The Universe
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
Some people think, "The universe is against me." Things always seem to go wrong. Good things never last. Attempts to find happiness are dashed against the rocks. So is the universe really against us? Well, yes and no.
Firstly, yes, the universe is against you. The universe will never be peaceful whilst 'you' exist. Notice 'you' is in quotes. This 'you' is the problem. It is this notion of being a separate being that is the problem. There really isn't a 'you' and the universe. There is only the universe. When 'we' mentally identify ourselves as distinct beings separate from the rest then trouble will inevitably follow. The universe flows in a battle for rebalance. The universe seeks the peace and perfect harmony of the singularity from which it seems to have exploded. When 'you' single yourself out in the universe the universe will seek to rebalance you and bring you into harmony.
That sounds a bit crazy maybe. But that's what happens. It's like flowing with the ocean then developing a sense of identity and saying, "No, I'm not part of this. I'm going to sail off on my own." That's kind of what has happened to humanity in its evolution of mind and identity. Now, rather than flowing as one with the universe, the mind carves out its own identity, like a boat floating on a turbulent ocean, struggling defiantly to maintain its sense of independence. Then it thinks the universe is against it.
Let's understand these forces of rebalance in the universe. Eckhart Tolle talks about this to some degree. It's worth seeing what he has to say about it. Basically, the identity, or the idea of 'me', is inaccurate and leads to a life of imbalance, selfish seeking, rather than being as one with the universe. The idea of 'me' separates itself form the whole, creating a conflict. We could be a good 'me' or a bad 'me', or more accurately a 'me' somewhere along the spectrum of goodness. But that makes no difference. If there is an idea of 'me' then it is separating itself from the universe and creating a sense of conflict, and the rest of the whole seeks to rebalance, whilst the idea of 'me' resists to maintain itself. It is the idea of 'me' separate from the universe that creates conflict.
So although the universe is against 'you', it's not really against the real You. The universe can never be against itself. It is One. You are not what you think you are. You are not what the mind thinks you are. Rather, You are all that is. We are all that is. Really there is no 'we'. Only This. It can be called the Universe, the Whole, the Infinite One, God, Being. It is the One Infinite Life.
When this is recognised it can be understood that the universe is never against you. What happens just seems to happen. Difficulties in life are life's way of bringing humanity into balance. This is the human experience. It is one of rebalancing. Tough experiences will happen to bring about harmony. But none of that affects You. The real You. You remain as the unchanging witness of all change. You don't need to become One. You are One, timelessly. You are That in which the world of apparent conflict and chaos plays out. And it's aim? To find You, the real You. The universe plays out its game of separation then returns to the Singularity which is its peace, harmony and rest. But this Peace and Harmony, the Singularity, is never truly broken. The Singularity remain timelessly as it is, throughout the play of time and space that we call the universe.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
We've all heard of cause and effect. People often talk of it and state how one thing causes another thing to happen. It's generally accepted to be the way of the world: something makes something else happen. But it's not really how it seems.
There isn't really a cause that makes an effect happen. That's just a useful (but inevitably inaccurate) way of describing how the world works. What I mean is that there isn't a divide between a 'cause' and an 'effect'. There isn't one thing then another thing. There also isn't a knock-on effect, where a cause brings an effect which then becomes the cause for another effect, and so on. That's not really what is happening. That's just a way of understanding or describing what is happening.
So what is really happening? There is an appearance of flowing change. The continual flow of change isn't really divided into causes and effects. Just as time isn't really divided into seconds and space isn't divided into centimetres. We use those terms to describe the world, but they are human made and not real in themselves. We don't really perceive one thing that causes an effect to happen. We perceive what seems to happen.
Let's look at an example. Consider a dog barking and a cat running away. It's fair to say that the dog barking causes the cat to run away. That makes sense. But it's not wholly accurate. We could say that the cat makes a noise, which causes the dog to see the cat, which causes the dog to bark, the cat hears the barking and this causes the cat to flee. So we could say the cat hearing the bark is the cause of the cat running away. But we're just picking at other points that aren't really discrete points. More accurately this is a flow of activity without any true dividing points. There are no true distinct points that are causes or effects.
