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.
- Category: Spiritual Practice
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Following the Non-Duality understanding, it's important to recognise that we are not the doer and we are not the thinker. Actions are part of the flow of the world, and thoughts are also activity flowing with the world. We are not this. We perceive the flow of thoughts and actions.
There is a sense of 'I am this' that is thought based but pervades the body and its actions. There is a sense of 'I am this body'. There is a belief that 'I choose', but all choices made are influenced by the world, so free will is not as free as it seems to be. What we perceive is a sense of 'I am this' thinking, choosing and doing. But it is not accurate.
Firstly 'I am this body' is too vague a definition. It cannot be said accurately where the body begins and ends. The reason for this is that the body doesn't begin or end. It is a flowing 'part' of the world. It continually changes and breathes with the flowing nature of the apparent world. So really the body is infinite. That ultimately means there is no body. What we consider to be a 'body' is a vague idea of a limited form in an infinite indivisible universe. The idea of separate forms is useful but not accurate.
Secondly, we cannot be what we perceive. We perceive the body and its actions. We are not it. We perceive thoughts and the sense of identity. We are not this. This is where Detachment comes in. In spiritual practice we recognise that we are not anything that we can perceive. We are perceiving. The eye cannot see the eye, and deeper still: Awareness cannot perceive itself directly. Yet all that is perceived is nothing other than Awareness. The world appears within Awareness, but Awareness is not defined or limited by it.
So the Detachment we seek is a letting go of identity. This is not for us, this is for the human mind and the false sense of identity. We perceive the thoughts and the sense of identity trying through spiritual practice to achieve enlightenment, nirvana, or self-realisation. The false sense of self is trying to free itself from its confines of identity and be who we really are. But we are right here, perceiving this play of identity, the play of limitation and freedom.
The practice for the body-mind is to release itself from its limitations and just be. So it is a letting go of identity with thinking and doing. We do not think or do. We perceive this. Perceiving, or rather, Being Aware, is the natural state. It isn't a doing. It is the natural state of simply being. The world appears in this. The sense of self rises and falls in this. The practice is to just be aware and not get caught up in the plays and drama of the world.
It doesn't mean that the mind and body should distance itself from the world, shut itself away. It doesn't mean that the body-mind should give away all belongings. It doesn't mean that the body-mind abandons friendships and loved ones. It is more that the mind recognises there is only One, an Infinite Indivisible One. So we cannot be this or that. There is no-one other than the One. So the body-mind gradually changes so that its thoughts and actions fall into line with this deepening understanding of Oneness.
Ultimately, of course, the sense of separate self will fade away as the belief of limitation evaporates. It doesn't mean that there is a huge change. We are here all along. It just means that the selfish identity no longer gets in the way. There is an improved clarity between the true Selfless Self and the body-mind through which it is expressed in the world.
- Category: The Universe
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Sometimes this question comes up: Is the world an illusion? Or even: Is the world a simulation? Let's have a look at this from the Non-Duality understanding.
We'll start with, 'Is the world a simulation?' Well, if it was then it's possible that whatever beings were controlling the simulation could also be considering if they are in a simulation, and so on and so on. It could be an endless rabbit hole of simulation anxiety.
Let's consider the possible illusion of the world. Maya is quite a well known Hindu philosophical term. It means magic or illusion and is used to describe the nature of the phenomenal world as illusory. It is the illusion that traps the soul in the endless round of rebirth, or samsara. The soul becomes entangled in karma, or the Law of Opposites as I call it, flowing back and forth between human incarnations, endlessly until enlightenment.
It's a useful understanding but not wholly accurate. No theory can ever be wholly accurate, anyhow. The Truth cannot be spoken or defined. It can only be pointed at, and that pointing is inevitably inferior to what it points to. Anyway, is the world an illusion? Ramana Maharshi explained, "The universe is real if perceived as the Self, and unreal if perceived apart from the Self. Hence maya and reality are one and the same." (The Self, with a capital S, is used to mean the true nature of being.)
What this means is that it's useful to understand the world as an illusion if one is caught up in it, caught up in the drama, caught up in the belief of separation. The belief of separation (or duality) is the crucial point. Non-Duality understanding explains that there is no duality. There are not many forms, many creatures, many people. The world is just One Being appearing as many. That's the illusion, that what seems to be a world of multiplicity, or many forms, is really just One, an Infinite Indivisible One.
