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 Symbols and Patterns
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The Yin and Yang symbol originated from Chinese philosophy, which stated that there was an Undifferentiated Oneness (Taiji, the Supreme Ultimate) prior to the appearance of the opposing forces of duality. It's a symbol commonly used in Taoism. There are a lot of similarities with Taoism and Non-Duality. But here I'm going to look at Yin and Yang from the Non-Duality perspective.
It might seem odd for someone reading for the first time that the Yin and Yang symbol relates to an Undifferentiated Oneness. They are opposites, right? So what's that got to do with Oneness. Well, in Non-Duality we recognise that the world appears as an interplay of opposites, but this is illusory in nature. The True Reality (or I could say, the Supreme Ultimate Reality) is Infinite Indivisible Oneness.
The Yin and Yang symbol shows the interplay of opposites enclosed in a circle. The circle represents the infinite oneness. I realise that my books have been about this all along. In the books I explain about The World of Opposites and The Law of Opposites, but I also point out that the Reality is not two. The Reality is the Infinite One. I liken Reality to an Infinite Singularity, the original unmanifest state of being. This sounds a lot like the Undifferentiated Oneness of Taiji, the Supreme Ultimate.
The Yin and Yang symbol (called Taijitu) is a wonderful visualisation of the interacting, flowing forces of the world. The opposites appear as a clear reflection of each other, light and darkness. The opposing forces flow in unison, from one to the other, and one cannot appear without the other appearing. There is an underlying sense that these opposites remain as one.
As I've explained elsewhere, The World of Opposites is an appearance of separation within the Infinite Singularity of Being. It's as if the Infinite Undifferentiated Singularity exploded into a world of opposites, what is like it and what is not like it, what is and what is not. That really seems to be a natural way to make the invisible Oneness visible - by use of opposites or reflection. It seems that what first appears is 'what is' against 'what is not'. Imagine a point of light appearing in the darkness. The point is 'what is' and the darkness is 'what is not'. A duality seems to be created, and this basic duality can combine to form the complex World of Opposites that we experience. It might seem like a huge leap, but imagine how video games have developed from the basic 1 and 0. A world of complex interactions can be developed from this basic dichotomy.
It may seem like a dichotomy - a splitting into two opposites - but it's not really. You see, the Oneness is still here. The Infinite Singularity cannot really be divided in two. It is timeless and unchanging. There is no space or time in the primordial Singularity. So when space and time appear they appear within this Infinite One. This is where we reach over to Hindu philosophy, and the Upanishads, that teach that the Ultimate Reality is our own Aware Being. This Infinite One is who we are. There is none other than the Infinite One. It is the Infinite Consciousness that experiences the world as an interplay of opposites.
Our true nature is not a conflicting or interacting of opposites. We are truly beyond the appearance of the world. The Infinite One cannot truly see itself. Only by aid of reflection and opposites can the Infinite One experience itself as limited forms. The Formless perceives forms. The Changeless perceives change. Yet there is no outside or inside of Infinite Consciousness. The play of separation of opposites appears within the Infinite One, the Ultimate Reality, Pure Consciousness.
- Category: The Human Experience
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The world isn't meant to be easy. Human life isn't supposed to be all wonderful. Don't expect life to be kind to you. You're not necessarily going to succeed in what you want to do and get what you want. That may sound harsh, but sometimes people expect that life should be good, fun and full of happiness. But that's not the case. There may be some fun times and some happiness, but there will certainly be some trouble. Let's understand why.
The simple answer is this: humanity is mixed up. There is a general human sense that, "I am this human being, these are my things, and I'm focused on myself and my life." If we live a lie like that, or rather if we live by a mistaken belief like that, the world is going to challenge us. If I believe that I am a human then problems occur, because it's a mistake. Humans are not really defined and limited, and that's not who we are. At the core of all humans, and for that matter all apparently separate beings, there is a Oneness. One Consciousness. We are that One Infinite Consciousness, not many different beings - that is the illusory play of form in formless Consciousness.
When this error of identification takes hold, when Infinite Consciousness is drawn into the belief of being a limited being, it creates an imbalance. It's like we've fallen out of unity and got caught up in a world of opposing forces. Then there needs to be a rebalancing. We need to be shaken out of it, effectively. That means that life is going to be tough, until we get to the point of realising that something is wrong here.
Humanity is caught up in this clashing of identity - I am this, that belongs to me, you are nothing to do with me, you offend me, I will win. The root of all evil is not money, it is the delusion of separate identity. A limited being defends its limits, imposes its limits on others, and encroaches on others' limits. That's where all the clashing comes from in this human experience.
There have been enough human experiences for us to confidently say that it's normal for human life to have problems. What can we do about this? Accept it. There's no point fighting against the world. The world is this rocking, rolling wave of forces clashing sometimes and quietening sometimes. That's the world, but that's not you. You are not in this rocking, rolling world. You are the still Infinite One Consciousness, within which the world appears.
