Non-duality
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
People might ask, "Are you a glass half full person, or half empty?" This, of course, refers to whether you have a negative or positive outlook on life. When a glass is half filled with a drink, do you focus on there being an amount of drink there, or do focus on there being an amount missing? Really, the glass is neither half full nor half empty.
Why so? To see the glass as half full or empty is to mistake air for nothingness. It belies a way of looking at the world that is dualistic or divided. Truly the glass is always full, even when it's empty. Well, it's never empty. It only appears empty because air is invisible. But invisible isn't nothing. Air isn't nothing. Whether the glass has liquid and gas in it, or only liquid, or only gas, doesn't really matter. It's always full of something.
So that can be a game changer. It can change the way we view the world. Suddenly we see the unseen. The focus isn't on this and not that. The focus takes in the whole picture. In effect, we can move from being negative or positive to just viewing it as it is. We change from dualistic thinking to non-dualistic or holistic awareness.
Let's take a more useful example than glass with liquid and gas in it. How about when plans for meeting up with someone get cancelled? Some may see this as negative, in that something that was supposed to happen doesn't happen. Some may see it as positive, in that it frees them up for something else to happen. The Non-Dualistic way is that it is neither negative nor positive. It just is what it is. It's not that something doesn't happen. Something is always happening in the world, even when it seems that there's nothing going on. The planet continues to spin its swirling path through space. But we don't really notice that.
If we go back to the glass being full, half full or empty, there is a further step of recognition. It's what we might consider as the Zen way of looking at it. There is no glass.
How so? Can it be true that there is no glass? Yes. Truly 'the glass' cannot be defined. The glass is something like a solid form that can hold liquids and gases. But it's all vibrating energy, just at different densities. The glass may seem to be more solid that air, but it's not completely solid. Its apparent solidity is temporary and dependent on environmental conditions. At certain temperatures its solidity will turn to liquid and then to gas. And we know that although objects may seem fixed and permanent, this is only a relative appearance of permanence. All form in the universe is changing. It's just that some forms change more slowly than others. Although, to be more accurate there aren't really many forms. There isn't really a glass and water and air. It is all a flow of vibrating energy that the mind gives temporary labels to.
So there is no glass, only the temporary appearance of a substance standing out from the rest of the substance. That substance we can call Consciousness. It is Consciousness in which the apparent solids, liquids and gases are known. The glass that we know is only ever known in Consciousness, made of Consciousness, known by Consciousness.
It is all Consciousness. Consciousness is always full. Full of Everything, whilst its sum total is Nothing. Full and empty don't really apply to the Singularity of it. It just is what it is. It is for this reason that the apparent duality of the world can be understood to be a Non-Duality, then Non-Duality can be known to be just What Is.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
It seems useful to consider what these terms really mean, or really are: mind, thoughts and consciousness. They mean different things to different people, but from the Non-Duality perspective we can be fairly clear as to what they are. So here goes.
Let's start with thoughts. We can say they are words or images that appear in the mind, but they can also be 'sounds'. Thoughts can be tunes we hear 'in our head'. Thoughts can be word structures or sentences with meaning. They can be a conversation 'in our mind'. Thoughts can be images - we can picture a flower, for example, or sometimes images just appear with no apparent reason. When drifting off to sleep there can be initial images or scenes of things happening. And when in sleep, dreams themselves are thoughts that take on a stronger visual and experiential element.
It could be said that thoughts mimic what is perceived through the senses. Thoughts can be like sounds, images or sensations. And in dreams they can mimic or use elements experienced in daily life. It's useful to consider thoughts as mental activity. It's impossible to frame where a thought begins and ends.
So then to the mind. Well, the mind is mental activity. In a way 'mind' is only something when thoughts are active. Without thought, where is the mind? It has no physical location anyway. But when thoughts cease there is no mind, as mind is what we call mental activity, which is what thoughts are.
On then to consciousness. In common usage consciousness means being awake. But in Non-Duality the terms Consciousness and Awareness can be used to refer to the ever-present state of Being. You may have heard of Sat-Chit-Ananda, which means something like Being-Consciousness-Bliss. It is the Advaita Vedanta term that describes the singular nature of reality as Peaceful Aware Being. It is this natural core condition of existence in which the universe is perceived. That means it is in Consciousness or Aware Being that the mind, the body and the world are perceived.
Strictly speaking there isn't a mind, body or world. There is only one infinite indivisible presence, and that is Aware Being. Within Consciousness or Aware Being the apparent focal point of a world is perceived. But the world itself is nothing other than Aware Being when perceived through this localised point of perspective of the human experience. It should be noted that there is a reflection of sorts, where Aware Being perceives itself as a world. You can see the similarities with a dream, in which the mind perceives itself as a world.