As one breaks free from the belief of separation and duality, and explores the Non-Duality understanding, a realisation dawns. This apparent world of illusion cannot really be an illusion. There is only the Infinite Self, the Indivisible One. What appears to be something other than the Infinite Self is not 'other'. The illusion of multiplicity is only a mistaken perspective. The world is nothing other than the Infinite Self. So there really isn't an illusion, there is only the Real. There is nothing other than Reality. It's just that sometimes Reality is believed to be something it's not.
So there is a transition of development in Non-Duality understanding, from believing that the world is real, to recognising that it is illusory, to recognising that there is only the Real. There is a Zen quote attributed to Dogen: “Before one studies Zen, mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after a first glimpse into the truth of Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and waters are no longer waters; after enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and waters once again waters.”
This doesn't mean that there was a duality and a world and later it is recognised that even the duality is the Infinite Self. It means that there never is a duality or world, and once this is realised the world can be spoken of without false separation, attachment and belief. There is only Reality, appearing to be mountains and waters.
Are the mountains, the waters and the planet a simulation? Well, yes and no. They're not really what they appear to be. There is only the Infinite Indivisible Self. We are That.
- Category: The Universe
- Hits: 850
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.
- Category: The Universe
- Hits: 873
I often write about opposites. I've written about the Law of Opposites and the World of Opposites. You will also hear mention of the 'interplay of opposites' in Non-Duality teaching. What have opposites got to do with Non-Duality? Opposites would mean duality, right?
I call this world 'The World of Opposites'. The reason is that the world appears to be an imbalance, a splitting of a singularity into opposite qualities or opposite energies that separate and interact. The opposites seem to spread out and rejoin, over and over, creating the multiplicity of life that we see in the world. We understand the qualities of good and bad, right and wrong, high and low, true and untrue, real and illusory, strong and weak, formless and form, free and restricted, boundless and limited. This interplay of opposites forms the building blocks of the universe. It repeats in the falling of rain and rising of vapour, the flowing tides, the flow of breath, the procreation of life forms, the creation of night and day, magnetic forces, and so on.
This splitting of a singularity into opposing forces gives rise simultaneously to the Law of Opposites. The Law of Opposites pervades the universe. It is the inevitable interaction between opposites, bringing repulsion and attraction, dispersion and reunification. What is done must be undone, what goes up must come down, what goes out must come in etc. The Law of Opposites maintains equilibrium in a universe that has seemingly fallen out of unity. The opposites that appear are like and unlike the singularity from which they have seemingly separated.
But that's not the whole picture. The Non-Duality understanding is that this is a play of opposites. The Singularity doesn't really divide itself into what it is and what it isn't. There is never anything other than the Singularity. The Singularity remains Whole. It's infinite. It has no limits. The universe can never be less than or more than what it is. The Singularity seems to split in two and interact within itself, with what is like it and its opposite. Hence the World of Opposites is a reflection of Reality. Reality is an Indivisible Infinite One Aware Being. Division and limits are illusory.
Let's consider as an example, Light. The Singularity is neither light nor dark in itself. It has no form, no space or time, no distance. Yet it is perfect clarity, which is the purest Light. The Singularity is Aware, it is alive and knows clearly. Light and darkness arise when the Clarity of formlessness seemingly divides itself into formless and form. Form appears to block the clarity. The blocking of clarity develops into darkness. We can then understand the Singularity as Pure Clarity, or Pure Light. Its opposites - darkness, obstruction and confusion - give the contrast to demonstrate the nature of the Singularity. So from Pure Light there appears the opposites of light and darkness, but they are never separate. There is a Continuum of Light ranging from most light to least light (or darkness). The most light is closest to the Singularity. The least is furthest from it.
Another example may help. Consider the range from white to black. White and black seem like opposites, but if you imagine or see the gradual shading from white, through greys to black, then it can be understood that the opposites are not truly separate. It is a continuum of shading.
So even when opposites appear they are not really divided. It is more of an apparent stretching out of Oneness into what is like it and what is not like it, with a range or continuum in-between. But truly there can never be anything other than Oneness. The opposites are illusory. There is only Reality.
- Category: God
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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.