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
In a novel we usually read about a main character, their experiences and adventures, and interactions with other characters. There is a spiritual Non-Duality analogy here. The novel is like the human experience perceived by and in Consciousness.
The story of the character and its adventures in the novel only come to light when the book is read. Before that it is dormant. There are words in a book that aren't being read. But when we read the book it comes to life. We follow the adventures of the main character and we learn about its world and the other characters in it. If our attention is withdrawn from the book it no longer plays out the story.
So it is with human life and the human experience, as I call it. Each human life only plays out becomes of the Life that illuminates and animates it. We are the Life, not the human being. We are that in which the human story is brought to life. We are the Awareness or Consciousness in which the human experience plays out its story. We perceive the human life, right through its sense of identity and personality, its thinking, its feelings and activities. We are the witness of this. Well, to put it less inaccurately, we are the Witnessing of the human experience.
Without the Witnessing there is no story, there is no human life, no animals, buildings, oceans, planets, stars. Everything that is known or experienced from the human perspective appears in Consciousness. Consciousness is Aware Beingness. That means that the nature of being, or existing, is intelligent awareness. It is One Aware Being that perceives all. It is like the reader of the novel. Without Aware Being nothing is perceived - effectively the universe is dormant, closed up.
So what does that mean for humanity? It means that my true nature, your true nature, all humanity's true nature, is not what we see but where we are seeing from. I don't just mean what we see with the eyes. What the eyes see is known by the mind. What ears hear is known by the mind. What the body feels is known by the mind. What knows the mind? What perceives the thoughts? It is this Witnessing that the novel analogy points to. It removes us from being caught up in the never-ending story, and brings us back to where we are looking from. It brings us to the unshakeable reality of Aware Being.
So why not say it is the Witness? Sometimes it's helpful to describe Aware Being as the Witness, but this can imply that the Witness is a distinct being with its own identity. But Aware Being is endless. It's not really a Being, but more a Beingness. It's just What Is. That's why Witnessing is less inaccurate. I say 'less inaccurate' because no words or theories can be wholly accurate. There is a flaw in language and any attempt to express Formless Reality. Aware Being is formless Awareness, a knowing or intelligence prior to knowledge of things. We could say it is Nothing, but it is also Everything.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
Awareness is the natural state of being. It requires no effort to be aware. Being aware is not an add-on to who we are. Being Aware is the natural state of pure clarity before add-ons appear.
We are aware of perceptions and sensations. We are aware of seeing, hearing, and so on. We are aware of emotions, feelings, and thinking. We, Awareness, perceive this.
When our eyesight starts to fail, we are aware of the failing eyesight. Awareness remains unaffected by the perceiving of the failing eyesight. When eyesight goes or we close our eyes, we are aware of the lack of light perception. It requires no effort. The eyes may focus on objects, the ears may tune in to specific sounds, but Awareness remains aware as it is. Awareness perceives the focusing or tuning in without effort.
When the body becomes ill, lethargic and achy, Awareness perceives the ill feeling and achiness. When the body becomes sleepy, Awareness perceives the sleepiness. Awareness doesn't become ill or sleepy.
When the mind becomes depressed or anxious, Awareness perceives the depression and anxiety. When the mind dreams or becomes deluded, Awareness perceives the dreams and delusions. Awareness remains simply aware throughout the human experience of sensations and perceptions.
When the mind is actively thinking, daydreaming, or meditating, Awareness perceives this without effort. Awareness doesn't think actively or daydream. It doesn't meditate or need to reach some exalted state of mind. Awareness remains timelessly peaceful without effort, throughout the activity of the mind, body and world.
The mind, body and world appear within the effortless Awareness. It is where we are perceiving from. It is the core nature of being - Aware Being. It is the natural state of Nothingness. The knowing Nothingness. The alive Nothingness in which the world of things appears. Formless, serene Beingness.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
Much is spoken about in Eastern and New Age spirituality regarding Awareness and Consciousness. But what really is it?
I use Awareness and Consciousness synonymously, so when I talk of Awareness here I also mean Consciousness. Awareness is like the page on which words appear, the canvas on which a painting appears, or the screen on which a movie appears. It is that in which all appearances appear. Awareness itself doesn't appear, but we know of Awareness by the fact of perception. Nothing can appear without the awareness of it. To use another simile, it's like knowing it's windy out by the sight of the tree branches moving.
Consider perceptions: sounds, sights, tastes, smells, and touches all appear in Awareness. Yes, they are facilitated through the human experience or perspective, through the human senses. But they appear in the same 'place', right here. That's not the whole picture. Human emotions are felt, as well as bodily sensations. Thoughts are also perceived, along with a sense of identity. This is all perceived in one 'place'. That 'place' we can call Awareness.
