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 Human Experience
Let's take it that you already understand and accept that the world is non dual, i.e. there is only One. The limits and divisions that appear, and which the mind labels, are not true. The One is an Infinite Singularity. I call it The Infinite One. It is the one being expressed as the apparent multiplicity of the universe. This recognition of the reality of Oneness helps us to understand the human condition.
Humans generally consider themselves to be the body. They may feel that they 'have a soul', which still means they are looking at spirituality from the aspect of being a body that owns a soul. This identification with the body is effectively the formless taking on form and believing itself to be the form. That's not what we are. This limitation and identity as the body rules the human world. That is, most human lives and the largescale decisions made by humanity come from this view of being limited separate beings.
Selfishness arises from this sense of being a limited separate self. Suffering arises. Lack, need, desire, sadness, loneliness, and despair arise because of this sense of being incomplete. Anger, envy, hate and blame arise because of the sense of me and them. All of humanity's problems come from the sense of being a separate self. The separate self is the root of all human suffering. But it's not true.
The mind has this sense of being separate, yet the truth is a Singularity. There is only infinite oneness. There is not truly a separate me and them, no more than ripples on a pond are separated. It is all the pond.
Recognising this sense of separation and the reality of Oneness can bring about a change. Peace is the nature of oneness. It is the heart of being, the still centre that encompasses all. Recognising oneness and living in the way of oneness can bring about a change in the human experience and humanity as a whole. There needs to come a recognition that the heart of our being is complete, peace, love and harmony. This sense of oneness dispels suffering, sadness, loneliness, despair, anger, hate and blame.
If we want an end to suffering we need to let go of the separate self. We need to live in the way of oneness, acknowledging the oneness of life. We need to allow the sense of oneness to spread through human life. We do this by letting go of holding on. We reclaim freedom by letting go. Let go of the limits that bind you, the attachments that define you, and the identity that hides you. Let the real you shine through. Allow the still, peaceful centre to be unrestricted. Allow the peace and love that is the heart of your being be unbounded.
You are the Infinite One, without limits. You are peace, love and harmony. Make it your life's work to be as you are.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
This doesn't seem a very spiritual question: How heavy are you? Neither may these: What is your size? What is your age? These all seem like questions it can be considered rude to ask. But explore them from a spiritual angle, not a personal one, and they can point to the true nature of our being.
Weight, size and age are relative to the human perspective in the human world. But look deeper to who you are. Look to where you are looking from. I don't mean the eyes. We experience seeing, yes. We perceive other senses as well: hearing, taste, touch, smell, balance etc. We experience these senses from a central point. In the Non Dual understanding we are Awareness itself, that unchanging state wherein all change is perceived. Let's look there. Or rather, let's look Here. It is the closest point of being you. Closer than the arms and legs. Closer than the eyes and ears. Closer than thoughts even. Let's look here, where even thoughts are perceived.
How heavy are you here? There is no weight. What is your size here? There is no size. What is your age here? There is no age. The real you is formless intelligent awareness. You are as you are. There is no ageing here, no being born or dying. There is no time or space. Just formless awareness perceiving the play of time and space. Being formless, you have no depth or change. You cannot be weighed down. You are neither large nor small. We could say your size is infinite, but even the concept of infinity is not accurate enough, as you have no size.
No qualities stick to you. You are perfect, in that you have no faults. Perfect from the human perspective, but just as you are in truth. You have no lack or need. In that sense you are complete, but beyond the concepts of complete and incomplete. These are human concepts, similar to weight, size and age.
Being formless you are not limited by the appearance of the world, by descriptions about you, or by the appearance of forms that are perceived. Here you are, the basic component of all life. That which is. That without which the world does not appear. You are I Am, the basic quality of being, without attachment or identity. There is no attachment or identity because there are no limits to divide you and separate you from something else. There is no something else. You are as you are. I am that I am.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
Rene Descartes was a French philosopher who stated in 1637 in his Discourse on the Method, "Je pense, donc je suis." In Latin it is the concise, "Cogito ergo sum." The English translation is the famous, "I think, therefore I am."
In Non Duality we go a bit deeper than thinking. Thinking is known. We perceive thinking, as we also perceive the movements of the body. There may be an assumption that we are moving the body and that we are thinking the thoughts. But that is a thought assumption that we also perceive. To find our core nature we need to look deeper than what we can perceive. We need to look where we are perceiving from.
Essentially we can affirm that thinking is known, and thinking is secondary to knowing. Knowing is closer to the root of our being than thinking. All thinking, perceiving and feeling is known. Knowing is our core experience of the mind and the world. We could say, "I know, therefore I am."
How do I know I exist? Because I know. It should be clarified that this 'knowing' is equivalent to 'experiencing', and doesn't refer here to 'having knowledge'. Knowledge is something the mind acquires, whereas here we mean the pure knowing of experiencing. I can affirm that I am aware. It's useful to explore this awareness yourself. Are you aware?
Of course, the answer should be yes. You are aware that you are aware. You know that you know. This awareness or knowing is a core attribute of our being. It's difficult to go further back than being aware of being aware. But in Non Duality, our aim, for clear recognition, is to find that point where the world is experienced. Who is aware? Who knows knowing? Is there one who knows and a separate one who is aware of this?
Although we seem to have turned our attention inward to find who knows, we find that there is not a separate one knowing that we know. We are self aware. Our core nature is self aware. We are not really looking inward. Our self awareness is right here all along. But in searching for this core of our being, that part of us that seemed to be out there looking in is drawn inwards to the heart of being. The sense of being a separate self is drawn to the realisation of self awareness. This is the path of Self Enquiry that leads to what some call Enlightenment, Moksha, Nirvana, or Self Awareness.
This Self Enquiry leads to the dissolving of the false identity in the clear, unconfused, natural state of Self Awareness. I know, therefore I am.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Spirituality
When you recognise that there is only one, one infinite being that is expressed through many forms, it's generally important then to live in line with that understanding. I call it The Way of Oneness.
It takes some time and effort to change from the old way of living to the new way of living in line with oneness. If that's where you're at, you'll know that it's not easy to always see the world as one. Sometimes things frustrate us. Sometimes people frustrate us. Sometimes we are frustrated with our own sense of individual self. But with some effort it improves.
The trick is to let go of otherness. There really are no others. There is only what is. Our old way of thinking was that the world, people and animals, were others. They were separate from how we saw ourself. It was us and the world of others. Now we want to let go of those old notions because we recognise there is only Oneness. But the ego is stubborn and wants to hold onto things. We have to practise letting go.
So work at letting go of the idea of 'me and them'. See that your human perspective and other human perspectives are allowed to appear different. Here's a useful list to help you on your way to a deepening oneness:
- Recognise selfishness and let it go, in favour of natural selflessness.
- Be kind to others, even if they may be unkind to you.
- Accept the world as it is, and don't seek to control it.
- Drop the attachment to objects, that you may have thought were yours.
- Drop the attachment to thoughts, that you may have thought were yours.
- See distance and change as the play of the world.
- Rest in the Here and Now that is your natural state.