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
What is identity? It's the sense of who I am. It's the mind's sense of what the mind thinks I am. How accurate is the mind? Well, it might think it's accurate. Some minds think they are always right. Some minds don't know. Some minds are more open to the possibility of being wrong. The truth is that the mind can never accurately know anything. Knowledge is never as accurate as the thing itself.
For example, let's consider knowledge of a square shape. We may have knowledge about its dimensions, and we can work out its perimeter and area from that. We have a name for the square and it may be a certain colour. We can know a lot about the square, but none of that knowledge is the square itself. Knowledge is only relative. The measurements and ideas of colours and shapes are all relative: they are human-made and relate to other ideas of dimensions, shapes and colours. Knowledge is like a language of description for 'things' as we perceive them. Knowledge can be close to truth or far from truth. If we describe the square as having sides of unequal length then that would be inaccurate according to the human accepted idea of what a square is. It would be relatively far from truth.
What does this all mean in relation to identity? It means that the human idea of identity may be close to or far from truth, and at best it is a relative description of something, not reality. The idea of who we are can be close to accurate or far from accurate, but the idea can never be wholly accurate. The idea or knowledge cannot be the thing. Knowledge of who I am cannot really be who I am.
It should also be noted that this idea of identity, the sense or notion of being someone, is observed. We observe the mind thinking. The mind thinks that we think thoughts, but we see this idea too. We see the mind thinking that I am thinking. The truth is we cannot perceive ourself. The eye cannot see the eye. We can perceive the mind's idea of who I am. But this is not who we are.
If we trace back who we really are we come to the root of experience, the heart of where we are perceiving and knowing from. Who is it that knows knowledge? It is the one that perceives the knowledge ideas. It is the same one that perceives the identity. Every breath you take, every move you make, every thought you think, it's not you. You perceive breathing, moving and thinking. You are not these.
This identity idea is what we call the ego. We perceive the ego. It is not who we are. We are deeper than that. We are that in which the ego appears and disappears. We are that which remains still whilst witnessing change. We are that which remains present throughout all apparent movement. We are not this or that, something that can be perceived. We are that which ultimately perceives all. We are the Consciousness in which all perception takes place.
The identity idea or ego must be discarded as an inaccurate sense of self. But the seemingly hardened or strongly defined ego does not want to let go. It holds on, refusing to believe it is wrong. It has developed out of a defence mechanism for survival in a world of competing forces. It seeks to keep itself alive. It hardens its defences and repels anything that may harm it. Then along comes reality, smashing down its defences, telling it that it is wrong. Telling it that it's not what it thinks it is. This is the wakeup call to the new freedom. The true freedom.
We are not what the mind thinks we are. We are that in which the human mind is evolving and moving towards an open clarity of Infinite Consciousness. We are That.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
Some people think, "The universe is against me." Things always seem to go wrong. Good things never last. Attempts to find happiness are dashed against the rocks. So is the universe really against us? Well, yes and no.
Firstly, yes, the universe is against you. The universe will never be peaceful whilst 'you' exist. Notice 'you' is in quotes. This 'you' is the problem. It is this notion of being a separate being that is the problem. There really isn't a 'you' and the universe. There is only the universe. When 'we' mentally identify ourselves as distinct beings separate from the rest then trouble will inevitably follow. The universe flows in a battle for rebalance. The universe seeks the peace and perfect harmony of the singularity from which it seems to have exploded. When 'you' single yourself out in the universe the universe will seek to rebalance you and bring you into harmony.
That sounds a bit crazy maybe. But that's what happens. It's like flowing with the ocean then developing a sense of identity and saying, "No, I'm not part of this. I'm going to sail off on my own." That's kind of what has happened to humanity in its evolution of mind and identity. Now, rather than flowing as one with the universe, the mind carves out its own identity, like a boat floating on a turbulent ocean, struggling defiantly to maintain its sense of independence. Then it thinks the universe is against it.
Let's understand these forces of rebalance in the universe. Eckhart Tolle talks about this to some degree. It's worth seeing what he has to say about it. Basically, the identity, or the idea of 'me', is inaccurate and leads to a life of imbalance, selfish seeking, rather than being as one with the universe. The idea of 'me' separates itself form the whole, creating a conflict. We could be a good 'me' or a bad 'me', or more accurately a 'me' somewhere along the spectrum of goodness. But that makes no difference. If there is an idea of 'me' then it is separating itself from the universe and creating a sense of conflict, and the rest of the whole seeks to rebalance, whilst the idea of 'me' resists to maintain itself. It is the idea of 'me' separate from the universe that creates conflict.
So although the universe is against 'you', it's not really against the real You. The universe can never be against itself. It is One. You are not what you think you are. You are not what the mind thinks you are. Rather, You are all that is. We are all that is. Really there is no 'we'. Only This. It can be called the Universe, the Whole, the Infinite One, God, Being. It is the One Infinite Life.