In truth you have not fallen out of unity into the world of opposites. You remain as you are, the Infinite One, beyond time and space. The human experience is the play of the human world, experiencing limitation, clashing, distancing, the push and pull, the joys and sorrows. Know it is not you. You are unbroken by the appearance of the separate world. Your infinite nature remains unblemished by what seems to come and go.
- Category: The Universe
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Awareness is the nature of Being. It is the core of all experience. All that is experienced appears within Awareness. I use the word Consciousness synonymously, or sometimes say Pure Consciousness to give an understanding of its unchanging nature. The words Spirit and God can also apply to Awareness. Awareness is our timeless, formless nature, in which the appearance of space, time, individuality and separation are experienced. Awareness is the core shared nature at the heart of all seemingly separate beings.
Well, from the human perspective it seems that Awareness is at the heart, the core, the centre. From the human perspective Awareness is the still centre around which the world seems to move. Yet there is nothing other than Awareness. The world appears in Awareness, made of Awareness, perceived by Awareness. Awareness really has no inside or outside, no separation of opposites. Awareness has the qualities of a singularity: unlimited, unseen, undivided, unmoving, uncreated, unchanging, complete, formless, flawless, spaceless, timeless.
By contrast the world appears to be a World of Opposites. Awareness perceives form and change, limitation and division, creation and destruction, birth and death, waking and sleeping, individuality and multiplicity, gain and loss. The World of Opposites appears within the Singularity of Awareness like a reflection of Awareness's own imperceptible nature. The world shows what cannot be seen. Forms appear to express the formless.
In the world there seems to be a separation between the subject and the object, the observer and the observed. This is like a stretching of Awareness into 'one being aware of another'. When attention is focused on an object there seems to be a narrowing and limiting of Awareness. This is similar to what the human experience does. It seems to narrow Awareness to a point of individuality aware of many. But it's only a play. Awareness does not become human. Awareness remains as it is, whilst the human form appears as a focus of Awareness observing itself.
All apparently separate limited human beings are Awareness perceiving itself as the world, seemingly as something other than itself. It is like the archetypal sacrifice of God, giving up immortality to experience the mortal world, giving up infinity to experience limitation. But truly God doesn't give up immortality, freedom and infinity. Awareness is unharmed and unchanged by the world, just as conflict in a dream doesn't cause the body to be harmed.
This World of Opposites we experience is only a play of separation within the undivided limitlessness of Awareness. Nothing is near or far from Awareness. Nothing is before or after Awareness. Awareness does not sleep or wake just because the body shuts down for the night. Formless timeless Awareness is not born, nor does it die. The World of Opposites is all a play in Awareness, made of Awareness, known by Awareness.
- Category: The Human Experience
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It's a common human experience to feel incomplete. We may not realise it, but the search for fun, for love, for happiness, for excitement, for spiritual enlightenment, comes from the sense of being incomplete. In some ways it's a natural sense of feeling incomplete. If ever a being considers itself to be limited, then it feels it is less than the whole. And that's not right. Something will seem to be missing.
It's this wholeness that people seek. Wholeness is the true natural state. But human development at this stage of evolution causes it to feel limited, separate, lacking, wanting, and needing. From the physical perspective the interaction with the environment is necessary: humans need to breathe in air, drink liquids, eat solid food, and also do the opposite - expel solids, liquids and gases. That is part of human nature, of being a flowing quality of the planet. That in itself is fine. But human intelligence has developed further than other animals. Human intelligence has developed to become self aware. But this self awareness isn't accurate. Human self awareness concludes, "I am this body." But really the body isn't limited in this way - it is a flowing quality of the planet. The body isn't really limited and separate from the planet.
So here we have the development of human intelligence concluding that it is a limited being and there are other beings with limits. This limited human is inevitably incomplete. It will never be satisfied, trying to hold onto things, trying to seek happiness, looking for love and excitement, or spiritual enlightenment. The limited human being will not be satisfied, because the limited being is not an accurate identification. The world is unlimited, appearing as if there are limits. It is this appearance of the world that has fooled humanity. But it's all part of developing awareness.
There is no limited human. There is only the infinite What Is, Pure Consciousness. Its nature is as a singularity, without beginnings or ends, without want or need, complete, content, perfect peace.
The development of human awareness is an expression and blossoming of Consciousness in the world. It's not that the human being develops a higher awareness or consciousness level. It is rather that the errors and mistaken views of the human mind are lessened, revealing more and more the Pure Consciousness that is the true infinite nature of being.