We are Awareness. There is one Awareness, and in this all apparently separate perspectives appear. It could be said that I can't see what others see, so we must be separate. But there is a focal point in Awareness, where the world is perceived form a human perspective, and human thought activity calls this 'me'. It's not really a separate me, it's just the assumption that human thought makes. I am not what is perceived.
This leads to another understanding of Awareness, another reason why we can't perceive it. The eye cannot see the eye. Awareness can never perceive itself. As well as being formless, pure clarity, Awareness couldn't possibly be the object of Awareness. This doesn't mean that Awareness can't be self aware. Awareness being aware means that it is self aware. What appears is a poor reflection of the formless nature of Awareness, yet nothing is known other than Awareness.
All is perceived by Awareness, in Awareness, made of Awareness. There are no true limits that separate out the subject and the object, the seer and the seen. There is just seeing, just Awareness. What looks to be far away in the distance is perceived right here. Sounds that are heard in the distance are heard right here. 'Over there' can never be perceived. Awareness is Here and Now, and it is in this timeless 'place' that space and time appear. Awareness and what appears in Awareness are one. It is all Awareness. What appears is by aid of reflection, so the world appears to be the opposite of unseen Awareness, yet there is always only Awareness. There is an appearance of duality - seer and seen - but it's true nature is Non-Duality, or Infinite Oneness.
This is why it would be wrong to say I am a human, I am male or female, I am short or tall, or I am a soul. It's perhaps more accurate to say I am the universe. There are no true limits that divide. Awareness is everything, yet nothing. The Whole is undivided. It may appear divided, but it remains infinitely One. Just as a movie on the screen appears to have many shapes and forms, depth and distance, yet it is singular. Just as a painting may appear to have different people, animals, and objects, yet it is just one painting.
Being aware requires no effort. It is the natural state. It is uncreated, timeless and formless. Awareness has no qualities. All appearances seem to come and go within its timeless formless nature.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Spirituality
We often have a sense of greater and smaller, and in spirituality this can be that some people or beings are spiritually more advanced than us and some could be considered less advanced. For example, some people may have a guru that they consider spiritually advanced, and in that sense worth following and listening to. They may see others who appear to have no spiritual outlook on life and naturally consider them to be less spiritually advanced.
What do we mean by 'spiritually advanced'? We may mean more in touch with the spiritual side of life, more in touch with God or the divine, or more aware of the infinite nature of being. Some people may be considered more spiritual because they go to church, a mosque or temple more often than others. But spiritually advanced implies that they are more in touch with the spiritual realms beyond what we see as the material, physical world.
It may also be considered that there are beings more spiritually advanced than humans. That is very likely. Earth's profusion of life forms does not appear by chance alone. As I've explained elsewhere, chance is based on order. There is an orderly randomness. And there is an underlying energy in the universe, which we could call a spiritual energy. It is this energy that forms stars, planets and life forms within planets. So Earth will not be the only planet in the universe that has developed a profusion of life forms. It's likely also that similar life forms have evolved on other planets, or indeed in other realms. The pattern of 'many from one' is expressed throughout the universe, so it is inevitable that life forms arise having a central body and limbs that extend outwards from the body. In other words, humanoid life forms are to be expected, with legs, arms, head, fingers and toes.
So with the likelihood of other planets like Earth in the universe, that means there are probably beings further along the evolutionary path than humans. It is likely there are beings physically, technically, mentally and spiritually more advanced than humans, just as there are animals on this planet less advanced in those ways.
We're talking here about spiritually advanced humans and non-human intelligent beings. Some may say that their consciousness is more advanced, and there is something in that. But there is an important developmental leap. This leap is from the apparently finite to the infinite. What the spiritually advanced being realises is that the world and its own being are not finite. The spiritually advanced being is not limited by any form it may seem to take. It is a freeing of the mental limits of identity.
When we see a spiritually advanced being, we see a life form, but that is not who they are. When they see you they do not see you as a life form. They see the One Infinite Being. All that they know, see and experience is the One Infinite Being. There is no other being. So it is the same for you. Mentally there may be a labelling and conceptualising of separate life forms, but there is no real separation. All that you ever see, know or experience is the One Infinite Being. The difference in the spiritual development is the recognition of Oneness. Mentally identifying the world as separate gives rise to selfish urges and the need to survive and to feel content and complete.
Spiritual advancement is in the dropping of this sense of separation, and becoming the selfless being that we are. It doesn't mean that we feel whole or complete. It's not a feeling, as such. Rather it is more that the feelings of being incomplete dissolve and the natural state of completeness and freedom is revealed. This is then expressed more clearly through the advanced spiritual life form.
So, an important thing to recognise here is that although we may see a spiritually advanced being and wish to be more like them, they are none other than our own being, the Infinite One Being. Equally, those that may appear less spiritually advanced are also our own being. Any spiritual development, great or small, is less than our innate Beingness. All spiritual development, and indeed the whole expression of the universe, including the more subtle realms, is a play of evolution and development within the Great Infinite One Being, who remains timelessly complete.