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: Non-duality
- Hits: 566
Rene Descartes was a French philosopher who stated in 1637 in his Discourse on the Method, "Je pense, donc je suis." In Latin it is the concise, "Cogito ergo sum." The English translation is the famous, "I think, therefore I am."
In Non Duality we go a bit deeper than thinking. Thinking is known. We perceive thinking, as we also perceive the movements of the body. There may be an assumption that we are moving the body and that we are thinking the thoughts. But that is a thought assumption that we also perceive. To find our core nature we need to look deeper than what we can perceive. We need to look where we are perceiving from.
Essentially we can affirm that thinking is known, and thinking is secondary to knowing. Knowing is closer to the root of our being that thinking. All thinking, perceiving and feeling is known. Knowing is our core experience of the mind and the world. We could say, "I know, therefore I am."
How do I know I exist? Because I know. It should be clarified that this 'knowing' is equivalent to 'experiencing', and doesn't refer here to 'having knowledge'. Knowledge is something the mind acquires, whereas here we mean the pure knowing of experiencing. I can affirm that I am aware. It's useful to explore this awareness yourself. Are you aware?
Of course, the answer should be yes. You are aware that you are aware. You know that you know. This awareness or knowing is a core attribute of our being. It's difficult to go further back than being aware of being aware. But in Non Duality, our aim, for clear recognition, is to find that point where the world is experienced. Who is aware? Who knows knowing? Is there one who knows and a separate one who is aware of this?
Although we seem to have turned our attention inward to find who knows, we find that there is not a separate one knowing that we know. We are self aware. Our core nature is self aware. We are not really looking inward. Our self awareness is right here all along. But in searching for this core of our being, that part of us that seemed to be out there looking in is drawn inwards to the heart of being. The sense of being a separate self is drawn to the realisation of self awareness. This is the path of Self Enquiry that leads to what some call Enlightenment, Moksha, Nirvana, or Self Awareness.
This Self Enquiry leads to the dissolving of the false identity in the clear, unconfused, natural state of Self Awareness. I know, therefore I am.
- Category: Non-duality
- Hits: 565
The world appears as a flow of continual movement and change. Where stillness appears in the world it is illusory. For example, if you're sat at home on a sofa or on a bed, sat on a bench in a park, or even if you're sat on a train, there is a sense of stability and stillness. But the stillness of the sofa, the bed, the bench or the seat on the train, is illusory. It is a relative stillness. The seat on the train is relatively still in relation to the train, as it maintains its steady motion with the train. The sofa is relatively still in relation to the Earth, whilst the planet spins around. The Earth is continually spinning and swirling through the universe, and the universe is in continual motion.
This illusion of stillness in the world of motion is merely a play of opposites. What we see in the world is a reflection of the truth. Stillness is the reality, and motion is the illusion. But I don't mean the stillness that you can see. True Stillness is an infinite Singularity that has no form, no outside, no inside, no distance and no change. It is Stillness beyond any appearance of stillness, beyond space and time.
The appearance of The World of Opposites is the way in which the Singularity becomes visible. So the illusory world appears as the opposites motion and stillness, where motion is the opposite of the Singularity and stillness is its likeness. Yet the appearance of the world of opposites is itself the opposite of the Oneness of the Singularity. Hence the stillness that appears is not true stillness.
It is in this way that space and time appear as the opposite of the unseen Singularity that has no form, location, separation or change. This World of Opposites or the World of Motion is wholly illusory, yet infused with the reality of the Singularity. Space seems to stretch out indefinitely within the Hereness of the Singularity. Time appears to stretch out within the Nowness of the Singularity.
Distance and change appear within the Here and Now of the Singularity. So the illusion or maya of the world is itself illusory. There is only Reality. The illusion is held by the belief of space and time over the truth of the Singularity. Where is this Singularity, this True Stillness? It is right Here and Now. Wherever you may seem to go, however you may seem to have changed, you remain here and now as the True Stillness witnessing the world of movement and change.
- Category: Non-duality
- Hits: 565
What's happening with you right now? You may be sitting at home, out on a bus, a boat, a train, a plane, reading this. At least that's what you assume you are doing. Truly you are not doing anything. Nothing is happening to you. You are not reading. You are not thinking. You are not sitting or walking. You are not doing anything.
Surely that's not true. It depends on who you think you are. If you think you are a human being then you assume you are reading, thinking, sitting, walking, and so on, and the things of life happen to you. Even if you understand that you are not really a human being, you were not born and you will not die, you possibly still identify with the body at some level. So we say I'm reading, I'm thinking, I'm walking etc.
But we aren't the human body, so a re-evaluation is needed to shake out the assumption that we are doing these things and things are happening to us. Truly we are the Awareness witnessing what happens from the perspective of a human being. Things are not happening to us. They merely flow through Awareness like birds, clouds and planes floating through the sky. They come and go.
So what's happening with you right now? Nothing. You remain perfectly at peace, unmoving, and unchanging. The world of motion and change flows by within your infinite stillness. From this point of stillness you perceive the human experience: the childhood experiences, growing up, heartache, sadness, happiness, success, failure, days and nights, waking, sleeping, travelling. But it's not you. You are the heart of this experience, the life that effortlessly animates the world from this viewpoint. The heart of this experience is the same heart of all experiences. All beings have the same heart of stillness, like the central hub of the wheel of life. There is One Awareness that perceives itself as the world from many different perspectives.
