The Universe
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
Consider that before the world appeared from the Big Bang there was a Singularity, a state of no time, no space, no form, no change, no limits. For a True Singularity there is nothing else. It is Pure Perfection, Flawless, Pure Clarity, Completeness, Emptiness, Nothing, Everything, Wholeness, Peace, Oneness.
Similarly, imagine Infinite Light. It is Pure Imperceptible Clarity. It's not something that can be seen. For Infinite Light to be perceived it needs a contrast. It must seem to divide itself into what is like it and what is not like it. So a light appears in the darkness. In creating the perceivable world, the Singularity seems to divide itself into its likeness and its opposite. Interaction ensues and a multiplicity branches out. It sounds a bit like the Adam and Eve story...
Anyway, the Singularity seems to scatter itself into a range of what is close to it and what is far from it. Infinite Light appears as a range from bright light to darkness. This pattern multiplies throughout the universe. We can see it here in the formation of trees, flowers, and the fingers of human hands on human arms from a central torso. The universe seems to scatter outwards from a central point, and the pattern repeats.
What we see in this world of time and space is what seems to be an Infinite Singularity divided through dispersion and reflection. Oneness becomes one and many. Pure Light becomes light and darkness. Perfect Harmony becomes harmony and disharmony. Order becomes order and chaos. Peace becomes peace and war. Life becomes alive and not alive. Or so it seems.
Well, it's not what it seems. The opposite of Reality cannot really exist. Darkness doesn't really exist. Opposites don't really exist. The Light of Life is Infinite. There is no real end of this Infinite Life. Life only seems to come and go in a play of opposites. There is no distance in the Infinite, no far away or near. There is no past or future in the Timeless. The timeless Singularity can never end, or begin. The Singularity didn't really end when the perceivable universe began. The Singularity remains exactly as it timelessly is.
So what was there before time began? Time never did begin. The Singularity never changes. It only seems to change. There is no past or future. Nobody can experience these, only conceptually, not really.
And where does this universe end? It doesn't. It appears in the Infinite, stretches out across the Infinite, and returns to the Infinite. But it doesn't go anywhere. Nobody can ever experience being anywhere other than Here. 'Over there' is only conceptual. Distance only appears far away. What seems far away is only ever experienced right Here.
The Timeless Singularity can never become anything other than that. The world is a play of reflection and dispersion within the Infinite Consciousness of the Singularity. The Singularity is Reality. Dispersion and reflection are illusory. Yet there is nothing other than Reality.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
I often write about opposites. I've written about the Law of Opposites and the World of Opposites. You will also hear mention of the 'interplay of opposites' in Non-Duality teaching. What have opposites got to do with Non-Duality? Opposites would mean duality, right?
I call this world 'The World of Opposites'. The reason is that the world appears to be an imbalance, a splitting of a singularity into opposite qualities or opposite energies that separate and interact. The opposites seem to spread out and rejoin, over and over, creating the multiplicity of life that we see in the world. We understand the qualities of good and bad, right and wrong, high and low, true and untrue, real and illusory, strong and weak, formless and form, free and restricted, boundless and limited. This interplay of opposites forms the building blocks of the universe. It repeats in the falling of rain and rising of vapour, the flowing tides, the flow of breath, the procreation of life forms, the creation of night and day, magnetic forces, and so on.
This splitting of a singularity into opposing forces gives rise simultaneously to the Law of Opposites. The Law of Opposites pervades the universe. It is the inevitable interaction between opposites, bringing repulsion and attraction, dispersion and reunification. What is done must be undone, what goes up must come down, what goes out must come in etc. The Law of Opposites maintains equilibrium in a universe that has seemingly fallen out of unity. The opposites that appear are like and unlike the singularity from which they have seemingly separated.
But that's not the whole picture. The Non-Duality understanding is that this is a play of opposites. The Singularity doesn't really divide itself into what it is and what it isn't. There is never anything other than the Singularity. The Singularity remains Whole. It's infinite. It has no limits. The universe can never be less than or more than what it is. The Singularity seems to split in two and interact within itself, with what is like it and its opposite. Hence the World of Opposites is a reflection of Reality. Reality is an Indivisible Infinite One Aware Being. Division and limits are illusory.
Let's consider as an example, Light. The Singularity is neither light nor dark in itself. It has no form, no space or time, no distance. Yet it is perfect clarity, which is the purest Light. The Singularity is Aware, it is alive and knows clearly. Light and darkness arise when the Clarity of formlessness seemingly divides itself into formless and form. Form appears to block the clarity. The blocking of clarity develops into darkness. We can then understand the Singularity as Pure Clarity, or Pure Light. Its opposites - darkness, obstruction and confusion - give the contrast to demonstrate the nature of the Singularity. So from Pure Light there appears the opposites of light and darkness, but they are never separate. There is a Continuum of Light ranging from most light to least light (or darkness). The most light is closest to the Singularity. The least is furthest from it.
Another example may help. Consider the range from white to black. White and black seem like opposites, but if you imagine or see the gradual shading from white, through greys to black, then it can be understood that the opposites are not truly separate. It is a continuum of shading.
So even when opposites appear they are not really divided. It is more of an apparent stretching out of Oneness into what is like it and what is not like it, with a range or continuum in-between. But truly there can never be anything other than Oneness. The opposites are illusory. There is only Reality.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
We all know about The Big Bang. It refers to the moment when the universe was created, when from a singularity this multiplicity exploded. Like a seed of potential, the unmanifest singularity split open explosively and grew into the universe that we see now. The universe continues its expansion with the momentum of this initial explosion. That's a simplistic version of it anyhow.
