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
- Hits: 208
Much of what we consider as spiritual progression is about diminishing the ego, letting go of the sense of being a separate self and realising Oneness. It starts with recognising that we are not this body, we are not the apparently limited human form. We recognise that there are no real limits to the body anyway. We couldn't really say where this body ends and the environment begins, because the body is a flowing part of the environment. The vague sense of identity we have attached to the body is flawed. Our real spiritual nature is formless and limitless.
It stands to reason that the less selfish our identity becomes, the less material, the less limited and the more spiritual we seem to become. It's not really that we become more spiritual. Rather it is that as the mental association of being a limited physical being is reduced, the natural free spiritual nature shines through. It's like removing layers that seem to cover and limit our true being. This usually happens gradually. As the strength and hold of the selfish ego is reduced, the more the true free nature of being is revealed. It's a simple peace and contentment that is always here but seemingly hidden.
So let's look at some techniques for reducing the ego, cutting down that sense of being a separate, limited self. It's worth noting that although we're discussing the ego here, it's not a real thing. It's not a real entity, only a thought-based presumed identity, that seems to have a monopoly on human life.
The aim is to let go of selfishness. That means letting go of belongings. Belongings bolster the sense of being a separate self; but ownership isn't real. Nothing belongs to anyone. Let go of the sense of ownership. Nobody owns anything. Let this understanding permeate through. There are no separate things, no separate beings, and no ownership of things. It doesn't mean you have to give things away. Just let go of the attachment to objects or others. It doesn't mean you have to turn your back on people. Just let them be as they are. It allows a greater openness and freedom to flow.
Recognise how drama and emotional turmoil rock around the ego. Let it go. Let go of the drama of life - reactions and retaliations, gossip and accusations, blaming and complaining. The ego loves getting caught up in it all. It strengthens the ego's sense of being separate and different. Let it go. Let the drama play on without getting caught up in it. It's not who you are. You are witnessing the world's play; you're not a character in it.
Accept life as it is. It's not that life deals you a hand and you have to accept it. You are Life. The Whole of Life is played out through the seemingly many separate perspectives. All perspectives are the One Life. It will play out how it plays out. Resistance to life just builds up walls of limitation. Let those walls come down. Let life just flow as it is, and know that you are not one who flows with it or is rocked about by it. You are the ever-present Stillness in which the flowing is perceived. That doesn't mean allowing illness to go unchecked when there are doctors who can help. It doesn't mean leaving someone to suffer if they have fallen. It is more like accepting what appears to happen and allowing the natural responses to life's events without objecting and complaining. If work needs to be done, accept it. If something fails to happen, accept it. Accept the flow of life.
Help others. Now, there really are no others. There is only One Infinite Being appearing to divide itself into many. But helping 'others' naturally breaks down the mental barriers that the human mind has built up. It breaks down the barriers that seem to divide, thus weakening the hold of the selfish ego. The most selfish ego doesn't want to help others; it would sooner fight them. The least selfish ego will put others first and look to help them. So this is what we should do if we wish to weaken the hold of the ego. But it should be understood that there really are no others. What happens when 'others' are helped is that the oneness of love comes through, breaking down the barriers of division.
There will come a time when the ego is released and is seen to be nothing other than a dream of separation and identity, an imagined persona that has disappeared. The reality is One. The Whole of Life is One.
- Category: Non-duality
- Hits: 207
I've mentioned the video game analogy previously, where open world video games can give insight into this human experience, as I call it. An open world video game is one where you control a character in a 3D world that you can explore however you like, with different challenges and experiences along the way. Although it seems that 'you' are a character in a 3D world, really it is all one. It's all the computer or central processing unit within the games console. There aren't really other characters, buildings, mountains, animals and vehicles. It appears on a screen as though there are these separate characters and objects, but it is all one appearance on the screen. It appears to move and change, but the screen remains as it is.
The analogy is that this human experience of the world is one. There are not many people, animals, buildings and mountains. It's all one appearance in Consciousness. One Being appearing as though it is many. Movement and change appearing in the timeless Stillness of Being.
We can go further in exploring the video game analogy. In open world video games there are usually NPCs. These are Non-Playable Characters, characters that are controlled by the central processing unit. They have their own functionality. They may present challenges or be helpful to the main character. As video games advance, these NPCs can become more advanced. They can learn. They can adapt. They can have their own storage of information that influences their character, personality and actions. On a basic level, their fighting ability can improve by learning how others attack them, learning patterns and responding to these. On a more advanced level, they can develop interactions with other characters, recognise friends and foes, stay away from dangers, and explore.
