Spirituality
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Spirituality
I used to find it difficult to reconcile God's being as pure light. The light and darkness we perceive in the world is part of the play of opposites. Darkness can be considered as far from God and light as closest to God. God then is Pure Light without darkness.
But how can God (aka Consciousness, the Self, Brahman, the Infinite One) be a Pure Light without end. If we consider the light that we perceive, then there would be no darkness. Light without end cannot allow darkness to appear. This seemed to be a problem, and it's similar in some ways to the question of evil: how can God, being Pure Light and Love, allow evil to continue in the world. There is an answer to this: darkness and evil do not appear. There is only God.
That needs some explanation, as most people will have experienced darkness and evil. The light of God is Pure Clarity. It is a perfect, pure nothingness. Darkness can only seem to appear by the clouding of this clarity. But the clouding is itself God. So it is not really clouding, it is still God.
Similarly with evil, there is only God. If God harms God, is that evil? We can call it evil if we want, but really there is only God. Both darkness and evil seem to be God far removed from the true nature of God. This is how the world appears, by the 'breaking of the body of God' into apparently separate opposites. God's Light only seems to be separated into light and darkness. God's Love only seems to be separated into love and hate.
Darkness is still light, only seeming to be separated and distant from God. Evil is still the quality of love, only seeming to be separated and distant from God. The world is created through the appearance of the separating of God's Infinite Oneness.
Similarly, we think of ourselves as separate and distant from God. But God is infinite and omnipresent. None are outside God. It only seems that the world is separate from God. In truth God pervades the world. God is Consciousness, seemingly at the heart of our being, yet truly the whole of our being. There is only the Infinite One.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Spirituality
What is Non Attachment? Why is Non Attachment important? The simple answer is that it is our nature to not be attached. But let's explore and understand that better.
Non Attachment, or Detachment, is an important element of Buddhism. The aim is to bring about peace by letting go of attachments to objects, people, thoughts, and feelings. There is good reason for this. The Buddhist tradition focuses on how suffering is experienced due to these attachments. The Buddha became free from suffering and free from attachments, or rather the Buddha realised the true nature which is not attached and is without suffering.
When you recognise that reality is a Singularity it explains this. There is nothing other than the Singularity. So who or what is there to be attached to? That is the realisation of enlightenment, that there is no other. Non Attachment is the way to live in harmony with the true nature of being.
When we live by false concepts of separation, we consider ourself to be separate, and suffering ensues. By feeling attached to people, objects, thoughts or emotions, we strengthen the sense of being separate from them. We seem to get caught in the push and pull of the world.
Our true nature is without limits. There is not truly a border where we end and something else begins. Let go of these attachments and just be. It is the pure nature of our being just to be.
How do we practise this Non Attachment? By letting go. Let go of the importance of objects. Let go of depending on people for happiness. It does not mean that we should reject people and objects. On the contrary, by dropping attachment and boundaries we become more at one. Our interactions with objects, people, feelings and emotions become less selfish. When we let go we loosen the ties that bind. We realise our freedom. The clash between me and others fades. There is only an infinite oneness. It wipes out all boundaries of separation and attachment.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Spirituality
When you recognise that there is only one, one infinite being that is expressed through many forms, it's generally important then to live in line with that understanding. I call it The Way of Oneness.
It takes some time and effort to change from the old way of living to the new way of living in line with oneness. If that's where you're at, you'll know that it's not easy to always see the world as one. Sometimes things frustrate us. Sometimes people frustrate us. Sometimes we are frustrated with our own sense of individual self. But with some effort it improves.
The trick is to let go of otherness. There really are no others. There is only what is. Our old way of thinking was that the world, people and animals, were others. They were separate from how we saw ourself. It was us and the world of others. Now we want to let go of those old notions because we recognise there is only Oneness. But the ego is stubborn and wants to hold onto things. We have to practise letting go.
So work at letting go of the idea of 'me and them'. See that your human perspective and other human perspectives are allowed to appear different. Here's a useful list to help you on your way to a deepening oneness:
- Recognise selfishness and let it go, in favour of natural selflessness.
- Be kind to others, even if they may be unkind to you.
- Accept the world as it is, and don't seek to control it.
- Drop the attachment to objects, that you may have thought were yours.
- Drop the attachment to thoughts, that you may have thought were yours.
- See distance and change as the play of the world.
- Rest in the Here and Now that is your natural state.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Spirituality
It's a question many have considered: Is there a soul, and if so what is it? Let's start by considering the body. It's generally accepted that the human body is made of matter. I would elaborate further and say that 'matter' is a name for substance. We could call it 'vibrating energy'. I call the vibrating energy of the universe 'spirit'. Then what we call 'matter' is more like the appearance of dense hardened spirit.
There appears to be different levels of vibration throughout the universe. This is really a play of opposites within Infinite Spirit, which allows the appearance of spirit and not spirit (what we call matter). But this play is really a stretching out of spirit to appear close to or far from spirit. But it's all just spirit. So matter is the appearance of dense hardened heavy spirit.
Now we understand that, let's turn to the body again. It's a bundle of vibrating spirit within a dense range of frequencies, we could say. It can be considered that, just as a solid cup can hold liquid water or even gaseous air, the material body can hold lighter spirit. It's probably more accurate to say that the denser human body can be a receptacle for, or a channel for, a higher flowing spirit. This then makes it viable to consider that a higher form of spirit sits within the denser materialised form. We can consider that there is an unseen inner spirit form within the visible material form.
It seems equally acceptable that the hardened material form is more limited than a lighter freer form of spirit. It is conceivable that when the hardened form (the human body) breaks down, the lighter freer spirit is released. This lighter freer bundle of spirit energy we can call 'the soul'. The soul can be considered as the bundle of spirit energy that experiences planet Earth through the human body (or any other material body). Once released from the gravity of the human body, the soul is generally free to withdraw from the density of Earth back to its higher spiritual level.
However, it's also conceivable that the soul may form a bond or deeper attachment with the human experience, and may be drawn back to Earth again to inhabit another human body. As the pattern of rainfall and evaporation shows, and the pattern of waves upon the shore, there can be a circular process of coming and going. Here we are considering reincarnation and the seemingly endless wheel of rebirth.
It can be considered that the soul gains experience and develops by becoming lost in the world of matter. The pull of the material world seems to trap the soul and subjugates the soul. It may seem that the wheel of rebirth is endless, but it is a process of being lost and being found. The soul may, through many human experiences, come to the ultimate realisation. Firstly, it may recognise that it is a soul and not a body. But that is not enough. It must continue the search inwards to find that not only is it not a human form, but it is not a soul form either. Truth is formless, without beginning or end.
This deep realisation is termed nirvana, liberation, enlightenment, or self realisation. It is the deep recognition that the truth is not limited, defined or separate. There is only what is. There never were many souls who go out into the world and animate human forms or other forms. There is only One, an Infinite One. This realisation frees the soul from maya, the illusion of separation and attachment.
Ultimately then, there is no body and there is no soul. There is only What Is.