Non-duality
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
Can the Infinite be understood intellectually? Some may say it's impossible. But it is possible to have a limited understanding of the Infinite intellectually. We can understand the Infinite in finite terms, but we can't understand anything in infinite terms - there are no infinite terms. Even the word 'Infinite' uses the term 'finite'. We say it is not finite. It is un-limited. It is un-bounded. It is in-divisible.
Our whole intellectual understanding and knowledge base is founded on finite terms. We use measurements for time, distance, weight, energy etc. These measurements intellectually divide up the indivisible. Time isn't really made of segments. Time is the continual flow of change. But intellectually we measure it in segments of seconds, minutes, days, years etc. Similarly with distance. Distance isn't really split into segments of metres, miles, kilometres etc. These finite measures are used by the human mind to understand portions of infinity.
What we have is an infinite world being understood in finite terms. These finite terms can be useful but never truly accurate. Humanity can develop a great intellectual understanding of the universe in finite terms, and that's useful, but it needs to be recognised that it will never be wholly accurate. Any theory about the universe, reality and existence will be inaccurate. It's just that some are less inaccurate than others. Knowledge is seemingly limited.
There is a difference between knowledge and knowing that may be overlooked. We may have knowledge about how to make a spaghetti bolognese, but there is a knowing of this knowledge. The knowing of knowledge is the same knowing of feelings, sensations and perceptions. When a bird is seen to fly past, a car is heard driving by, or a train of thought flows by, these are known in the same way that knowledge is known. There is a Knowing. This Knowing, in Non-Duality terms, is Aware Being. It is the Awareness or Consciousness in which the world is perceived. It is the Formless that perceives form.
It is this Infinite Knowing in which the apparently finite knowledge of the infinite appears. Nothing is truly finite. All seemingly finite things appear in the Indivisible Infinite. Time is not divided. Space is not divided. Forms flow continually from this to that, without ever truly being divided into this or that. We have knowledge in finite terms, but the Truth is Infinite.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: Non-duality
In ancient Chinese philosophy there is an understanding of opposites in the world, with the Yin and Yang forces or qualities. But these opposites were considered to appear within the Supreme Ultimate (Taiji), which is a Perfect Inexpressible Singularity. Let’s explore and understand what this means.
So we know that this seems to be a World of Opposites. There are opposite qualities such as light and dark, good and bad, clear and clouded, moving and still, truth and lies. But these are not the Truth. They have some relative truth, but they are not the Absolute Truth. So words spoken or written may be close to or far from the Ultimate Truth, but words can never be the Truth. The reason that words can’t be the Absolute Truth is because they are expressions dependent on opposites and relativity.
It’s useful to really understand this. In the world all words are less than true, all movement is illusory, all clarity is less than perfect, all goodness is less than perfect purity, and all light is darker than Pure Light. So even though the opposites may appear to be like and unlike the Supreme Ultimate, the Absolute, Reality, they are inevitably less than it. They are less than the Ultimate because they are expressed in the seemingly divided World of Opposites.
It seems as if the world has fallen out of the paradisiacal state of Pure Perfection. It seems that the Supreme Formless Singularity has been divided to create a world of forms and opposites. So all that appears in the world is less than Perfection. What the world has to offer will never suffice. Even the most beautiful is less than perfection. Even the kindest of people is less than the Selflessness of the Supreme Singularity.
This is why the Supreme Ultimate can also be called the Great Extremity, or the Supreme Superlative. It is the Highest of the high and low. The Greatest of the good and bad. The Purest of the pure and tainted. This world is like an expression of the Supreme Ultimate by means of contrasting opposites, those like it and unlike it. But they are never really it. The expression always falls short of Truth and Reality. The Reality is imperceptible, as there is no other, no separation, no division of what is and what isn’t. There only seems to be a division of the Supreme Ultimate. It is Pure Unseen Perfection. Perfect Clarity. Formless Being.