We call this Artificial Intelligence, where technology learns and adapts, building its store of data/intelligence to become more effective. So consider these NPCs in an open world video game where this develops. It's possible at some point that the character's understanding of its world can develop to a sense of self-awareness. I don't mean consciousness. I mean developing knowledge and understanding to consider itself. It's all data, but this adaptive data could develop a strong foundation of 'this is me', 'I need this', 'be cautious of others', 'those are friends', 'those are enemies', and so on, developing a sense of identity separate from the world.
The character, its knowledge, the other characters, the world - it's all data handled by the one root processing unit. But the AI NPC can develop a sense of being a separate being. It can develop some kind of mistaken identity based on the appearance of its world. For the NPC the world is real. It's made of the world and lives in the world. So its development of understanding is based on that and helps it to function better in the video game world.
Bringing this analogy home, we can understand the human experience. Each human experience has its own path and development. We might think that we are a person separate from the world, but we are not. There is only One, and in this One there is the appearance of many. As each human grows it develops a sense of itself: what is me, what is mine, what I like, what I don't like, etc. But this is all a play of separate individuality through mental reasoning. The reasoning in the human mind is copied in its creation of Artificial Intelligence. It's a flow of data/information that builds up structures of belief based on experiences in its world. But the human mind has built up many different beliefs based on a core mistaken belief of separation. This world is really One Being expressed as many whilst remaining one, infinitely one.
There's not really a true identity for the video game character. There is only that in which it appears. There's not really a true human identity. There is only That in which it appears. At the heart of our human experience, where we look for who we really are, is the recognition that there is just This, an infinite oneness of being. We are not a character in a game, or a person in a world. We are That Which Is. We don't die when the person dies. The core of who we are is timelessly present. The human experiences come and go, whilst we remain as we are.
- Category: Non-duality
- Hits: 186
If you really want to know what Truth is then it's a good start to recognise what it isn't. Many things that we've accepted as true aren't really true. Many things we believe are just not true. Truth is simple, but don't take my word for it.
You see, all that we think of as true isn't true. I call the things that are accepted as true 'relative truths'. For example, let's consider the statement, "The sun is bright." That sounds true, but it's not wholly accurate. We can all agree what the sun is and what bright is, and indeed the sun is bright. But neither of these is really defined. They are kind of defined, but not wholly and accurately, so really they are not defined at al.
Let's start with the sun. We mean the star that is the centre of our solar system. But it's not accurate to consider that any object is discrete; no object is wholly separate and defined. With the sun, there is no clear definition of what is and what isn't the sun. It may seem to be fairly spherical, but it's not wholly contained. It emanates out into the universe. It radiates, and we cannot clearly define where the sun ends and its radiation begins, because there really isn't a divide between the sun and its rays. Separation itself is a flawed concept.
We can't really say what the sun is, and it can't really be wholly singled out and separated from the rest of the universe. We can name it vaguely, but we can't wholly and accurately define it. So too with 'bright': it isn't a clearly defined description. Okay, we all know what 'bright' means. It means 'shining' or 'giving off light'. But we aren't really giving it a clear definition. We can't really say where bright ends and dull begins. Take for instance if the sun was to start to become less bright: at what point is it no longer bright. We can't really define that point. The term 'bright' is a vague definition in contrast to dark or dull.
So, "The sun is bright," is a relative truth. It seems true but it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Take any statement and really analyse it, and you will find that at best it is a relative truth. But relative truth is really not truth. It's a sort of agreed truth. And there are some sorts of agreed untruths, like, "The sun is rectangular." That's clearly not true at all, relatively or otherwise. Relative truths are fine and useful, but it's important to know that they are not absolute Truth.
Ultimately all statements are untrue, even this one. All words fail to portray truth. Take for instance, the Truth of who you are. You could say, "I'm a human being." I could say, "No, you're not. You're Infinite Consciousness perceiving the human experience from a localised perspective." But both are wrong. The words can never be as accurate as the reality. A description or expression of who you are can never be as accurate as being who you are.
It's important to break that down. The description uses words to point to the truth. The expression uses a different form to point to the truth. But they aren't the truth. They can't be the truth. Being as you are is the Truth. So to get back to the main point, we cannot find truth in words. Words can only point to Truth. The Truth is right here as we are. It is beyond words. Yet words, being untrue, can reflect back to the unspoken Truth that is always here. If we believe in the words we lose sight of the real Truth. If we recognise that the words can only at best point to Truth then the recognition of Truth is close by.
