The Human Experience
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Human Experience
Has anyone ever really seen you or heard you? If it is assumed you are the body, a limited human form, then this will seem an absurd question - of course people have seen you and heard you speak. But if it is recognised that you are not the human body, and the real you has a spiritual nature, then it shouldn't seem such an odd question. Even then, when it is known that I am not the body, the mind still associates with the body. So it's useful to shake the tree, as they say.
Nobody has ever seen you. You have no form. You are that in which the form appears and disappears. Nobody has ever heard you. You don't have a voice. You don't make a sound. You are the stillness in which sounds appear and disappear. You don't have arms and legs, a head and a brain. That's the human body. It is the body that is seen and heard, felt and known. You are not the apparently limited form.
We think of the human body as being made of matter. But matter isn't really what it appears to be. The solidity of the human body is only relative. Our usual understanding of 'solidity' is something stable, unchanging and impervious - nothing can get through it. But there is no substance that is truly stable, unchanging and impervious. Solid matter is not truly solid. It's only relatively solid compared to other levels of solidity. For example, ice is only relatively more solid and stable than water. Ice is not truly stable, but it appears more stable than its more fluid form.
The human body is only relatively stable. We know this. It is continually changing. It's not perceptible that the body changes within an hour, but the nails are slowly growing, hair is slowly growing, skin is slowly being replaced, air is entering the body system. The body is not a closed system that remains stable. So even if we did identify as the human body, we couldn't really say where its limits are. Although the body seems to be autonomous within the planet, it is really made of the planet substance and is continually flowing and changing with the planet.
It's quite a shift for the mind to turn from identifying as a human. Recognising the spiritual nature of oneself brings in another consideration. Is not the substance that the body is made of, namely matter, just a form of condensed spirit, as ice is a form of condensed water? And if it is thought that I am a soul, isn't the soul also unlimited in a similar way to how the body is unlimited? The soul would be one with its environment also, and not really a solid, limited unchanging form. And if there are no limits, then there cannot truly be many souls.
Some may argue against this in defence of the soul, and that's fine. It is a way of understanding how the spiritual world works: souls take on human form and experience life as a human on planet Earth. That's fine and a useful understanding. But if we closely examine it, it will be found that there are no limits to anything. Humans only appear separate by the air or space between them, yet they continually interact with the air and space. So humans aren't really separate from anything. They are more like interactive, flowing, evolving, forms that only appear dense, limited or solid relative to the environment in which they appear and of which they are made. It is similar with souls also.
The message here is that we are not human and we are not souls. There are no real limits between the human forms or soul forms. Our true nature is unlimited. The universe's true nature is unlimited. There is only What Is, the Infinite One appearing as though it is many. What seems to separate the many is nothing other than the Infinite One that is the substance of all.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Human Experience
Are the concepts 'right' and 'wrong' subjective? Well, the simple answer is yes. But a more telling answer is yes and no. Humanity has a subjective view of what is right and wrong, but this is influenced by a higher purpose or higher understanding of the nature of Truth. What is right is closest to Truth/Reality. What is wrong is further away. But the reality is that there is nothing other than Truth/Reality, so what appears to be wrong or untrue is not what it seems.
That may take some explaining. When it's understood that Reality is a Singularity, then what appears to be separate, divided or in opposition is understood to be incorrect or unreal. So opposites are useful, but not correct. There are no real opposites, only the Singularity seeming to be divided into what is like it and what is not like it. For example, a shining star in space expresses the life, light and clarity of the Singularity in contrast to the lifeless darkness around it. Yet it is all still the Singularity.
So it is with right and wrong. This is the appearance of what is like the Singularity and what is unlike the Singularity. What Is appears as what is and what is not. But the opposites are themselves inaccurate. There is only ever What Is. So even though 'right' appears closest to Truth and 'wrong' seems to be further away, they are both nothing other than Truth. The unreal and the untrue cannot exist, only conceptually.
Although things in the world may appear to be right and wrong, it is only from a narrowed perspective that this apparent duality is observed. The whole, complete picture is that there is never anything wrong. There is only Truth, Rightness and Reality. It is the same with all apparent opposites. Good and bad, alive and dead, love and hate, clarity and confusion, near and far, peace and war, freedom and restriction, one and many - these are all expressions of what is like the Singularity and what is unlike it. Yet there is only ever the Singularity. No matter how many there appear to be, there is only ever One.
We can go a step further with Rightness. Although 'right' is closer to Truth than 'wrong', pure Rightness is just What Is. It's neither right nor wrong really. We only know the quality of Rightness from the contrast of its opposite. Rightness, Truth, Reality, Love, Clarity, Complete, One, Unlimited are the basic qualities of just being. So there is a point to be made that they are not qualities at all.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Human Experience
Humanity allows the ego to be in control. In control of everyday decisions. In control of how each human life pans out. In control of lives, relationships, towns, countries, human society and the planet. The ego is in charge. The ego is the dictator of human life. Or so it thinks.