We can go a bit deeper and consider the cause of the universe. It's accepted by many that the universe was created or caused by the Big Bang, where a singularity exploded into activity. But, although this is a good theory, there is a problem with it. If we assume that causes are real, then what caused the first cause? Ultimately we can say that the singularity has no cause. It wasn't created. The singularity is prior to the appearance of time and space. It is formless and without change. But then what caused the explosion and the beginning of time and space?
The Non-Duality answer to this is that there was no explosion, the singularity remains intact. The universe only seems to explode from a singularity into a multiplicity. All the while the universe, or What Is, remains complete as it is. This ties in with the recognition that there is no 'cause and effect'. There is only the appearance of flowing change within the content completeness of the singularity.
Any cause we attribute to an effect will not be wholly accurate. Better to drop the idea of cause and effect and look to the greater understanding that there is no separation or multiplicity, no beginnings or ends. The universe is a complete undivided singularity. It appears to flow with change, but it is always complete in itself.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
Through the Non-Duality understanding we see that consciousness is all there is. Everything we know is known in consciousness. Everything we experience is experienced in consciousness. The universe itself is experienced in consciousness. Nothing can be known or experienced outside consciousness.
Let's understand that a bit more. You perceive the world through the human senses of seeing, hearing, smelling etc. We consider this to be our perception of the outside world, or the universe. You also perceive thoughts, ideas, and dreams, which we consider to be internal and in the mind. Yet the perception of both the internal and external happens in the mind. It is the mind that seems to be a central focal point of knowing or experiencing. The mind recognises a mountain in the distance through the aid of seeing. The mind recognises the voice of a friend calling from another room.
Seeing, hearing, smelling and so on, are all experienced right here. The perception of the mountain in the distance is right here. All distance is perceived right here. The ideas of inside and outside are right here. Although the mountain may be considered to be far away, we see it right here. It is here in consciousness.
We can go further, in realising that we are not a body that we see or feel. We see it. We feel it. We are not it. So too with thoughts and dreams. We perceive these. We are not them. We are where they are perceived from. They are neither far nor near from us. They are right here. But we are not something that we can perceive. The eye cannot see the eye. Consciousness cannot perceive itself. At best we can only perceive a reflection of ourself. And this is the obvious secret of the universe, looking right back at us.
The universe appears to be a reflection of who we really are. The true nature of consciousness, which is what we are, is unbound, undivided, perfect clarity. The universe appears within this perfect Consciousness as a world of reflections, where we experience limitation, separation, and confusion. The universe appears as a world of opposites, pushing and pulling, gaining and losing, rising and falling, separating and uniting. All the while Consciousness remains timelessly as it is.
Consciousness is like the screen in which the movie of the universe plays out. The screen remains unchanged by whatever seems to happen in the movie. Buildings may appear to be in the distance. Planets may seem to be huge in size. Burning fires may rage and torrential rains may soak the landscape, but the screen remains untainted.
But how does a perfect, pure, dimensionless Consciousness give rise to a world of opposites and reflection? Well, one answer is that it doesn't really happen. The universe doesn't explode outwards from the Singularity of Consciousness - it's always right here. But it seems that it has, at least from a human perspective. Even if we consider that the universe is always right here, we must conclude that there is an illusion of separation and distance. So how does the illusion of the universe come about?
Consider Pure Consciousness as a perfectly smooth, endless blanket, before time or space began. If this blanket compresses within itself it can seem to form ripples. These ripples naturally give the impression of a duality, of highs and lows. Each crease has the appearance of a high peak and a low trough. From the perfect Singularity there then appears to be definition and a seeming divide into opposites. But the opposites of the peak and trough of a ripple in a blanket are only illusory, as the singular nature of it remains. A blanket isn't divided in two when ripples appear. It is the same with the appearance of duality on the Singularity of Consciousness. Consciousness is not divided; it only seems to be. Multiple ripples can continue and become the vibrations of energy that constitute the universe. All the while these ripples in Consciousness are nothing other than the Singularity in which they appear.
