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: Non-duality
In the Zen tradition of Non-Duality it is stated that there is One Mind. But what is the mind? It can't really be defined. No nouns can really be defined. The reason being that Infinity is the reality behind the seeming limits of the world.
So defining the mind is impossible. People generally have a vague assumption of what the mind is, and this assumption is generally accepted and shared by people to different degrees. That means that people have an idea of what the mind is, and some people have similar ideas about it, but there is still a vagueness. There is the materialist view that matter is the main stuff of the world, and that the human form evolved with a brain that creates the mind. But the Non-Duality understanding is very different to the materialist.
Truly all we can know about the world, the human form and the brain is known in the mind. We can't know anything without the mind - that aware, knowing, perceiving ability. The mind can be considered as a focusing of sensation and perception. We could say the mind is a qualityless, spaceless space in which thoughts, sensations and perceptions appear. Thinking appears in the mind. Hearing, seeing and all other sensing appears in the mind. The whole world appears in the mind. What seems to be outside and inside all appear in the mind.
The human mind generally has a sense of limitation, being a centre point at the heart of perception. We can say that the mind is that seemingly limited field in which a viewpoint of the world is perceived. But the perceived world is not separate from the mind. Neither is perceiving. It can be recognised that the mind is perceiving an appearance of centralisation. It doesn't mean that this centralisation is true or real. That's just how it appears. The belief of this centralisation develops the sense of a limited, separate self - me and the world. This belief also appears in the mind.
We can go deeper. We can perceive this sense of identity. We can perceive thinking. We can perceive the body's sensations and its perceptions, which include the appearance of the world. We don't really perceive limits to the mind. The edge of the mind can't be found. Indeed, the mind only imagines its limitations.
In Non-Duality understanding there is only Awareness or Consciousness. In Zen this is the One Mind. The seemingly limited mind is perceived in Awareness. There is One Awareness. We could say it is like a central pool from which all mind streams flow. But truly there is no centre. There is only One Mind, giving the appearance of centre and outer. There is no inside and outside. These opposites seem to appear in the mind, but there is no true limiting that divides the mind. The 'outer' world can never be experienced outside of the mind, because there is no outside of the mind.
All that is is One Mind. Even the term 'Mind' isn't it, but it's a way of trying to describe it. Even 'One' isn't accurate. Truly there is no number. There is just What Is.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Spiritual Practice
There was a period of my life when I wondered what was the best way to live. How could I be a good person? How could I do the right thing? What was the right thing to do? So I made some changes and developed some principals, such as not eating meat, recycling, supporting good causes, not misleading people or being unkind, and making an effort not to do anything that seemed dishonest. I was even sometimes called 'Do Right Dave'...
All that is fine, and in some ways trying to be a better person brings one closer to the true nature of being. Or at least it can seem that way. 'The saint is closer to God than the sinner,' we could say. It's kind of true, relatively speaking, but not absolutely true. Let's break it down and build it up.
The 'saint' is the good person, doing good things, being kind to others, helping others; being selfless, we might say. This is close to God, where God is Oneness. The 'saint' is close to Oneness by being less self-centred and more focused on the whole, showing love and kindness to all. The 'sinner' on the other hand is selfish, looking out for 'number one', all taking and no giving, and showing hate and disdain for others. This certainly seems far from godliness, and it describes someone who selfishly puts themselves as more important than the whole. The 'sinner' seems far removed from Oneness.
That's how it seems. But truly Oneness is here throughout. There only appears to be differences. There only appears to be far from God and near to God. God, or the Infinite One, is right here where everything appears. Nothing is outside of God. Goodness seems to be close to Reality or the Truth of Being Infinitely One. Badness only seems to be far from it. But there is no inside or outside of the Infinite One. The apparent opposites of near and far appear within the unbounded space of the Infinite One.
We can never be far from God or near to God. We are never really a sinner or a saint. That is the appearance of the world as if it was the Infinite One separated. But this separation doesn't happen. We are never a person of any kind, though we may experience the life of a person. I call it the human experience. The human may make changes to be a better person, and that is good and fine, and in keeping with the understanding that there is only One and our true nature is this Infinite One.
There comes a point when the 'saint' (in the human experience), becoming closer to oneness, lets go of the ideas of being a 'saint', being a person doing actions, whether good or bad. This letting go is Freedom. It is the Freedom of just being. Some say it is freedom from karma, and in a way it is. The Infinite One is not subject to karma, the Law of Opposites. When the identity as a human doing actions is dropped, the person is no more, and it is clear that there is only ever the Infinite One. Actions of the human may continue, but there is no attachment to them, no separate person doing actions.
So you see here the path from doing bad, to doing good, to not identifying with doing at all. The question of whether an action is good or bad no longer arises. There is no choice to make. There is no seeing the world or actions as good or bad. There is the clear knowing that there is only God, the Infinite One. No saints or sinners. No heaven or hell. No near or far from God. Only the Infinite One.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
The world appears as a World of Variety and Change. There seem to be so many different things - different elements, different combinations of elements, different densities of form - solid, liquid and gas, different formations of these forms - inert substances, plant-life, animal-life and human life. And it all swirls around, interacting, producing new forms and developments. The world is continually changing.
