The Universe
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
Sometimes this question comes up: Is the world an illusion? Or even: Is the world a simulation? Let's have a look at this from the Non-Duality understanding.
We'll start with, 'Is the world a simulation?' Well, if it was then it's possible that whatever beings were controlling the simulation could also be considering if they are in a simulation, and so on and so on. It could be an endless rabbit hole of simulation anxiety.
Let's consider the possible illusion of the world. Maya is quite a well known Hindu philosophical term. It means magic or illusion and is used to describe the nature of the phenomenal world as illusory. It is the illusion that traps the soul in the endless round of rebirth, or samsara. The soul becomes entangled in karma, or the Law of Opposites as I call it, flowing back and forth between human incarnations, endlessly until enlightenment.
It's a useful understanding but not wholly accurate. No theory can ever be wholly accurate, anyhow. The Truth cannot be spoken or defined. It can only be pointed at, and that pointing is inevitably inferior to what it points to. Anyway, is the world an illusion? Ramana Maharshi explained, "The universe is real if perceived as the Self, and unreal if perceived apart from the Self. Hence maya and reality are one and the same." (The Self, with a capital S, is used to mean the true nature of being.)
What this means is that it's useful to understand the world as an illusion if one is caught up in it, caught up in the drama, caught up in the belief of separation. The belief of separation (or duality) is the crucial point. Non-Duality understanding explains that there is no duality. There are not many forms, many creatures, many people. The world is just One Being appearing as many. That's the illusion, that what seems to be a world of multiplicity, or many forms, is really just One, an Infinite Indivisible One.
As one breaks free from the belief of separation and duality, and explores the Non-Duality understanding, a realisation dawns. This apparent world of illusion cannot really be an illusion. There is only the Infinite Self, the Indivisible One. What appears to be something other than the Infinite Self is not 'other'. The illusion of multiplicity is only a mistaken perspective. The world is nothing other than the Infinite Self. So there really isn't an illusion, there is only the Real. There is nothing other than Reality. It's just that sometimes Reality is believed to be something it's not.
So there is a transition of development in Non-Duality understanding, from believing that the world is real, to recognising that it is illusory, to recognising that there is only the Real. There is a Zen quote attributed to Dogen: “Before one studies Zen, mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after a first glimpse into the truth of Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and waters are no longer waters; after enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and waters once again waters.”
This doesn't mean that there was a duality and a world and later it is recognised that even the duality is the Infinite Self. It means that there never is a duality or world, and once this is realised the world can be spoken of without false separation, attachment and belief. There is only Reality, appearing to be mountains and waters.
Are the mountains, the waters and the planet a simulation? Well, yes and no. They're not really what they appear to be. There is only the Infinite Indivisible Self. We are That.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
Time can be understood as the continual transition of change. We know that planet Earth spins on its axis, giving the appearance that the sun spins around it. We divide one whole spin into 24 hours and call it a day. We divide one hour into sixty minutes and each minute into 60 seconds. We use these methods to measure what we call time.
Time is the flowing appearance of the universe. Without any change or flowing there is no time or sense of time. Time doesn't really go faster or slower. If the planet were to spin on its axis once in 12 hours that wouldn't make time faster. So time is constant in that sense.
It's important to realise that there are not really moments in time. There are never any definable chunks of time, like seconds and minutes. These are just human ways of measuring the continual flow of change. An hour isn't really made of 60 minutes. It is continual and indivisible. There isn't one minute then another then another and so on. Change just flows. So there are no real moments of time.
Really, there isn't even time. There is just an appearance of flowing change. This all appears Now. The appearance of change is a reflection and dispersion of a singular unchanging Oneness. Change is a reflection of Stillness. Stillness is the nature of Reality. There is truly nowhere to go and nothing to do, but in this Here and Now the dimensions of time and space can appear.