Anyhow, Consciousness is what is right here now. It's not that you are conscious. The human can be described as awake or asleep, but there is Consciousness in which the states of awake and asleep appear. When asleep, Consciousness is aware of the inner mental activity. In deep sleep the mental activity stops and focus withdraws from the senses. Consciousness isn't aware of anything then, but it's still aware.
Consciousness doesn't need something to be aware of, and in fact there is nothing other than Consciousness. Consciousness is always aware of itself, no matter what appears; it's all Consciousness. Aware Being is Self-Aware, or Self-Realised, to use the enlightenment term.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
It's difficult to find peace in the world. By nature the universe is continually moving and changing. If a peace is found then it's only a temporary peace. However, there is a Permanent Peace. It's not something to be found, but it's at the heart of all the searching. Permanent Peace is timelessly present whilst the world spins around. In the world it is like the still centre, and this pattern repeats throughout the universe - a still centre at the heart of movement and change. We see it in the strong trunk of a tree, from which the branches grow outwards. It's in the swirl of water going down a plughole, and the eye of the hurricane as it whirls around. It's in the opening and closing of a flower and the seeming stillness of our view from planet Earth as the stars and planets move round.
These pockets of peace that we perceive aren't wholly accurate. Planet Earth isn't really still. Nothing in the world of movement and change remains still. It's just that they can seem still or they can represent stillness temporarily. Yet there is a True Stillness. It is this True Stillness from which and in which this world of motion is perceived. True Stillness is beyond time and space. Time and space appear within its timeless spacelessness. It's an infinite indivisible Singularity. It's always Here and Now.
Eckhart Tolle often mentions Presence or Being Present in his talks. He sometimes mentions The Present Moment. It's not really a moment in time, of course. He is referring to the timeless Now. This Presence is the true nature of all things. It is That in which time and space seem to stretch out. All the while, Presence is right Here, Now. It is the pure, perfect peace. It's not made of anything. Presence wasn't created. It is timeless and formless. It's an unshakeable Singularity. It cannot be moved or harmed. It cannot be broken or split in two. It is the true nature of the seemingly ever-moving world.
Presence has no beginning or end, no inside or outside. How do we know it's here? Because we know. The very fact of being aware tells us that we are here. We are the Aware Presence that is here. It's not that because there is a human there is Presence. The human is perceived because of Presence. Presence comes first. Well, it would be more accurate to say Presence is timelessly present, before any appearance of first and last. It reminds one of the Bible quote (John 1:8), "Before Abraham was, I am." It means that before the world appeared, Being was present. We can think of it like this: before the universe began, Presence was all that there was; but there was no time, no past or present tense, just Presence, Now. So Presence was before any appearance of beginning. It remains as it is throughout all apparent time and change, and is all that there is once time seems to come to an end.
It's difficult to understand it if one is firmly rooted in the notion of time as reality. The problem is that time isn't reality. Presence is Reality. That's why the question of what was before the beginning doesn't seem to make sense. There is no beginning, or end. There is only the timeless Now/Presence/Peace, and in this the world of time and space whirls around.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
Awareness is the natural state of being. It requires no effort to be aware. Being aware is not an add-on to who we are. Being Aware is the natural state of pure clarity before add-ons appear.
We are aware of perceptions and sensations. We are aware of seeing, hearing, and so on. We are aware of emotions, feelings, and thinking. We, Awareness, perceive this.
When our eyesight starts to fail, we are aware of the failing eyesight. Awareness remains unaffected by the perceiving of the failing eyesight. When eyesight goes or we close our eyes, we are aware of the lack of light perception. It requires no effort. The eyes may focus on objects, the ears may tune in to specific sounds, but Awareness remains aware as it is. Awareness perceives the focusing or tuning in without effort.
When the body becomes ill, lethargic and achy, Awareness perceives the ill feeling and achiness. When the body becomes sleepy, Awareness perceives the sleepiness. Awareness doesn't become ill or sleepy.
When the mind becomes depressed or anxious, Awareness perceives the depression and anxiety. When the mind dreams or becomes deluded, Awareness perceives the dreams and delusions. Awareness remains simply aware throughout the human experience of sensations and perceptions.
When the mind is actively thinking, daydreaming, or meditating, Awareness perceives this without effort. Awareness doesn't think actively or daydream. It doesn't meditate or need to reach some exalted state of mind. Awareness remains timelessly peaceful without effort, throughout the activity of the mind, body and world.
The mind, body and world appear within the effortless Awareness. It is where we are perceiving from. It is the core nature of being - Aware Being. It is the natural state of Nothingness. The knowing Nothingness. The alive Nothingness in which the world of things appears. Formless, serene Beingness.