Let's look at it from the Non-Duality perspective. That is, the perspective in which it's recognised that the duality, separation or multiplicity only appears to be that. The universe only appears to have forms that are separate, whilst there is no true separation. It doesn't mean that we need to dismiss the Big Bang theory. All theories are flawed, it's just that some are less flawed than others.
We can understand the Big Bang theory and creation of the manifest universe in terms of Non-Duality. Consider what was 'before' the Big Bang. There was no 'before' really, because there was no time, or indeed space, before the Big Bang. There was only a spaceless timeless Singularity. Some may call it the Void or Emptiness, but it is a Full Emptiness, a Completeness. It is the unmanifest Whole. It cannot really be described accurately. Even 'Singularity' implies that it is one, whereas it is more an Infinite One, without limitations, boundaries or definitions.
So consider the Singularity, from which the Big Bang appeared. The Non-Duality perspective would be that this Singularity never exploded into many. The Big Bang only seemed to split the Singularity into many particles and opposing forces. The apparent world of duality, or The World of Opposites, as I call it, did not and cannot divide the Infinite Indivisible One. This appearance of duality, separation and multiplicity is a play of opposites within the timeless spaceless Singularity that remains eternally unchanged and ever-present.
This is why there is no end to the universe. Although it seems to be expanding, really there are no limits to its expansion. There is nothing beyond the universe. There is no 'other' that is beyond it. The universe has no boundaries. The edge of the universe cannot be found. Similarly, the smallest final particle cannot be found. There will always be deeper and deeper search into the infinite. The answer of the universe can never be found. The answer is right here all along. The answer of the universe is right Here and Now.
Time and space are the great play of the universe. The Singularity is Here and Now. There is no outside or inside. There is no near or far. These opposites are a play of reflection within the Singularity. The Invisible appears. The Indivisible appears divided. The One appears as many. The Infinite appears to be limited. The Formless appears as form. The Peace appears as conflict. The Reality appears illusory. The Unchanging appears as continual change. The Unmoving appears as motion. The Timeless appears as time. The Infinite One Being appears as many separate beings.
So the Big Bang explodes apparently outwards into the infinite. The reflective nature of the manifest universe means that a Law of Opposites applies throughout the universe. What goes out must come in, to restore the apparent imbalance of seeming to fall out of unity. So the expanding universe will in time return to the original state of Oneness. But truly it never left.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
What's it all about, this ball of life spinning through the universe? Some say it's a random development. Some say it's a logical development. Some say planet Earth was created for a divine purpose. Some say it's a school for souls. Some say it's a cage for souls. Some don't really consider it at all.
Let's consider it properly here. The spherical shape of the planet is a logical development in the sense that it conforms to the laws of the universe. There are laws of interaction in the universe that give rise to spherical shapes, spinning and swirling patterns, and elliptic paths (such as those where planets spin around the sun). These laws arise with the apparent splitting of the Singularity into opposite forces. Elsewhere I've discussed the Law of Opposites, which is a simple way of understanding the forces at play in the manifest universe.
So spherical shapes form through the forces of motion and interaction that arise from the apparent splitting of the Singularity. We call them stars, planets and moons. Planet Earth develops seemingly randomly, although in line with the laws of the universe. The Law of Opposites allows the appearance of order and chaos simultaneously, or law and chance. Law and chance gives rise to the formation of mineral, vegetable and animal forms on the planet. We say 'on the planet', but really these forms are the planet. They're not really on it or in it. They are it.
Planet Earth is an expression of appearing to be a multiplicity whilst remaining as a singularity. This is the play of the universe repeating within itself. The Singularity doesn't split and become a multiplicity. It can only appear to become many. So it is with planet Earth. The planet seems to divide itself into competing forms. Plant and animal forms compete with each other to survive. The apparent multiplicity that is created in the planet follows the Law of Opposites in that some unite and some push away. Some animals go alone, some team up. The Oneness of Reality appears as one and many. The many can team up as one, or they split up and scatter. They interact harmoniously or they clash.
This interplay of opposites flows through the planet. The plants and animals seem to have their own will, their own life. But truly there is One Life. The planet is the life of all forms that appear within it. Though they may compete with 'others' it's only an appearance of 'others'. The diversity of the planet is a play of difference, when the reality is Oneness. Humans and animals may act as one life against other lives. They seem to live for a time then die. But this is all a play of alive and dead, animate and inanimate, within the Oneness of Life expressed as planet Earth.
There is no real division between life forms on planet Earth. All life is intertwined, or rather, flowing. Where one life seems to end, it transforms gradually into other life. It's all One Life playing at living and dying, whilst remaining as Life. Humans breathe flowingly with the air of the planet, drink the water of the planet, and eat the food of the planet. It all flows through, seemingly in then out. But the air, fluid and food interact with the body. The body is part of it all. A part that only seems to be discrete. The human body only seems to have a defined form. Truly it is continually changing and moving, whilst flowing with planet Earth.
So the diversity of life that planet Earth displays is the diversity of One. It is the One appearing to become many, and each of the many appear to be one in their own right. But we don't need to stop at planet Earth. The universe itself is a play of many whilst remaining One. The Singularity that is the One Life, the One Being, the One Spirit, whatever we call it, plays at being many. It can never truly become many. It can only appear to be many. Ultimately this brings us back to: Who am I? Each seemingly separate one of us, is truly the same One Life. The limits of who we are can only be imaginary.
The One Life is limitless. It doesn't really live and die. It doesn't really change and become something else. It only seems to, whilst remaining timelessly as it is. We are the timeless limitless Infinite Indivisible One.