So there are no moments of time, just One. Well, really it's not even a moment of time. It's more like No Time. It can't be understood logically except by reflection of what it's not. Complete Stillness cannot be perceived, but by perceiving motion and change we can understand Stillness.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
Space has no limits. If we look up on a clear night our vision is only limited by the distant light being able to reach the eye. There is no end to the universe.
If we look down a street as far as a building that blocks our view it is only an appearance of solidity that prevents light traveling through it. The building isn't truly a limitation. It isn't truly completely solid. Although light can't pass through the bricks of the building, light is only a range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Other ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum can pass through it. Limitations are illusory.
There is no end to the space outside us or inside us. Truly there is no outside or inside. There is no real division to make it so. Our understanding of inside and outside is conceptual and based on the appearance of limitation of form. But there is no real limitation. The human body, for example, is a flowing form. It's porous, and although it seems to have an outer shell there is no real separation between the 'inside' and 'outside'. There is only a conceptual inside and outside.
So the space ahead of us, inside us, and behind us is simply unlimited space, Infinite Space. To go even further, really there is no space. The appearance of distance that gives the illusion of space is created by the seeming solidity of forms. The space is the place these forms take and the distance between them. Or so it seems.
The Infinite Space is No Space. It is all right Here. No-one has experienced any place other than here. We may perceive places 'over there' but once we get there we are still Here. Distance and space are only an appearance in the No Space right Here.
Where is Here? It cannot be described as it is the only place, but it is no place. It is no distance from anything. There is no distance. Yet this Infinite Spaceless Space allows the appearance of space and limitation.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
The world appears as a state of disharmony. It's as if the natural unmanifest state of Oneness, a Singularity, has fallen out of unity and harmony into what now appears as a fluctuating world of disharmony. In today's scientific world view, it's as if the Big Bang blew apart the peace and harmony of the unmanifest Singularity.
It's a useful way to understand the world. It's like a state of chaos. But there is some order to it. The disharmony hints at a state of harmony that can't really be known. The Oneness of a Singularity, in other words Total Harmony, cannot really be perceived. But we can understand what Pure Harmony is by seeing what it isn't. This world of disharmony fluctuates and swings between opposites. Things can seem to be more in harmony or more in disharmony. As I've explained elsewhere, we can understand it as a Continuum of Disharmony, ranging from very little disharmony to great disharmony. This 'very little disharmony' is usually what we term as harmony. But it can't be a true harmony. It's just disharmony that is more harmonious.
You see, disharmony is the falling out of equilibrium, the falling out of unity or oneness. That's how the world appears. Without this apparent separation from the Singularity it would be impossible for one to perceive something. There needs to be a sense of separation between the subject and object for someone to perceive something. That utilisation of the appearance of separation, which gives rise to the appearance of the universe, has a seeming downside in that it disturbs the peace and harmony of the Singularity.
What that means is: the creation of the world is the creation of disharmony. Disharmony is inevitable in the world because it is the cause of the world. Chaos will inevitably appear. So we'd do well not to expect life to play out simply and calmly. There will be periods of relative calm and relative disruption. That's life. Human life, anyway.
Now to the important bit. Disharmony is just a play. The Singularity of Pure Harmony is never destroyed. It doesn't fall out of harmony in order to create the world. There only appears to be a world of disharmony. The Truth is that Pure Harmony is timelessly here. Prior to the appearance of the world and disharmony, Pure Harmony is. It is within the Singularity that the seeming division of the singularity appears. In other words, the world of disharmony isn't really created, it's just a play within the Infinite Peace and Harmony of the Singularity.
You are not someone who sees the world. There is only the totality of the world, whether it may appear to be blown apart or not. There is only an appearance of a turbulent life, with ups and downs. You remain as you are, as the world seems to fall into chaos and come back again. You are unchanged by the changing appearance of the world. Nothing is gained. Nothing is lost. It only appears to happen.
Infinite Peace and Stillness is your true nature and the nature of all as One.