Non-duality
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
Much is spoken about in Eastern and New Age spirituality regarding Awareness and Consciousness. But what really is it?
I use Awareness and Consciousness synonymously, so when I talk of Awareness here I also mean Consciousness. Awareness is like the page on which words appear, the canvas on which a painting appears, or the screen on which a movie appears. It is that in which all appearances appear. Awareness itself doesn't appear, but we know of Awareness by the fact of perception. Nothing can appear without the awareness of it. To use another simile, it's like knowing it's windy out by the sight of the tree branches moving.
Consider perceptions: sounds, sights, tastes, smells, and touches all appear in Awareness. Yes, they are facilitated through the human experience or perspective, through the human senses. But they appear in the same 'place', right here. That's not the whole picture. Human emotions are felt, as well as bodily sensations. Thoughts are also perceived, along with a sense of identity. This is all perceived in one 'place'. That 'place' we can call Awareness.
We are Awareness. There is one Awareness, and in this all apparently separate perspectives appear. It could be said that I can't see what others see, so we must be separate. But there is a focal point in Awareness, where the world is perceived form a human perspective, and human thought activity calls this 'me'. It's not really a separate me, it's just the assumption that human thought makes. I am not what is perceived.
This leads to another understanding of Awareness, another reason why we can't perceive it. The eye cannot see the eye. Awareness can never perceive itself. As well as being formless, pure clarity, Awareness couldn't possibly be the object of Awareness. This doesn't mean that Awareness can't be self aware. Awareness being aware means that it is self aware. What appears is a poor reflection of the formless nature of Awareness, yet nothing is known other than Awareness.
All is perceived by Awareness, in Awareness, made of Awareness. There are no true limits that separate out the subject and the object, the seer and the seen. There is just seeing, just Awareness. What looks to be far away in the distance is perceived right here. Sounds that are heard in the distance are heard right here. 'Over there' can never be perceived. Awareness is Here and Now, and it is in this timeless 'place' that space and time appear. Awareness and what appears in Awareness are one. It is all Awareness. What appears is by aid of reflection, so the world appears to be the opposite of unseen Awareness, yet there is always only Awareness. There is an appearance of duality - seer and seen - but it's true nature is Non-Duality, or Infinite Oneness.
This is why it would be wrong to say I am a human, I am male or female, I am short or tall, or I am a soul. It's perhaps more accurate to say I am the universe. There are no true limits that divide. Awareness is everything, yet nothing. The Whole is undivided. It may appear divided, but it remains infinitely One. Just as a movie on the screen appears to have many shapes and forms, depth and distance, yet it is singular. Just as a painting may appear to have different people, animals, and objects, yet it is just one painting.
Being aware requires no effort. It is the natural state. It is uncreated, timeless and formless. Awareness has no qualities. All appearances seem to come and go within its timeless formless nature.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
The human senses are like limitations of Awareness. It is as if Awareness is restricted and only certain ranges of perception can come through. Imagine Pure Awareness that knows all: it would be like Pure Light or total imperceivable clarity. But then consider that this is masked or covered and pin holes are poked through the covering to allow limited light to come through. It is like this with hearing, seeing, tasting, touching, and so on.
So it's not that the senses develop by chance, but rather that there is an apparent limitation of Awareness, clouding or preventing clear knowing, and within this small holes appear that allow limited perception. It is like the refraction of light from white light into the colours within its spectrum. The pure light seems to divide into different forms or frequencies of light, which seem to be less than it, but are the expanded totality of it.
That's how the universe works. It's the seeming expansion of One into many. The One is never truly divided, but it can appear divided. In fact the One cannot appear. Only when the One appears divided can it seem to appear at all. Consider again white light: it is imperceptible until it is reflected and refracted into colour. This is the pattern of the universe right here. The universe appears by the division of One into one and others. It is then, when there is a distance or apparent separation, that one can see the universe. Otherwise the universe is contained in itself as a Singularity. Indeed it is still contained in itself as a Singularity, whether it appears divided or not.
It is a play of separation. Awareness or Knowing or Consciousness seems to divide itself into a perceiver perceiving the perceived. Subject and object seem separated by the connection between them. One seems to divide into one knowing many. Awareness seems to divide into methods of knowing, which in the human experience are the senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and so on. More senses can develop during evolution, as further pin-holes of perception open. These senses allow a fuller picture of the universe.
But let's not overlook that the universe is Awareness perceiving itself. The evolution of perception then is the uncovering of the apparent limitations imposed upon Awareness, to eventually reveal the full complete clarity of Awareness itself. Pure Awareness can be considered as pure unending light. The end of the universe is in the complete clarity of All Knowing Being, where there is actually no perception of form, yet complete knowing of being. The universe will seem to transform into the all-knowing clarity of Awareness.
This might seem bleak to humans, and sound like the end of all life. But really Awareness is Life itself. In the universe Life seems to be divided into life and the lifeless, and a range or spectrum between these. Again, it is Awareness appearing to divide itself - into what it is and seemingly what it isn't. Life is the ever-present constant throughout the appearance and disappearance of the universe. The culmination of the universe is not in its destruction but in its completion and apparent return to Oneness, the Fullness of Life.