How do we bring about this feeling of being complete? Really it's about letting go of the feeling of being incomplete, letting go of the sense of being limited. The recognition needs to dawn that I am not a limited being and I am not this body. Then should come a 'practising' of just being Awareness, without form, without attachment to this or that, acceptance without controlling, just simply being. This resting in the pure nature of just Being dissolves the sense of being a limited separate self, and the true nature of complete contentment comes through into the human experience.
This is usually a gradual process. It's called Enlightenment or Self-Realisation. It's simply the letting go of the erroneous belief of separation and limitation, and being as you are.
- Category: The Human Experience
- Hits: 1364
Ever wondered what being human was all about? We're going to take a look here at what I call 'the human experience'. It helps to have an understanding of Non-Duality, which I can very briefly summarise as the spiritual teaching that there is not a multiplicity, there is only What Is, which is our true nature, and has been described by sages as Sat-Chit-Ananda or Being-Consciousness-Bliss. Non-Duality is the recognition that we are not limited human beings, we are the Infinite One Consciousness, also known as God or the Self of Selves, and our nature is peace.
If that resonates with you, read on. If not, you can find out more from some of my other blogs.
So, looking at the world from the Non-Duality perspective, what is this human experience? Let's start from the beginning. Okay, there isn't really a beginning. The beginning only seems to appear from the timeless Infinite Being. Let's start there. The Infinite One, the Supreme Being is Pure Consciousness, formless and perfect peace. There is no movement in the Supreme Being, because there is nowhere to go. There is nothing other than the Infinite One.
Imagine the perfectly still surface of a lake. Perfect Peace. Now imagine that in the centre of that lake there is a motion, a fluctuation, causing a ripple, then multiple ripples, flowing outwards from the centre till they reach the limits of the lake. This is how the universe appears in the Supreme Being, in Consciousness. Vibration and fluctuation appears within the stillness and ripples out, till it reaches limits. See how the spiritual realms are created from the initial fluctuation in the Stillness, and multiplicity seems to spread outwards from the Still Centre. The Still Centre then stands as the shining light of the universe, as God the Creator of all. Spiritual beings are formed close to the Centre, and they go outwards in exploration across the lake, experiencing a range of frequencies in the fluctuation, from close to the Centre to far from the Centre, from close to the Light to far from the Light.
Close to the Centre the spiritual beings are near God and in God's likeness. But as they stretch further away they become less and less like the Centre of Peace. They become hardened, increasingly dense, and their limits seem more defined. It is in these denser realms, seemingly far from the Heart of God, that the human experience arises. Planet Earth develops, forms within the planet develop and evolve. Humanity evolves to a point of dominance, developing intelligence and concepts of itself as important.
The human being is far from the Heart of God. So much so that its qualities are a poor reflection of God. Further from the peace of God, humanity becomes warlike. Further from the Selfless Whole Being of God, humanity becomes selfish and incomplete. Further from the Spiritual Being of God, humanity becomes heavy, hardened, burdened, restricted and confused. Humanity loses sight of its connection with God. Humanity believes in itself above others. It loses touch with the Fullness of Life, and finds itself struggling in a world of opposites, knowing good and evil, love and hate, joy and sorrow, life and death. This is the stretching of opposites far from the Infinite Oneness of God.
This is the human experience. It may be considered that we are spiritual beings that have flowed out from the Heart of God and incarnated in these dense bodies to learn from the human experience. What do we learn? We experience what it's like to be limited. We experience what we are not. We are not truly limited, although in the human experience it can feel that we are. The collective human mind is still evolving. Generally it feels that it is limited and encased in the human body. We experience this sense of being encased in human dense form and clashing and competing with other dense forms. We experience opposites at an extreme level. We experience qualities that are the far opposite of God's nature - hate, cruelty, confusion, selfishness, war, ignorance, division, separation, sadness, darkness, lack, greed, torment, restriction. These qualities can only be experienced far from God. But their opposites are also experienced to a degree.
So this is the human experience, where many things are possible that would not be possible close to the Infinite Light of God. But you may have heard of Samsara, where it is considered that the spiritual being or soul becomes caught in the attractions of the world, entangled in the opposing forces of karma, and cannot escape from the endless cycle of rebirth. The soul becomes attached to human life and reincarnates seemingly endlessly, until it becomes aware of its 'fall' and turns around, arises from the density of matter to spiritual freedom, or Moksha, Liberation, or Self-Realisation.
This Self-Realisation is not a letting go of identifying as human and recognising that I am a soul. It is more accurately a recognition that there is only God. This lake of ripples we imagined is God alone. There are not truly many spiritual beings. There is nowhere that can be far from God. God is infinite and indivisible. The spiritual realms and the denser material realms are always Spirit, or Consciousness, or the Mind of God. There is only God. It only seems that the human experience is far from God.
There are no limits. There only seem to be limits. There is no death, only life. We do not become souls or humans. There is only God, infinite, limitless, peaceful Consciousness, within which the play of vibrations, fluctuations and opposites appears.