David Hall's Non-Duality Blog
My name's David Hall. I'm the creator of this web site and its content. I live in Wales in the UK.
I developed the Celtic design software KnotWorker, I create electronic music as Goldcup7, and I've written books on spirituality and non duality.
Hope you enjoy this Non Duality blog. New blogs are added on Fridays.
Please use the Contact page if you have any questions or would like me to discuss a topic.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
This is a tough one for people and the mind to grasp or accept: nothing ever happens. But it can be explained to a degree. We must start by recognising that the nature of Being, the nature of Reality, is an Infinite Singularity.
The world that is perceived as moving and changing appears within the Infinite Singularity, and it seems as if the Singularity has exploded into different perceivable forms. I call it The World of Motion, because everything is moving, relatively speaking. Even things that appear to be still (like houses, mountains, tables and chairs etc.) are moving, as the universe swirls in its expansion and contraction. You see, it's also a World of Opposites interacting. Or so it seems.
Consider an Infinite Singularity. There is no inside or outside of it. There is nothing other than it. There is no distance or division in it. There are no dimensions to it. It cannot go somewhere else. It cannot move at all. Movement doesn't exist in it. It cannot change. Change doesn't exist in it. It is formless and invisible. It is pure clarity and unblemished perfection, although there is no-one to see it and call it this. In fact it really has no qualities. The descriptive words I've used here are plucked from a world of duality and opposites, where comparisons can be made. But an Infinite Singularity has no comparisons, as there is nothing other than it.
This Infinite Singularity is the unseen reality of the illusory world. The world appears as if the Singularity has been split in two and multiplied exponentially to form a multiplicity. Points of perception arise within this multiplicity, human beings, where we can look at the world as if it is the Singularity in separation. The Singularity is able to perceive itself in terms of duality, and concepts of opposites. It is from this standpoint that a human being can say, "Reality is a Singularity, and separation is illusory."
So the World of Opposites / Motion appears, and it seems that things happen, things are done, activity goes on between the opposite poles of beginning and end. But this is illusory. The Singularity is not broken in two. A multiplicity is not formed. There is never a separation in the Singularity, only an appearance of separation and illusion. The Singularity remains as it is. All the motion in the universe goes nowhere. It all seems to happen right here in the Singularity. Time seems to span out between the beginning and the end of the universe, but it is all right now in the Singularity.
The Singularity does not have space and time. It is Here and Now. There is no real movement or change. Nothing ever happens. There is a Law of Opposites that applies in the world that seems to appear, because even in the illusory appearance the Singularity must be maintained. That is, whatever is done in space and time must be undone. Space may appear to stretch out, but it must also stretch back in. The world may appear from a singularity, but it must return to a singularity. Whatever happens must unhappen. Its opposite must counter it to restore the balance of the singularity.
The Singularity is never out of balance, of course, and nothing is ever done. Yet the world appears as if something is happening, so it necessarily must unhappen. This happening and unhappening is commensurate with space and time. So space and time is the appearance of the unfurling and refurling of the Singularity.
If this is difficult to grasp at first, recognise that in a dream nothing ever happens. Dream images may appear and disappear. Distances may be travelled but you never go anywhere. It is similar with the universe but with a more formal structure. What happens within the unfurling and refurling of the universe has infinite possibilities, but it must all be counterbalanced by the nature of opposites.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
Imagine circles drawn on a sheet of paper. Each circle seems to have its own centre. But truly the heart of each circle is the whole paper. The circles do not truly limit the paper.
It is similar for every being. The heart of every being is the whole. It is not that every being is conscious, but rather every being has a hollow centre that is Consciousness itself. Truly there are not many beings. There is only the appearance of many beings.
Maybe a better analogy would be to imagine circles chiselled in a smooth piece of stone. The circles are made of stone and appear to have their own stone centres. But there is only the stone. This is how beings appear in Consciousness. There is only formless Consciousness, but formations appear within Consciousness, made of Consciousness, appearing to contain Consciousness. The forms (in our case human beings) can look for Consciousness within them but they find there is no inside or outside of Consciousness: there is only Consciousness. This is Self Realisation or Enlightenment - the realisation of one's true nature as infinite without division or separation.
