Non-duality
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
Let's consider Truth. There is Absolute Truth and there is relative truth. Relative truth is what we're used to. It's where we say, "Today is Tuesday," and it is a Tuesday. Or we say, "Four plus three equals seven." Those statements seem to be true enough, but they are dependent on other information being true. "Today is Tuesday" is dependent on a shared understanding of what "today" means and what "Tuesday" means. For a German speaker today might be Dienstag. For someone on the other side of the world our today could be their yesterday or tomorrow. It sounds silly, but the point is that it's not wholly true.
In fact, nothing can be said is wholly true. Anything that can be said or thought is at best relatively true, or at worst relatively false. One of the reasons behind this is that nothing can be truly and accurately defined. All the words we use are at least slightly vague. We cannot say with precise accuracy where "today" begins and ends. In fact "today" is a made-up reference to a span of 24 hours, which are themselves human made divisions of time. Time is not truly divided into hours or days. These are terms that we share an understanding of, and they are only then relatively true.
We can go further and recognise that relative truth is not the truth. It is not true truth. Nothing that can be thought or said is true. Thoughts, words, ideas and theories are useful but never true. Truth itself cannot be expressed. This means Absolute Truth. What is Absolute Truth? Absolute Truth is reality. What does that mean? It means that Absolute Truth is right here all along, no matter what falsehoods are expressed. Absolute Truth is the unchanging constant reality. Truth is Reality.
I cannot write what Truth really is. I can only write what it is like or not like. I can write that reality is a singularity, that there is no division of things. But that is only to correct a human misunderstanding that reality is divided into things. The statement isn't wholly accurate, because it depends on relative ideas and a sense of "division" and "things", which it denies. We understand what a "singularity" is by reference to what it is not. Again, as mentioned elsewhere, we use the negative or reflective term to indicate reality. Just as the term Non-Duality refers to the non-existence of duality (separation or division).
You see, we cannot directly describe an infinite indivisible reality. We have to refer to what it is not. This is a strange one, as what it is not does not exist. But human thinking has assumed that the reflective qualities are real. Human thinking assumes that relative truths are real truths. Better, perhaps, to recognise that Absolute Truth is inexpressible but evident in all that seems to be expressed, and that words, ideas and theories cover a spectrum of untruths that in a sense are closer to or further from Absolute Truth.
Let's break that down. Absolute Truth is inexpressible. The world is an expression of it, and is not other than it, yet it cannot wholly and accurately represent Truth. Any expression of Truth is less than it, yet exists within it. Truth allows the expression of untruths. All words, ideas and theories are not wholly True. They can point to Truth more or less closely. For instance, "Love is All" points closely to Truth, whereas "Hate is All" is far from the Truth. (Love is an expression of the Oneness of Reality, whilst hate is its reflection, expressing division.)
So we have Absolute Truth as the measure of all things that are not the truth. How does this help? Well, we know that no matter what thoughts think, they are not accurate. Why should we pay so much attention to thoughts when they are never really accurate anyway? Truth is silent and unspoken, always here, often overlooked. This reminds us to respect the silent stillness that is here. It encourages us to turn towards Truth and Stillness rather than get caught up in the drama of thinking and the world. It reminds us that we are not right and others wrong - all ideas are wrong. Just being, in silence and stillness, is closer to Truth than anything that can be said.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
Where are you? You may give an answer describing where your body is located, like, "I'm sat on a chair in my garden," "I'm in Liverpool," or "I'm on holiday in Florida." But that's not really where you are. That's where the sense of the human body is in relation to the rest of the world. It's far from exact. You could give precise coordinates of where your human body is, and indeed the body could be located from those accepted coordinates. But that's not really where you are.
You are not the body. You perceive the body. You perceive the world through the senses of the body. You also perceive thoughts, which are assumed to belong to the body. Well, the thoughts have assumed they are the body. It is thinking that identifies with the body that we perceive and through whose senses the world is perceived. Thinking thinks, "This is me." But it's wrong. You are not what thoughts think you are. Truly the body is not totally separated form from the world - no man is an island. There are no clear points where the body ends and the rest of the world begins. The body is an indivisible 'part' of the whole. So it's only a vague assertion of thought in identifying with something that isn't really defined.
There is a 'deeper' you that perceives the body, perceives thinking, and perceives the sense of identity with the body. Some may feel that they have a soul, but that is more like thoughts thinking that the body has a soul. It would be less inaccurate to say that the soul has a body. Where is the soul? We cannot say. The soul is assumed to be a spiritual identity that incarnates in the human body. Is it really in the body? We cannot say.
The most accurate that we could say is, "I am here." As soon as we try to describe where 'here' is we drift into inaccurate speculation. We can confidently say, "I am always here." But truly here is nowhere and everywhere. Everywhere you go you are here, but the real you never goes anywhere. That 'deeper' you is aware being. You are and you are aware that you are. This awareness is 'who' you are. It is not an identity as such. Awareness is what perceives the sense of identity coming and going. It is Awareness that remains when the body wakes and sleeps, comes to life and fades away. Awareness perceives the passing of life and death, whilst remaining in the natural state of Being. It is Awareness that perceives the passing of time and change from its unchanging timelessness.