Sometimes the world may seem to be quite still, maybe when you're sat in a quiet room reading a book or relaxing. But the stillness of your room is illusory. Even the walls of the room are moving. It's only a relative stillness. The molecules that make up the walls, the air, and the different forms in a room are vibrating energy. In addition to this, the room is part of a spinning planet. Planet Earth spins on its own axis whilst rotating around the sun. The sun and this solar system in turn flows in the arms of a spiral galaxy, swirling through the universe.
Where was I? Right here. Ah, everything in the world is moving and changing, and any unchanging stillness we perceive is illusory. That's how it appears. You look at a table and it appears solid and still. You feel the ground beneath your feet and it seems solid and unmoving. But it's not quite the way it really is. We know it's not completely solid. It's permeable. That is, frequencies of energy can pass through it. Light can pass through glass windows. WiFi radio waves can pass through walls. Ground Penetrating Radar sends high frequency radio waves through the ground to detect buried objects. Nothing is ever truly impermeable.
There's some magic at play here. Really this moving and changing is illusory, and stillness is the reality. What is perceived is a reflection of reality. What is perceived is a play of opposites, whilst reality remains purely One.
Space and time are not natural to Reality. Reality is an Infinite Singularity without division, unchanging and unmoving. It cannot move or change because there is no space or time in the Singularity. Space and time only seem to appear within it. Distance and change seem to be created through the appearance of opposites. When the Infinite Singularity seems to split into opposing characteristics then a sense of separation, distance and change appears. Space and time appear to be instantly created, but they don't appear from the Singularity. They appear within the Singularity. The Singularity remains as it is. The separation never really happens. Space and time don't really happen. There is no real beginning or end to space and time, because they are illusory.
So this world of variety and change is illusory. That's not to say it isn't real. There is nothing other than the Real. That's the Singularity. What's unreal is separation and change. It doesn't really happen. So space and time isn't real, yet what this is is Real.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Spirituality
It may seem that the spiritual journey is a long one, or indeed a never-ending story. Well, it is and it isn't. It can seem like there's a lot to learn. Some people practise meditation all their life and feel they never reach the goal, so to speak. The goal for meditation and other spiritual practices is often Enlightenment. There can develop a frustration for the spiritual seeker, that they have been meditating for many years, they have changed their diet, they have studied the enlightened masters, but they still haven't become enlightened.
The problem is that the seeker never will become enlightened. True Enlightenment, Self-Realisation, Nirvana or Liberation, is the loss of the seeker. Self-Realisation is the recognition that there is no seeker and there never was a seeker - there is only What Is. This realisation is more like the dropping away of identity, the sense of limitation and separation, whereby what really is is revealed to have been always as it is. This Infinite Reality is not something objective that can be found. Searching for it is an error. Trying to achieve it is flawed. Yet we search and try, because the seeker feels a need to be complete, to achieve enlightenment, oneness or happiness.
This Infinite Reality, the revealing of which is called Enlightenment, is never hidden. The seeker develops as a sense of being a limited being that longs for wholeness. Wholeness is the natural state, but when there is a sense of being limited it feels that we have fallen from the blissful state and we need to find it again. Not only is this evident in spiritual seeking, but in all humanity's search for happiness. Humanity's sense of separate identity gives rise to the sense of being incomplete. Being an individual and being separate from the whole are two sides of the same coin. But it's a mistake. There are no limits or divisions in the Whole.
Enlightenment, Self-Realisation, Nirvana or Liberation, is the dropping of the belief and sense of there being limits. The seeker will remain dissatisfied until its sense of being a limited being is dropped. So in Liberation there is no seeker. The seeker never was. Who achieves this self-realisation when the realisation is that there is no limited self?
Nobody achieves it. It is a recognition of Nothingness. Well, it's not even a recognition. It's just the natural Beingness without the clouding of the human sense of identity and limitation. It's the end of the ego, the end of the identity, the end of the person. That can sound bleak. It is a death of sorts. It's not something that people generally want to hear or accept. Who wants to hear that the person they think they are isn't real, and in fact they are Nothing?
But it's not really bleak. This dropping of identity and limitation is Freedom. It is Liberation. Truly you have no limits, to the extent that there is no 'you' or 'me' or 'them'. There is only What Is. But while we still seek to find it we chase our own tail. It doesn't mean we have to stop meditating or start acting in a free way, doing what we want, because it makes no difference. It means that the answer is here already whatever seems to happen.
It helps to know that you are not the limited being that was assumed to be limited. It helps to know that it isn't a world of 'me' and 'them'. There is just What Is. Knowing this, why not live that way? Of course, it's not really you that does this or that, or chooses this way or that way, or even you that assumed you were limited. You are none of this. Are you the seeker? No. The apparent seeker is perceived. The sense of being frustrated is perceived. The sense of feeling incomplete is perceived. The realisation that there is no 'me' is the end of frustration and feeling incomplete. But it doesn't happen to anyone. It just is. Reality just is. It can't be found by looking for it. It's here already.