is continually in a process of change and interaction with the environment. We can't define where the energy absorbed from the sun, from the air, from drinks and food, becomes the body. It is a continual process of change, structured temporarily as a seemingly finite form.
But the sun and the body are not finite forms. They have no limits. It is the same with all things. To use a less animated example, take a wooden chair. We know what it is, but when did it become a wooden chair? When the fourth leg was added? When its back was added? And at what point were they finally added? Is it when the final turn of a screw happens, that it is then a chair. No. And when does it cease to be a chair? Once some of its parts are removed or once all parts are removed? Once the final screw is released? No. Ultimately, our idea of what a wooden chair is is vague, and it is the same for all objects.
What we've done here is analyse our assumption that things are really what we think they are. We've examined the general human assumption that things are really separate defined things, and found that they are not. Our labelling of things is useful but not as accurate as believed to be. It's good to step back and recognise that assumptions are not necessarily accurate. Really what this all points to is infinity. Nothing can be define because the nature of reality is infinite.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Human Experience
Part of human evolution has been to recognise or discover that evolution exists. It is evolution that has brought humanity to this point, and all other species to their respective points. It is a monumental discovering in the development of self awareness - to discover the source of one's being.
But there's more. If we analyse evolution, or more importantly analyse what we consider to be the limits of things, we find that really there are no limits. The limits that we have assumed are not accurate. What we describe as a specific species distinct from other species, is not the finished product. Evolution is continual. For example, what we may now label as the Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) continues to evolve, albeit slowly. At what point would we notice that this species is diverging. There are other Fox-like Canids that have diverged from an earlier source. We can't give a fixed point where an evolutionary leap takes place, because it is continual.
And there's more. Just as the apparent limits of a species can't conclusively be defined (because a species is always in a state of change), it can be questioned whether there are any limits at all. So the species Red Fox isn't fixed and limited, and is likely to continue evolving, and each apparently individual fox may not be as fixed and limited as is assumed. What I mean is that each animal form isn't a closed circuit. There are no real closed circuits. Foxes breathe and assimilate air, eat and assimilate food, drink and assimilate water. Although the fox appears to have a defined shape that we can say, "It's a fox!" and not something else, the fox does not really have a fixed stability in its form. What we call a fox is a form developed within the overall evolution of the planet, as the planet expresses through a seeming multiplicity of forms within its own form.
What this means is that there is a 'surface' appearance of many separate animals, but the reality is one life force appearing as if it is many. There is one life force that expresses as a seeming multitude of forms, that are assumed to be separate, but on closer inspection it can be seen that they are not truly divided. There are no clear divisions of these life forms. The air that seems to separate them actually flows through them, is assimilated and expelled, in a continual flow of change and interaction.
Why is this important to point out? Because there is a general assumption that when we describe something it is distinct from something else. Although this has its uses, it should be recognised that it is not wholly accurate. Ultimately the unlimited indivisible nature of reality should be recognised, as human evolution continues.
Recognising the infinite indivisible nature of reality breaks down the barriers that hold us back. It leads to a recognition that there aren't many life forms, there is just one, an infinite one. What has seemed to be other is no longer other. And what we assumed was our identity as a human being is not that. The human body itself is not as distinct and separate as the mind thinks it is. The mind also is not separate from the one infinite indivisible life force.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
Okay, this is going to be perhaps a more advanced Non-Duality exploration. The basic understanding is that there is only One, an Infinite One, which is really no number, there is no true separation of things in the world, there is no separate identity, and our true nature is That Which Is, the Infinite One Being or Beingness, Pure Consciousness or Aware Being. Recognition of this infinite indivisible oneness, or the dropping of the notion of separation and division, is Enlightenment or Self Realisation.
This Pure Consciousness or Aware Being in which the world appears (as everything appears in consciousness) is formless, complete, content, timeless, dimensionless, unmoving and unchanging. The world of motion and change that appears within the Changeless is known to be an illusory appearance, a play of change, and has been called Maya or Lila. So form and change are illusory. Reality is dimensionless stillness, complete and content.
We can go further in the understanding of Maya. The world that appears seems to have fallen out of the Singularity of Being. Where once, timelessly, there was no appearance of the world, there now seems to be an appearance of time and space, ever changing and moving. The Singularity is not broken, yet the world appears as if it did break, was divided, causing ripples of interaction and fluctuations between opposites. This world of opposites appears as a division of the timeless and formless Singularity, stretching out in time and space.
So this is the nature of the universe, an interplay of opposites (or 'The World of Opposites' as I call it) that seems to have appeared from the primordial Singularity. In Taoism this is described as the opposite forces of Yin and Yang arising within the oneness of the Supreme Ultimate. The appearance is not really 'from' the Singularity. The Singularity remains. So the world appears in the Singularity. It appears in the Pure Consciousness. There is no true division of Consciousness into what it is and what it is not. It's all Consciousness always.
Now to take this to a deeper level, so to speak. If Reality is formless and there is nothing other than this, how does the form of the world appear? The answer must be that it does not really appear... This seems to go against our observation, but it can be understood. Where does this form of the world begin or end? It doesn't. The apparently separate forms are not separate, so there are not numerous forms. We could say the universe is one form flowing through different appearances or expressions. Consider it like one continuous piece of string making many different shapes or forms, rather than many separate pieces of string making separate forms.
So the world appearing is not separate from the one in whom it appears. We usually consider the world as a subject-object appearance, but it is more like Awareness being aware of itself, or Consciousness knowing itself. There are not forms separate from the seeing or knowing of them. We could call it one form, but it is not just form. The one form is 'part of' the formless knowing of it. So the form and the formless are one. The form and the perceiving of it is like the stretching of Aware Being into the subject-object relationship of knower-knowing-known.
Aware Being, which is timelessly self-aware, seems to stretch itself apart in what we call space and time, and sees itself within itself. But the substance of 'form' (or what appears) is nothing other than the formless in which it appears. The form only seems to be 'solid' or dense because there is an apparent restriction, and restriction prevents it from being seen through. Yet the restriction or solidity of anything is only relative. Form cannot be wholly restrictive. The shapes and forms that are seen are not true shapes and forms. They only appear to be forms. They only seem to restrict awareness.
The forms that are seen are made of consciousness. Everything is consciousness. There is only consciousness. So there are no forms. Only formless, unseen Consciousness.