The heart of your being is the whole. You are not a separate being. You are not conscious within the human form. You are Consciousness itself, within which the human form appears. It is the same Consciousness that seems to be at the heart of all beings, yet it is the whole.
There is only an appearance of inside and outside within Infinite Consciousness. Consciousness has no duality or multiplicity. There is only What Is.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Spirituality
Do you meditate? If you think you do, then is it really you that meditates? Let's examine it more closely.
Say I choose to sit in a comfortable position, close my eyes and meditate. Now there are many different ways to meditate. One could focus on a point. One could catch oneself from following thoughts and remain centred. One could soak up the peace of being still. Let's say I'm sat there letting go of body attachment, not being distracted by the senses, resting in the peace of being, and allowing thoughts to appear and disappear without latching on to them. If I do latch onto the thoughts I catch myself and return to peaceful stillness.
That all sounds good, but who's doing that? The body is sitting as still as it can (despite being on a spinning planet whirling around the sun in the arm of a spiralling galaxy floating across the universe). The body is not truly still, and it cannot ever be still. It is the nature of form to move and change. The mind seems less still, with thoughts floating by, picking me up and carrying me along for a time, until I withdraw. So it seems that the mind is meditating, trying to be still.
Who is this 'I' that withdraws from being caught up in thoughts? That is the sense of being a separate individual that is also in the mind. What happens is that this sense of being a separate self (the ego) is made of mind stuff - thoughts - and gets caught up in its thoughts. It is the mind that gets caught up in its own thoughts. But the mind is not an entity. It is not really a separate self. This seeming separate self is a mistaken assumption of identity in the mind. I perceive this activity of the mind, therefore I am not this activity of the mind.
I am experiencing the meditation. I experience the mind getting caught up in its thoughts and freeing itself from thoughts. I experience the body and the senses of the body while it sits in the world. I am not the one sitting. I am not the one meditating. I am the Awareness that experiences this.
This is very important to realise, that when you meditate, it's not really you meditating. It is the mind meditating, attempting to find the permanent peace that is your being. You do not move or change. You perceive movement and change. You are perfect peace. Know this whenever you meditate: you are not meditating. The mind and body are attempting to reach your perfect stillness. They cannot achieve this. But through these efforts, the mind can settle itself to an extent that its misunderstanding of being a separate identity is revealed.
The mind will find that there is not a separate mind. There is only the perfect peace of What Is. You do not do anything. You remain timelessly as you are, whilst the mind seeks to unravel itself.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Human Experience
It's human nature to fill the space. If there's a lull in conversation or a silence when we're with someone, the human urge is to say something, anything. If we have some spare time, we wonder what we're going to do, how we're going to spend that time. How will we fill the space in our time? Also in our homes, it's easy to fill them up with things. We're always filling the space.
It seems unusual to sit with someone in silence, doing nothing. It feels okay if we're on our phones or reading books, but not just sitting there. Even on our own the mind keeps active with thoughts. We find something to do. If not we feel bored and the mind complains that there's nothing to do.
This is where the spiritual practice of just being comes in. It's not what the mind wants. It's afraid of the nothingness. But the nothingness is our spiritual saviour. The nothingness is the prefect peace of our true being. We truly are the stillness, the silence, the peace, the emptiness, the spaciousness, the nothingness. Our true nature is the core stillness that allows movement. We are the invisible nothingness that allows the apparent visible everything. We are the permanent full emptiness that animates the changing world.
This emptiness scares the human self, so it fills the space with things. The human self distracts itself from the silence, the emptiness, the peace. At least until it gets to a point of looking for that peace, looking for the quiet. Then the human self seeks quiet places and quiet times to sit and be at peace. Maybe the human self meditates. Maybe the mind relaxes a little.
Sometimes it seems that more work needs to be done to reach that placeless place of peace. We need to recognise that the mind's impulse is to avoid it.
Sit back and just be. Let go of thinking and doing, and be as you are. You are not the human who is afraid of silence and emptiness. You are the Perfect Peace of Stillness.