The pointer here is to let go of identification with the changing human form, and rest as the perfect peace at the heart of the being. That is your unchanging pure nature. If something moves or changes it is not you. If you can perceive it, it is not you. You are right here and now, the peaceful Awareness within which the world appears and disappears. You perceive the coming and going of thoughts, the rising and falling of breath, the growing and fading of forms, the rising and falling of the sun, the world appearing and the world fading away. You are always here, the unchanging timeless being, complete love, pure life, perfect peace.
- Category: The Human Experience
- Hits: 565
Acceptance is an important spiritual practice. In returning to a state of oneness it is necessary to accept what comes and accept what goes. Acceptance is our true nature.
It is natural to accept what is and not to yearn for what was or what could be. But it doesn't seem natural because the human experience is one of holding on to what we've got, losing those we love and care about, being disappointed by life, and having difficult times that we'd rather not have. It's common to hope for something, to want a better life, and to not want to lose people and things that are important to us. But the world won't satisfy our wants and needs. The world is always changing and moving on, and presenting us with challenges.
We can feel cheated by other people or organisations, taken advantage of, neglected, misled, or mistreated. We raise complaints. We blame others. It dwells in the mind. We tell people about how badly we've been treated. Some people hold onto these feelings all their life. Admittedly, there are times when complaints should be raised, and misjustices heard and dealt with. But there is a time when we need to accept what is. Even during this raising of the issue, it needs to be accepted that this is how the world is.
It can be hard for people to accept when they lose someone close. Maybe they have died, or they moved away. It can be devastating and difficult to come to terms with. But for spiritual progression we need to accept this. We need to accept that that's just the way it is. It doesn't help to fight against the universe, to hold onto what's gone, or to wish for life to get better. Life may get better, but it may get worse again. Many people choose this way of life, longing and losing, and that's fine. But if your aim is spiritual progression then that's not really the way for you.
Acceptance is about letting life just be. It's going to just be anyway, so why fight it? Let go of holding on. Let the world flow. But know that you are not flowing. You are the stillness that perceives the flow of the world. In truth you cannot really hold on. The holding on is an imaginary sensation in the mind. Let it go. If your human experience involves difficulties and challenges let this come and go. Know that you are the witnessing of this.
You are not the human who longs and loses. You are the Still Centre, from the human perspective. You are complete. You are perfect. You are pure peace and love. I'm not just saying nice words here to pick you up. This is the nature of your infinite being. Your true nature is found at the heart of your being. But when it is found it is known to be an infinite oneness. It does not need or want. It is perfect peace. Through the practice of acceptance and letting go, our attention sinks naturally into this state of oneness that is complete and content. It is holding on that holds us back.
Laugh when you stub your toe. That's life. It's the sort of thing that happens. Accept it when people move on. That's the way of the world. I don't mean for you to be emotionless. Accept the emotions. If you cry, let the crying happen. Accept it all. If your bus is delayed, smile and accept it. If the traffic slows to a halt, smile and let it be. If you forget something, it's okay. Humans aren't perfect. Mistakes will happen.
In fact the world cannot be perfect. You are the perfect peace and stillness. You are the singularity that experiences the world of opposites, with its ups and downs, highs and lows, happiness and sadness. The world is a reflection of your perfection. Acceptance is your natural state. Accept the world and be as you are. Perfect peace is the nature of your being.
- Category: Non-duality
- Hits: 562
The world appears as an interplay of opposites. We've all experienced opposites: near and far, hot and cold, light and dark, clarity and confusion, freedom and constraint, love and hate. The Non Dual teaching recognises this interplay of opposites in the world, but we do not accept it as true. There is not two. There is only one, but it's not even one, it's an infinite one. One without limits.
In light of this reality of oneness, we can understand this appearance of opposites more clearly. It is not that there truly is a separation, where the world split from one into many. It is rather that the world appears as if this has happened, whilst remaining as one. This brings us to understand opposites as a continuum, where they are not truly separated, but range from beginning to end within infinity. So we can say that hate is at the far end of the Continuum of Love, being far removed from it, but of the same nature.
We can understand distance as a Continuum of Separation. Although humanity may cleverly create divisions of distance, so that we can measure and communicate distances with an agreed scale, distance is not truly divided. What I mean is that we have a shared understanding of what 10cm is and what 1cm is, but there is no real divide of distance into centimetres. It is a human tool. There is more like an undivided span of distance that humanity labels with its measurements.
The Continuum of Separation takes us past understanding the world in fixed limited terms, to the closer understanding of an undivided range. We can say the Continuum ranges from oneness (or no distance) to near, to fairly near, to far, to very far. Again, we are using labels to describe it. But hopefully you get the idea of the unbroken range from oneness to separation, whilst remaining one.
It seems a paradox to say that separation is an undivided range. This is because there really isn't a separation. It is only an appearance of separation, because separation is impossible. It is more like a seeming stretching of oneness from itself to far from itself, whilst remaining as itself.
Maybe you see the implication here. The Singularity appears to have split into a world of many, whilst remaining timelessly a Singularity. We see ourself and the world, but it is the Singularity stretching itself into 'me' and 'others' whilst remaining one. The closest we can know is the heart of being, that point where all is experienced. It's the point where we feel 'I am', and if we look out from there we see objects or people that are close to us, and objects or people that are further away from us. But it is only the appearance of Oneness stretching.
The Continuum of Separation gives the appearance of distance between beginning and end, as it stretches from oneness and remains in oneness. The initial point of the Continuum is oneness, and as the stretching appears we reach the opposite or reflection of the prime quality of oneness. In this way we experience here and there, now and then, clarity and confusion, love and hate, peace and war, one and many. Within the spaceless, timeless Singularity appears the stretching out of space and time, without division, without beginning or end. It is an interplay of opposites within the infinite singularity of oneness.