When this is recognised it can be understood that the universe is never against you. What happens just seems to happen. Difficulties in life are life's way of bringing humanity into balance. This is the human experience. It is one of rebalancing. Tough experiences will happen to bring about harmony. But none of that affects You. The real You. You remain as the unchanging witness of all change. You don't need to become One. You are One, timelessly. You are That in which the world of apparent conflict and chaos plays out. And it's aim? To find You, the real You. The universe plays out its game of separation then returns to the Singularity which is its peace, harmony and rest. But this Peace and Harmony, the Singularity, is never truly broken. The Singularity remain timelessly as it is, throughout the play of time and space that we call the universe.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Spiritual Practice
The Indian sage Sri Ramana Maharshi taught how the paths of Vichara (Self Enquiry) and Bhakti (Surrender) lead to the same realisation of the Self. Let's understand this and see how these seemingly separate paths are not two. (This is about Non-Duality, of course.)
Self Enquiry is the practice of seeking 'Who am I?' It's not about just asking that over and over. It is about getting to the root of who we are. We have an assumption of who we are. Primarily there is an identification with the body: the mind thinks, "I am this body." As the mind develops it can reach a greater understanding about the spiritual nature of reality. The mind reaches a recognition that we are not the body. We can then come to think that we are a soul that inhabits the body and outlives the body. But we are not to stop at that understanding. There is a deeper recognition.
The practice of Self Enquiry is for the mind to analyse its ideas of who it is and look to the root where these ideas are perceived. The ideas of identity are not who we really are. We perceive the mind activity and ideas. Who is it that perceives? From that premise we can go deeper into the non-thinking recognition of self awareness. Ultimately the mind's idea of being a separate individual (whether a body or a soul) is dissolved in the clarity of the unlimited Self. The unlimited Self is all that there is. It is not separate or divided from others. There are no others. There is only This, complete and content. It's what we call Being-Consciousness-Bliss.
The practice of Surrender is one of surrendering oneself to God. This could be in selfless service and prayer, always giving, with kindness, peace and love. Traditionally in India this would have been in service to a guru, but really it is service to God, or service to the whole. God is the Whole. It is not to serve some and dismiss some others. It is a surrender of all selfish urges and attachments to this or that. It is the surrender of boundaries between 'me' and 'them' and 'God'. There really are no boundaries, but the physical practice of surrender assists the breaking down of mental barriers and boundaries that are believed to be real. Ultimately in Surrender the mental ideas of 'me' and 'mine' dissolve. Leaving what? Just What Is.
So you see, the path of Self Enquiry leads to the dissolving of identity through knowing, and the path of Surrender leads to the dissolving of identity through selflessness. The two paths are one. They are paths for the mind's idea of identity to choose, though each is the same practice of dissolving the selfish self. This dissolving of the mental notion of being a selfish limited self unveils the freedom of the true Selfless Self. This is the true nature of who we are, yet there is no 'who' about it. The True Self is no self. The way of selfishness is the opposite of Truth, and the True Self is not limited or defined as this or that.
There is no true identity, because identity requires otherness. Identity and otherness are the reflection of Truth. The Truth of Unlimited Undivided Oneness. We are That.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
We've all heard of cause and effect. People often talk of it and state how one thing causes another thing to happen. It's generally accepted to be the way of the world: something makes something else happen. But it's not really how it seems.
There isn't really a cause that makes an effect happen. That's just a useful (but inevitably inaccurate) way of describing how the world works. What I mean is that there isn't a divide between a 'cause' and an 'effect'. There isn't one thing then another thing. There also isn't a knock-on effect, where a cause brings an effect which then becomes the cause for another effect, and so on. That's not really what is happening. That's just a way of understanding or describing what is happening.
So what is really happening? There is an appearance of flowing change. The continual flow of change isn't really divided into causes and effects. Just as time isn't really divided into seconds and space isn't divided into centimetres. We use those terms to describe the world, but they are human made and not real in themselves. We don't really perceive one thing that causes an effect to happen. We perceive what seems to happen.
Let's look at an example. Consider a dog barking and a cat running away. It's fair to say that the dog barking causes the cat to run away. That makes sense. But it's not wholly accurate. We could say that the cat makes a noise, which causes the dog to see the cat, which causes the dog to bark, the cat hears the barking and this causes the cat to flee. So we could say the cat hearing the bark is the cause of the cat running away. But we're just picking at other points that aren't really discrete points. More accurately this is a flow of activity without any true dividing points. There are no true distinct points that are causes or effects.
We can go a bit deeper and consider the cause of the universe. It's accepted by many that the universe was created or caused by the Big Bang, where a singularity exploded into activity. But, although this is a good theory, there is a problem with it. If we assume that causes are real, then what caused the first cause? Ultimately we can say that the singularity has no cause. It wasn't created. The singularity is prior to the appearance of time and space. It is formless and without change. But then what caused the explosion and the beginning of time and space?
The Non-Duality answer to this is that there was no explosion, the singularity remains intact. The universe only seems to explode from a singularity into a multiplicity. All the while the universe, or What Is, remains complete as it is. This ties in with the recognition that there is no 'cause and effect'. There is only the appearance of flowing change within the content completeness of the singularity.
Any cause we attribute to an effect will not be wholly accurate. Better to drop the idea of cause and effect and look to the greater understanding that there is no separation or multiplicity, no beginnings or ends. The universe is a complete undivided singularity. It appears to flow with change, but it is always complete in itself.