- Written by David Hall
- Category: The Universe
Does extraterrestrial life exist? It's a simple question but with a lot to elaborate on.
The simple answer is yes, but what does that mean? It means there are life forms elsewhere in the physical universe. This is inevitable. Planet Earth isn't a one-off fluke. Yes, it is unique, as is each seemingly separate life form within the planet. Unique but conforming to a pattern. There are patterns in life that show the underlying forces that create the universe. Planet Earth shows how life forms can develop from simple cells to complex interflowing systems that we call animals.
As a child I used to wonder why we weren't spherical, as it was the simplest perfect shape. Well, the spherical cell is where evolution begins. It then branches out, following the universal pattern of many from one. As well as cells multiplying and spreading, they unite and develop. So we see throughout this planet a pattern of life forms that have a core body with limbs that go outwards from the core. It's easily seen in trees, flowers, spiders, birds, mammals and humans. 'Many from One' is a universal pattern.
So it's inevitable that this universal pattern finds expression on other planets in the immense universe, of which Planet Earth is like a tiny speck. It's inevitable not only that life forms develop on other planets that have developed suitable environments, but also that the life forms may have a similar appearance to those on Earth.
It's worth mentioning what "life" is here. Generally we mean "life" to be the appearance of independent movement or expression. We may say that a flower is alive because it grows, it opens up, it turns towards the sunlight, it fades and dies. It is similar with animals and humans. Rocks, on the other hand, aren't considered to be alive, as they seem to have no individual movement or expression. It's a useful way of looking at life, but it's not really accurate. Another way to look at it is that Life is this, the whole world, the whole universe as an expression of Life itself or Being or Consciousness. From that perspective Life is everywhere.
But let's get back to the extra-terrestrial question. Putting aside the view of what life is, what the question tends to mean is: Are there other intelligent beings in the universe besides humans? We know that many animals are intelligent, but the question is really asking if there are life forms from elsewhere in the universe that are as intelligent as humans or more so. Again, the simple answer is yes. The development of intelligence isn't wholly by chance. As mentioned above, there is an underlying force in the universe that moves, changes and develops the appearance of the world. It is this force that causes life forms to rise up, interact and improve. Life forms are the expression of an intelligent life force that inspires evolution, from the simple to the complex, to the simple again. This will not only happen in one place in the vast universe. It is happening at many places all at once, at different rates and at different stages.
Then to another extension of the extra-terrestrial question: Does extra-terrestrial life visit Earth? Evidence would suggest the answer is yes. Currently in the US there is a disclosure process happening, whereby government, air force and navy whistleblowers have come forward to say that Non-Human Intelligence (NHI) is real and here on this planet, with accounts from credible witnesses of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) or UFO encounters, crash retrieval, reverse engineering of crafts, and recovered NHI bodies. The key term here is NHI, as it's not clear whether the lifeforms are from this planet, from other planets, or from other dimensions or realms not normally perceived by the human senses. The term 'alien' or indeed 'extra-terrestrial' may not be accurate enough. And it seems likely there are multiple species of NHI in and around the planet.
It may also be that these NHIs have lived on this planet for a long time, mostly in secret. Underwater sightings have been reported and UAPs have been observed to transition between air and water. As only a very small percentage of Earth's oceans has been explored by humans, there's a lot of space to hide in if you have the technology. How long would a being or species from another planet need to live on this planet before they are considered no longer alien? 10 years? 50 years? 200 years? 1000 years? There is no true dividing point.
There is a perspective in which any life form that arrives on Planet Earth and integrates with the planet becomes 'part of' the planet. In other words, if a being eats the food of the planet, drinks the water of the planet, breathes the air, develops in the planet's environment, and expels wastes that are recycled into the environment, then they are part of Planet Earth now.