The ego is the sense of 'me', the separate identity. 'Me' as an individual separate from others. There is also the collective ego, a group identity separate from others, where we identify as 'we' or 'us' and different to 'them'. This sense of separation forms into an identity, a strong held belief that I or we are separate and different from others. The stronger this identity develops, the more distant its sense of separation is from 'others'. The stronger the sense of ego is, the more it will be at odds with 'others' and the world. The stronger the ego, the more difficult life becomes.
The strong ego isn't just the boasting self-conceited ego. It's also the self-deprecating ego, the one that feels it is less than others. Either way, it's a distancing from others. The sense of separation. The ego boosts its idea of separation and difference in order to maintain its sense of self and identity. It can do this by putting others down or inflating its own sense of superiority. It can also criticise itself and dwell in a sense of inferiority. It all amounts to the same thing: the ego distances itself from others in order to increase its sense of identity. It's in these ways that the ego becomes controlling.
The ego seeks to control, to maintain and improve its individual identity. Life must be the way it wants it. People must act the way it wants them to. This will usually fail and cause all sorts of problems, but the ego criticises and blames either itself or others for this. So it still boosts its sense of identity separate from others.
Not only does this happen on a personal level, in our human lives and relationships. It happens in work life, where strong egos make their way up the ranks to strengthen their sense of identity, power and control. It happens in family life, community life and political life, where strong egos can get themselves into positions of power. The ego can then control and dictate over many 'others'.
With collective egos groups will clash with each other. For example, gangs fight other gangs to maintain the boundaries of their territory, fans of sports teams can develop a strong dislike of others, companies sometimes compete ruthlessly against similar companies, countries seek to battle other countries or take them over. This is all the play of the ego.
But the ego isn't real. The sense of identity is flawed. It's a false identity. There are no true boundaries to any identity. The countries have no true boundaries. The companies, sports teams and gangs are only divided in the human mind. These seeming divisions are not natural and take effort to maintain. Similarly with our human forms. The human body isn't separate from the planet, or indeed the universe as a whole. The limits of the human body can't really be found. This division of the world is purely intellectual, not factual.
So the point here is to recognise that the ego wants to rule the world. It wants to rule human life, from daily activities and decisions to worldly affairs. What can 'we' do about it? Well, this apparent dictator is never really in control. It just thinks it is. Really it is for the dictator itself to turn itself in. The ego will bring about the end of the ego. This is the path of Self Realisation. The ego goes out into the world seeking something, maybe happiness. But it will only find it when it recognises its mistake of assuming it's someone separate from the world.
The end of the ego is in the dissolving of its sense of separate identity. Ultimately the ego needs to give itself up, stop trying to control, stop blaming others, stop thinking it's separate. Love and kindness to others, putting others first, is a step in that direction. But ultimately there must be no sense of 'me and others'. That is Self Realisation: that there is only an Infinite Indivisible One.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Human Experience
Can you be in tune with the whole? Can you be so at one with the world that all your actions are in harmony with the world? Well, yes and no.
As long as there is a 'you' or a 'me' there is a sense of separation from the whole, a falling out of harmony with the whole. So 'you' can never be in complete harmony with the world or the whole. You will be more or less in disharmony with the whole. At best 'you' can be close to harmony. At worst, far from harmony. When close to harmony, the sense of 'me' is diminished to such a degree that 'your' actions are for others and for the whole, as best as 'you' can. When far from harmony 'your' actions would be disruptive and harmful to others and the world. The 'me' will be out of harmony to a greater or lesser degree. Or so it seems.
The good news is that there is a true Harmony. Harmony is the truth. Harmony is the truth within the appearance of disharmony. What appears to be you and what is believed to be you is not you. What appears has no limits. What appears is the Whole. There is nothing other than the Whole and it isn't really divided up into separate forms.
The human mind sees the world as separate and believes this, developing its sense of identity as separate from others or the rest of the world. This sense of separation is thought based and at the root of identity. This is the 'me' that can feel alone in the world, fearful of the world or angry against the world. The stronger the sense of separate identity, the more 'I' will feel distant, isolated, or at odds with the world. This is where the disharmony comes in.
The 'me' can't achieve harmony because it is by nature a sense of separation and disharmony. It's a separating out from the whole, like an imaginary cutting out a piece of the whole. But the whole is never truly separated. The Harmony is always here. The whole is always the whole. Nothing is gained or lost. It just is.
So what do we do to find this Wholeness? We let go of the sense of being separate. We allow the recognition of Oneness to permeate this sense of being separate, so that it gradually dissolves. Know that the sense of 'me' is witnessed, but you are not it. It appears and disappears within the whole. You are not this or that. You just are.