You, me, everyone, all that is, is Awareness. Nothing is ever perceived outside of Awareness. Human conscious and unconscious states are perceived in Awareness. All fluctuations of the world rise and fall in the ever-present Awareness. Where is this Awareness that we are? All we can say is that it is Here. It is not relative to any other. There are no others. There is nothing beyond Awareness. It has no depth or distance. It is infinite and formless. The world moves within Awareness. Without Awareness the world cannot appear.
So know that you are not the body, nor even a soul that comes and goes. You perceive the comings and goings of the world. You are the Awareness that is the heart and whole of the world. You are Here Now, the timeless alert presence that perceives the fluctuating activity within the unchanging stillness of Aware Being.
Recognise that it is Stillness that perceives relative stillness and motion. It is Peace that perceives relative peace and conflict. It is the Dimensionless that perceives relative closeness and distance. It is the Timeless that perceives relative beginnings and ends.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
The idea of 'me' is an imposter. It's not the real you. It's a notion that I am this body. It's a notion that I am here in the world, that I am something distinct and separate from the rest of the world. But that's not true.
You are not separate from the world. It's a flawed idea. How? Well, there's no distinct point where the body ends and the rest of the world begins. We may casually see the tips of the fingers and believe that is where that part of the body ends. We may feel the feet as they touch a soft carpet, walk on grass, or slide on some socks. There is a sense of where the feet end and where the rest of the world begins. But it's not strictly correct.
There may seem to be a firm outer layer to the body that we call skin, but the skin isn't permanent. It is continually changing. It is continually replaced as the outer layer joins the environment. The skin is continually flaking away from the layer that seems to separate the body from the world, and then it is no longer the body. We could say that the outer layer of the body is continually replaced as it becomes "not the body".
So what seems to be a defining layer where the body is separate from the rest of the world is really indefinite. Really nothing is separate from the world. The world is always whole and complete. It is the mind that has the idea of separation and division. It is the mind that labels this and that as separate parts of an indivisible world.
What do we do about this? We recognise that the ideas of me that have shaped human life are flawed, and we allow this clearer understanding to permeate through the human world. Who can be our enemy when there is really no separation? Why should we argue and fight when truly we are one? This recognition breaks down the barriers that the human psyche has formed. These mental barriers seem to prevent us from being naturally as we are, at peace and at one.
Of course, really there is no 'us'. There is no real me and you. It is one infinite indivisible Being appearing as many. The peace and Oneness of Being remains timelessly as it is, whilst appearing to be and not to be.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
How to convey that the world is not made of many things? There is a general human assumption that there are many things in the universe and we can give them names, like stars, planets, mountains, buildings, plants, animals, people etc. These may be useful terms, and it may be useful to see and understand the world in this way, but it's not accurate.
The limits that we assume define these objects don't stand up to close scrutiny. For instance, we know the sun to be a star and we can understand the qualities of a star and the phases it will go through. We give stars different names dependent on their mass and evolutionary stage. Currently the sun is classed as a G2V type star, and in time it is expected to become a Red Giant, then later a White Dwarf, then a Black Dwarf. These are names given to different stages of stellar evolution.
But we can't give exact moments when the sun changes from one stage to another, because the change is gradual. All change is gradual. Even sudden change can be seen to be gradual if examined closely. There is no flip switch of change. Even a flip switch for a light involves time for the electric current to flow. It's not really Off-On, it's Off flowing to On. It's an important point. Reality may seem to be dualistic and based on opposites, but really there is a flow of change, a continuum. But that's for another article.
Let's focus back on what we define as the sun. We generally see the circular ball of fire in the sky and think, "That's the sun!" But the sun isn't wholly defined by its visible circular edges. In fact its circular edges are constantly flowing and changing, dipping and rising, and sometimes flaring out. From a distant it may seem perfectly round, but we know that this is not really the case. The sun is a flowing ball of energy. And not only that, it is an expulsion of energy. Animal and plant life on this planet are dependent on the energy from the sun. We can't say at what point the sun's rays are no longer the sun. They are a quality of the sun. A quality that interacts with all it reaches. Similarly, when we see a distant star at night, we see its light, which is its quality that stretches across the universe. Its light is not truly separate from it.
So you see, we imagine that we know things, but if we look closely we find that we cannot truly define them. The same applies to the human body. It is continually in a process of change and interaction with the environment. We can't define where the energy absorbed from the sun, from the air, from drinks and food, becomes the body. It is a continual process of change, structured temporarily as a seemingly finite form.
But the sun and the body are not finite forms. They have no limits. It is the same with all things. To use a less animated example, take a wooden chair. We know what it is, but when did it become a wooden chair? When the fourth leg was added? When its back was added? And at what point were they finally added? Is it when the final turn of a screw happens, that it is then a chair. No. And when does it cease to be a chair? Once some of its parts are removed or once all parts are removed? Once the final screw is released? No. Ultimately, our idea of what a wooden chair is is vague, and it is the same for all objects.
What we've done here is analyse our assumption that things are really what we think they are. We've examined the general human assumption that things are really separate defined things, and found that they are not. Our labelling of things is useful but not as accurate as believed to be. It's good to step back and recognise that assumptions are not necessarily accurate. Really what this all points to is infinity. Nothing can be define because the nature of reality is infinite.