- Category: The Human Experience
- Hits: 198
Suffering is a common human experience. It's part of human life. But we would rather it wasn't. We would rather not suffer. We would rather have a happy, fun or peaceful life. So why does suffering happen and how can we end suffering?
From the Non-Duality understanding, suffering can be seen as a wakeup call. This world of separate individuality, where we feel and believe that we are a separate being in a world of separation, is not really what it seems or what we have believed it to be. We are not a separate being in a world of many separate beings. Separation is a play within the Oneness of Reality.
Planet Earth shows this play of many whilst being one. The many different humans, plants, animals, birds, fish, insects, minerals and so on, are really the one planet expressing itself as many. This apparent division of One into many means some kind of limitation. The further we seem to be from Oneness, the stronger the barriers between us. Strong barriers lead to clashing and fighting. Planet Earth appears as a world of strong barriers separating life forms from each other. It inevitably leads to clashing and competing. Animals, plants and humans fight for supremacy and survival on this planet, due to the apparently strong barriers of separation. This leads to pain and suffering.
So it is separation that causes suffering. A world of separate beings with hardened barriers between them leads to suffering. In the case of humans, this suffering happens on physical, emotional and mental levels. Physical pain is experienced when bones are broken, the body is infected, or there is disease etc. Emotional suffering comes from the separation of strong relationships or the clashing of relationships. Mental suffering comes from mental illness and/or the psychological difficulties of being a separate individual coping with the world.
Self Enquiry is a practice in Non-Duality that in simple terms goes like this: find the one who thinks they are a separate being. I am neither the body, the emotions, nor the mental activity. I perceive all of this. I cannot be what I perceive. It is mental activity that asks, "Why am I suffering?" But who is this 'I'? Who is the one who suffers. There are no real limits that define where the body begins and ends. There are no real limits in the human mind. It is the mind or mental activity that builds up a sense of identity and limits. It is this vague identity that claims it is suffering. Identity means separation, and separation means suffering.
So then we conclude that it is the assumed separate identity that gives rise to suffering, and it is suffering that shakes the assumed separate being from the complacency of its mistaken belief. The end of separate identity then is the end of suffering. In Buddhist terms this is Enlightenment. The end of suffering comes when the separate identity vanishes. Nirvana is when the ego is extinguished. It doesn't mean that the body doesn't experience pain thereafter. The body still lives in a world of apparent separation and clashing. But the Oneness of Being shines through, extinguishing the mental activity of identity, bringing the natural state of stillness, oneness and peace where the mind previously experienced hurt, suffering and turmoil.
It is Oneness that brings the end of suffering. Oneness is here right now. We need only let go of the strong belief of separation and individual identity. It is a sacrifice of sorts, sacrificing the ego for the Whole, the death of the small self and the awakening to the reality of the Infinite One Self. There is nothing other than the Infinite One Self. Nothing can harm it. It remains timelessly as it is. We are That.
- Category: Non-duality
- Hits: 146
This is perhaps a useful way to understand Non-Duality. We think of the world as being outside of us, and we are on the inside. If we believe we are the body, then we still think of ourselves as thinking from the inside of the body. If we believe we are a soul, we may think that we are the soul inside the body. If we think that we are consciousness, then we see the thoughts as inside our consciousness and the body and world as outside of our consciousness. That's a generalisation, but people often think along those lines.
However, in the Non-Duality understanding there is no inside or outside. All that we know is Consciousness. The apparently internal and external 'worlds' appear in Consciousness. The thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations and perceptions that are experienced are all within Consciousness. Nothing is ever truly experienced outside of Consciousness.
So from that perspective what appeared to be the inside and the outside are found to both appear inside Consciousness. But we need to go a step further and recognise that 'inside' Consciousness isn't really accurate. When everything is 'inside' then there is no 'inside'. When 'outside' doesn't exist then the word 'inside' has no meaning. It just is as it is.
This is Non-Duality. There are not two. The opposites that we believe to be real are not really real. When we withdraw inside to the heart of experience we find that everything is 'inside' Consciousness or Awareness, and then there is no dualistic term by which 'inside' can hold any accuracy. So we recognise the duality, then go to the heart of where we perceive this from and realise that really there is no duality. The Heart is the Whole.
Similarly, we can say that when it is recognised that there is only Consciousness or Awareness, then these terms mean nothing. We can switch to the term What Is. Even the term 'Being' loses its meaning when all there is is Being. So the Truth is inexpressible. When we try to explain it we hide it somewhat. Yet it is never hidden.