But the universe is always whole and complete. It just seems to be divided and needing to go through expansion and contraction to return to its original state. It's always One. The division is only an appearance within its timeless Oneness. Similarly with perception, Awareness is always present within the seemingly divided senses of perception. It is Awareness that knows the senses of perception. Awareness is that in which the perceiver, perceiving and perceived are perceived.
There is never really anything outside of Awareness. It remains always imperceptibly present. Yet Awareness can be known by the act of being able to know. What that means is that Awareness is Self-Aware, by the fact that it knows it knows. Awareness is aware of being aware. I know, therefore I know I am.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
A common mistake about Non-Duality is that it is something to be attained, or it is a state of consciousness that we can reach beyond this world of duality. But Non-Duality is really an explanation of the nature of reality - that it's not two, meaning that there is not a duality or a multiplicity, there are not many. Sometimes people may feel that it is necessary to overcome duality by drawing inwards to a point of Non-Duality, but that's not the case. It is rather a recognising that there is no duality, no inside or outside, that reveals the true nature of reality as a Non-Duality. Let's understand this some more.
Most people may have no concept, understanding or interest about whether reality is a oneness or not. There is a generally accepted view amongst humanity that there is this and that, me and you, me and them, these and those. It is what we call a dualistic view, seeing the world as consisting of many separate forms. People generally don't realise it in that way; it's just how the world appears and their everyday view of life isn't really questioned or highlighted. The Non-Duality understanding points it out. It highlights that we see the world in this way, mentally - that we have a mental view of the world as made of separate forms and separate beings. I describe it as a World of Opposites, because not only does the world appear to be made of separate forms, but there appears to be a force of opposites through the world, where these opposites seem to be stretched apart. For example, we conceptualise high and low, good and bad, near and far, stillness and movement, permanence and change, and so on.
So it's useful to recognise this apparent World of Opposites, and that the world behaves as if there is a push and pull between opposing forces. Moreover, it's useful to recognise that we see the world that way and we believe that this separation of opposites, or the separation of the world as a multiplicity, is true and real. That's an important recognition. But Non-Duality goes further. It says that this apparent separation and appearance of the interplay of opposites in the world is not really how it is. There's not really a separation. There are not two. There are not many. Only an Infinite One.
Just as a painting appears to contain many forms but is one, just as a movie on a screen appears to have many forms but is one, the appearance of the world in consciousness is one. The play of an unfolding universe is one. Although it may seem that the universe came from an unmanifest Singularity, bursting forth into opposite forces that interacted and multiplied, really the Singularity remains. There is no creation and destruction. What appears or disappears from the Singularity is always the Singularity, although it may appear to be its opposite. The universe now is no more or less than ever.
So Non-Duality is not something to be reached. It's right here now. It's not something for which we need to raise our consciousness to attain. Rather, it is recognised in the letting go of the ingrained human belief of separation. It's not that we live in duality and need to reach a state of Non-Duality. There is no duality. There is only Non-Duality; there is only an Infinite Indivisible Oneness. The world is not a duality. It appears to be, but what appears is a play of opposites within the Oneness of Reality. The world cannot appear without a play of reflection: what is and what is not. But it is all What Is.
It's hoped that humanity can take this on board and start living in a way that recognises the Oneness of life. Non-Duality does away with selfishness, competition, fighting and war. There are no separate selves. There is only Infinite Oneness.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
This is perhaps a useful way to understand Non-Duality. We think of the world as being outside of us, and we are on the inside. If we believe we are the body, then we still think of ourselves as thinking from the inside of the body. If we believe we are a soul, we may think that we are the soul inside the body. If we think that we are consciousness, then we see the thoughts as inside our consciousness and the body and world as outside of our consciousness. That's a generalisation, but people often think along those lines.
However, in the Non-Duality understanding there is no inside or outside. All that we know is Consciousness. The apparently internal and external 'worlds' appear in Consciousness. The thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations and perceptions that are experienced are all within Consciousness. Nothing is ever truly experienced outside of Consciousness.
So from that perspective what appeared to be the inside and the outside are found to both appear inside Consciousness. But we need to go a step further and recognise that 'inside' Consciousness isn't really accurate. When everything is 'inside' then there is no 'inside'. When 'outside' doesn't exist then the word 'inside' has no meaning. It just is as it is.
This is Non-Duality. There are not two. The opposites that we believe to be real are not really real. When we withdraw inside to the heart of experience we find that everything is 'inside' Consciousness or Awareness, and then there is no dualistic term by which 'inside' can hold any accuracy. So we recognise the duality, then go to the heart of where we perceive this from and realise that really there is no duality. The Heart is the Whole.
Similarly, we can say that when it is recognised that there is only Consciousness or Awareness, then these terms mean nothing. We can switch to the term What Is. Even the term 'Being' loses its meaning when all there is is Being. So the Truth is inexpressible. When we try to explain it we hide it somewhat. Yet it is never hidden.