Non-duality
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
The Peace of Being remains timelessly as it is. Being is permanently present. You can't lose it or find it. It's not hidden and it's not revealed. It's here now. It never changes. It never moves.
Catching a bus, a boat, a train or a plane doesn't move Being. Walking down the street, it's only the body that walks. If we feel upset or overjoyed, it is the mind that feels this. Being remains content as it is. If we think anxious thoughts or thoughts that lead to great developments, Being remains as it is. Being does not think, feel, walk or travel. Being is simply timelessly aware.
Being isn't destroyed when life seems to end. Being remains always present. Being is the life itself, in which the forms of the world seem to come and go. We are not the forms. We are Being.
Being is who we are. We could say it's the core of who we are, but in the Heart of Being there is no inside or outside. It is everywhere and nowhere. The core of who we are is just this. Being. It's not in here or over there. It's not in some place out of reach. It is permanently, formlessly, timelessly here, where here is nowhere.
It is this timeless Being that we are. Not the human beings that come and go. We see the world coming and going. Being is Aware. Awareness isn't moved by the movement it perceives. Being is Self Aware. There is only the Self of Being. There is nothing that Being can be aware of that is not Being. There is nothing outside limitless Being. Being is timelessly Self Aware. Being is intelligent in that Being knows. But it's not that Being knows knowledge. Being is just Knowing. Awareness is Knowing. I know, therefore I know I am. I am Self Aware.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
There is a peace that never ends. If we are searching for peace, why would we settle for anything less? A temporary peace isn't the answer. But as well as never ending, Permanent Peace is without a beginning. Permanent Peace is the simple basic nature of Being. It's right here now.
If it's right here now, then why don't we feel it? Because it's not a feeling. It's not something that can be felt. It is beyond subtle. Permanent Peace is unmoving, unchanging and always here, so it can't be perceived. It's like looking at perfectly clear glass - it can't be seen. Permanent Peace is the pure clarity of Being. But how can that help us with all the incidents, difficulties, clashes and drama in our lives?
It helps to know that that Peace is always here. It's what is always here. Troubles come and go. Incidents happen here and there. It is from the place of Peace that all this coming and going is perceived. It is where we are looking from. It is the still centre around which the world of motion revolves. It helps to be reminded of this. It helps to turn the mind from its troubles and remind it that there is a Heart of Peace in which this all seems to happen.
Knowing that this imperceivable Peace is always here and is our true, unchanging nature, is a useful pointer to turn the mind from being caught up in the difficulties and drama of the world. We are not the difficulties and drama. It's all perceived from a placeless place of Peace. This knowledge can turn the mind inwards to its source, the source of all life and perception. The mind becomes tired of being caught up in the sway, being rocked this way and that by the vagaries of the world. The mind seeks some peace. There are temporary times of relative peace, and these are fine and natural. It's like a wave of motion, with quiet phases and busy phases, peaceful phases and active phases. This is the flow of opposites in the world.
But the Permanent Peace discussed here is beyond the flow of opposites that the world appears to be. The Permanent Peace is the stillness of the unmanifest Singularity. It is the point before time and space appeared. It is timeless and spaceless. It doesn't move or change. Yet within the Singularity of blissful peace and oneness, the world of change and diversity appears. This world of motion doesn't obliterate the Singularity. It doesn't end the Singularity. It doesn't temporarily displace it even. The timeless Singularity spans all space and time. The Permanent Peace remains throughout the appearance and disappearance of the world.
There is no place and no time in which the Permanent Peace is not. All there really is is Permanent Peace, though it may appear to be broken and shattered. The message here is: do not be fooled by what appears to be; know that Peace, Oneness and Life are the nature of all existence.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
All beliefs are wrong. Everything that you believe is wrong. That sounds a bit blunt, but there is some relative truth to it. Beliefs themselves are based on flawed logic. It's not really possible to know Truth, so to believe that some knowledge is true is flawed.
For example, one may believe that the planet is spherical. It's not true. I don't mean that the Earth is flat. I mean that the Earth isn't really truly spherical. It's not a true sphere, and not just because it bulges at the equator. The planet only appears smoothly spherical from a distance. Up close there are jagged mountains, skyscrapers, cliff edges, and so on. Also, we can't really say where planet Earth stops being the planet and starts being space. There isn't really a fixed defining perimeter where Earth's atmosphere ends. So the theory that Earth is round is flawed.