But there is a seeming paradox. The world that appears seems to be less than the Whole, less than the Supreme Ultimate. But it isn’t. There is only the Whole, only the Supreme Ultimate. The seeming paradox is that although the world is to be understood as being less than the Supreme, it is also to be recognised that there is only the Supreme. There is never more than or less than the Supreme Singularity. The opposites are illusory in nature. Oneness is never divided in two. The world only seems to be a World of Opposites.
I could say it is the Supreme Singularity reflecting within itself. But all statements about it will be less than the Truth. The closest we can actually come to describing the Supreme Ultimate is by saying nothing.
- 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: Non-duality
In Non-Duality there is no finite, no definition of things. There are no limits. There are not many separate things. There is only an Infinite One without division or limitation.
Someone might object and say, "But there are limits. I was born and I will die. Everything comes to an end. My body is separate from other bodies. I am a being in my own right. I can't know what others think." Let's have a real look at these assertions and see if we can find any true limits.
Although we may think and assume, "I was born and I will die," it's not really clear who 'I' am and when I was born or began. It's impossible to define who 'I' am. We may say, "I am this body," but this body is changing all the time. We could say, "I was born at 2am on 28th January 1971," but that's just the registered time that the baby emerged from gestation. The time itself is subjective, as it's based on a manmade timeframe. It may refer to a point in time, but even that point is vague and never completely precise. Furthermore, being born isn't the beginning of the human body. The beginning of the human body can't be found. We could trace it back to the parents, but there is a continual unending flow back through generations and generations. Even what we consider to be 'human' is in a continual flow of evolution. Its origins flow from forms that we would not describe as human.
We have an understanding of what it means to die. We could say this is where the body is no longer animated. But even this death is not clearly defined, and we cannot say precisely when it occurs. Rather it can be recognised that the human body develops from a long undivided line of humans. It builds itself up by consuming nutrients from the environment, then it fades and eventually returns to the environment from which it is always made. So being born and dying is not as finite as we assume it to be.
Does everything come to an end? Well certainly nothing lasts. Everything that appears in the world will indeed disappear. It may take seconds, minutes, or years, but everything comes and goes. That doesn't mean everything ends. Rather there is a continual flow of coming and going. For instance, consider a drop of water landing on a pond. This creates ripples that flow outward from the source. The ripples are high at first but they lose their amplitude as they travel. They slowly fade and the surface is calm again. The ripples don't really end. They slowly fade back to the natural state, whilst their energy is transferred.
Is the body separate from other bodies? Only relatively so. The body is made of solid, liquid and gas, and it is separated from other bodies mostly by gaseous air. The body's apparent solidity of form against the spacious air appears as separate from other solid bodies. But this play of density of vibration brings about the appearance of separation. Consider water poured into a bowl made of ice. They appear separate due to the temporary solidity of the ice. But if heat is applied the water and ice become one. So there is only an appearance of separation due to the apparent density of forms. We could confidently say that all humans and animals are not separate from planet Earth.
How do I know I am a being and there are other beings? This is only suggested by the apparent separation of forms, that we've just seen isn't strictly true. The sense of who I am is generally based on a vague identity with this human body. But logically it doesn't stand. This finite being that I think I am is not necessarily who I am. I can't really find where it begins and ends.
So Non-Duality understanding is that we are not separate beings. Reality is an infinite singularity. We are That. It is understood that our nature is Consciousness, and all that we know is experienced by, in and as Consciousness. But if we are one Consciousness, why can't I know what others are thinking?
This is a common question. The answer is in understanding that within Consciousness there is an apparent variation of density that brings about a sense of the finite. Just as the ice bowl can hold water, so can the apparently finite mind hold its own thoughts. Thoughts are relative to the mind in which they form. The apparent separation of minds prevents the sharing of thoughts. However, that's not to say that there can't be communication between the apparently separate minds. To use another analogy, minds are like branches on the same tree, all connected by the central trunk. The Infinite Consciousness that we truly are is like the central trunk, but also the whole of the tree.
It is Infinite Consciousness that is the shared reality of all seemingly separate finite minds.