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: God
We've all heard of satan, diablo or the devil, but what is it really? It's the personification of the force in the universe that divides, separates, opposes and limits. In itself it's not an evil force. It's a force necessary for the world to appear. The world is created by (and ultimately destroyed by) the force that seems to separate Oneness into opposites, creating division and limitation simultaneously. Or at least appearing to do so. Division and separation in the world is not a real thing, but an appearance. The world appears by virtue of the force that gives the appearance of separation from a Singularity.
The Singularity, of course, is God. The Infinite One. Diablo (the duplicitous one) is deemed to be the opposite of God. It is separation, limitation and opposition taken to the extreme. It seems to be the ultimate opposite of God. It is the Selfish One, as opposed to the Selfless One; the one who opposes all, as opposed to the One who is all.
This opposite force is the opposite of truth, but the human mind has been tricked into believing that it is true. The human mind has been duped into believing that separation and limitation are true. The consequence of this is that the human mind believes itself to be a being separate from others. This brings suffering, need, greed, loss, incompleteness, competition, war, envy, hate, sadness, defensiveness, cruelty, power struggles etc. These all arise in the human world due to the dominance of the belief of separation and identifying as separate beings. But truly there is no other. There is only God, the Infinite One, without limit or division.
There are seemingly those that choose to follow the duplicitous being, and consider 'him' to be the god of the world. They depict him as two-horned, cloven footed, holding power over others, the high and the low, the chequerboard of opposites, and the subjugation of the human spirit. It's a recognition of the force of duality in the world, but positioned in way of control or dominance over the human being. However, this control, this duping, is only in the human mind. We are not the human mind. We are That which is beyond the apparent world of opposites. We perceive the human mind, and we perceive the world through the human perspective, or the human experience.
It is in this current state of development of the human mind that it has fallen into the confusion of mistaken belief. It's a natural development, as this planet gives an appearance of separation and competition, in its ‘survival of the fittest’ system. The human mind will continue to develop and rise out of its subjugation. It will free itself from its entanglement in the belief that separation and limitation is real. It will free itself in the realisation that there is only Freedom. Boundlessness is the nature of Being. It is the nature of the One Being, that we can call God. There is nothing other than the Infinite One Being. There can only be an appearance of others.
The spirit is not subjugated by matter. Matter is nothing other than spirit. The opposites are not really separate. There is only Infinite Oneness, and if the mind limits itself it will necessarily encounter problems, as the natural balance of Oneness seems to bring about its restoration. Truly there is never an imbalance. There is never a division of the Singularity. It only seems to be if looked at from a limited perspective.
Truly there is nothing other than God. What seems to be ‘other’, ‘opposite’ or ‘against’ is not what it seems.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: God
If God is an Infinite Being, how can there be any other? An Infinite Being has no beginning, end or division. Nothing can be outside the Infinite. Even 'inside' wouldn't be strictly correct, because there are no limits that enclose, and ultimately there is no 'thing' that is truly separate from the Infinite Being to be said to be inside it. There would only be the Infinite Being.
An Infinite Being can't be divided up into other beings. Not really. Conceptually it's possible, just as how we can label different parts of the body, although they're not really separate parts. The right hand isn't really separate from the left hand, for instance, although we label them as such.
It's useful to contemplate the infinite to challenge the mind's limited perspective. The mind thinks in terms of limitation. The mind uses names and labels for things and assumes that they are separate things. But really, if you look closely, you find that there are no real divides between a thing and the environment. The human body, for example, flows with the environment, breathing, drinking, eating, developing. It's not truly a separate discrete form.
Even if we consider a tin can, it seems to be separate from the environment, but that's only a temporary appearance of separation. The tin was formed from the environment (the planet) and its form is held in relative stability due to the conditions of the environment. If the temperature or pressure of the environment were to change then the stability of the tin can would change. Even now, a tin can is extremely slowly decaying, or losing its form to the environment. Its relatively stable condition is not permanent. It's just that its rate of decay or change is extremely slow, giving the appearance of fixed stability.
So when the mind thinks that there are many objects, or people, or animals, and so on, that's really just the mind conceptualising limits and labels on the world. This is helpful, but the error arises when labels and limitations are believed to be real. That's the important point. We can call a mountain a mountain and a valley a valley, but if we believe that these are separate objects then we are mistaken. They are useful words to describe the world, but they are not accurate.
Even the term 'world' isn't accurate. The 'world' has no real limits or edges, beginnings or ends. It is the Infinite Being. There is only the Infinite Being.
- 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: Spiritual Practice
We continually experience activity. The world is always moving and changing. We perceive this movement and change. Maybe we're mesmerised by it. Even when all seems still, it's an illusory stillness, as the world keeps on turning. But this is the reflection of Reality.
In meditation we calm the activity of the body and the mind, but they can never be perfectly still. The body and the activity of the mind belong in the world of movement and change. They can slow down or speed up, but not really stop. In meditation we slow them down. Breathing becomes more relaxed, and mind activity can be settled to a degree. The important thing to realise is that we are not the activity of the body or the mind. We perceive this activity from a placeless place of Stillness.
True Stillness cannot be achieved. Not because it is impossible, but because it is already here. The activity we perceive is a reflection of the Stillness in which it is perceived. The movement of the world appears in the Stillness of Being. All space and time appear Here and Now.
So in meditation we sink back into the true nature of Being. We sink back into the Stillness which perceives the apparent motion of the world. We perceive the breathing and the wandering mind activity. We are not that. We are not moving at all. Our nature is Perfect Peace. Pure Clarity. Let the world turn. Let the mind wander. But know that you are not turning or wandering. You are the Stillness right Here.
There may seem to be a 'me' that moves about or thinks thoughts, but that sense of 'me' is made from thought activity itself. It is also perceived. We are That which perceives any sense of me or other. We perceive the mistaken sense of identity. It doesn't change us. The one who may be mesmerised by the movements and activity of the world is not really who we are. We perceive this 'being mesmerised' or 'being caught up in the world'. The world moving and the thoughts thinking appear within the Stillness of Pure Consciousness.
In the world stillness appears illusory, whereas in Reality movement is illusory. The world appears as a reflection of Reality, yet it is nothing other than Reality. All apparent activity appears within the Non-Activity of Stillness, the nature of Perfect Peace, which is the heart of all and the whole of all.