No theory is accurate. It's just that some theories are less inaccurate than others. We could say that Earth is fairly spherical, and that's less inaccurate than some other theories, but they will all be flawed to a greater or lesser degree. The simple reason for this is that Truth is inexpressible. For there to be any expression, such as a written theory, a verbal argument or a conceptual belief, it must utilise a duality. Written words are contrasted with the empty page, verbal words are contrasted with silence, and beliefs are contrasted with the empty mind in which they formulate. This duality is itself flawed. There can't really be a duality. There can only be an appearance of division or separation within the Singularity of existence. A Singularity can't really be expressed. It is best to accept that the expression of the Singularity is an inferior appearance of the reality which is always here.
What that means is that, as Reality is a Singularity, it can only be expressed as what it is not. For instance, silence can't really be expressed. Descriptions of silence aren't it. We can whisper or describe silence as the absence of sound, but that will not be as accurate as the silence itself. So all descriptions of it fail, or at best point to what can't be described. It is the same with trying to describe Reality. It's like trying to point to the finger that points, or trying to see the eye that sees.
So it's useful to recognise that all our beliefs are flawed. If we believe something to be true, it may be relatively true, but not absolute Truth. The absolute Truth is just what is, right here and now. It is beyond words and beyond concepts, or rather it is wordless and concept free, yet all words and concepts appear and disappear within it. Truth does not need to be believed. It is always here, ever-present. This is why in Non-Duality practice the aim is to drop all beliefs, even the belief of Non-Duality, as these beliefs are like clouds that block the clear sky of what just is.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
Understanding the world and human actions in terms of good and bad is a dualistic approach. The human mind distinguishes between what it feels or believes is good or bad, on an individual level and a cultural level. Something happens and the human mind or society has an opinion or view on whether it is good or bad. But this defining of good and bad is relative to the human perspective.
To use a tough example, if a crocodile ate a human that would generally be deemed bad from the human perspective, but quite acceptable and good from the crocodile perspective. Or if a human eats a chicken, that is often considered good in human culture, but from the chicken's perspective this is bad. So the point here is to highlight that our concepts of good and bad are not universally accurate. They are dualistic perspectives of what Just Is. By that I mean that the universe or existence just is. It isn't good or bad, and ultimately nothing really is good or bad from the universal perspective.
One of the controversial aspects of the Non-Duality understanding is that nothing is done. That is, what appears to happen just appears to happen. There isn't a doer of actions. Actions just seem to happen. Some may suggest that this allows for cruel, unkind or evil actions to be justified. But that's not the case. Non-Duality does away with cruelty and evil by the recognition that there is only One. The One has no evil intent because there is no other to cause harm to, to be jealous of, to be angry against, or to be in competition with.
So it doesn't mean that someone who believes in Non-Duality can justify cruel actions by saying, "There is no me who does anything." It means that cruel actions do not arise where there is clear knowing of Non-Duality , because there is no sense of a separate self that is the cause of cruelty, jealousy, evil, greed and competition. Without the sense of a separate self cruel or evil actions cannot arise. In Non-Duality teaching the aim is to drop the sense of being a separate self.
Non-Duality is the Way of No Way. It is the Action of No Action. Sometimes this can be misunderstood, as a way of shirking responsibility. But the greatest responsibility is to find out who you are. The greatest good that can be brought to the world is the realisation that Pure Goodness is the nature of Being. The core nature of Being can't really be described in terms of good or bad, but having experienced what seems bad, evil and wrong, we can say that Being is Pure Goodness. Goodness beyond the dualistic terms of good and bad.
In Non-Duality we don't point at others and say they are evil. We don't even point at actions and say they are wrong. In human terms, relatively speaking, people may act in evil ways and do actions that can be considered wrong. But that is only relatively speaking. In Non-Duality there are no others to point at, or one who points. In accurate Non-Duality terms there is only What Is. No harm is done to the Infinite Being within which this play of harming and healing appears. No force can ever cause a rift in the Infinite Indivisible One.
What we understand as good and right must be that which is the natural state of Being. Pure Being is wholly good and right, beyond any concept of other, beyond any seeming duality of opposite terms. It is the Singularity or Oneness that has no other. It is the high standard of what is good and right. So in human society goodness ought to be that which pertains to oneness. That doesn't mean one group of society dominant over another. It means the recognition of the Oneness of the Whole, without other. None are outside of this Pure Oneness, even those that may be considered as bad or evil by human society.
So ultimately there is no morality dilemma. Your true nature is neither good nor bad, but Pure Goodness is a good description of it. You are not the doer of actions or the thinker of thoughts, yet thoughts and actions are perceived. You are not the judge of others. There are no others. Your nature is truly Non-Judgemental. You do no harm. You are Perfect Peace. Recognising this Perfect Peace within the human mind brings about a clarity and cleansing to the human form, so that Pure Goodness of Being filters through into this apparent world of opposites.